Jock Elliott
Hall of Famer
- Location
- Troy, NY
I am always looking to improve my sky photography and lately I have been thinking specifically about low light sensitivity and color depth. Yesterday, I was wandering through a big box store yesterday when I saw a package deal on a DSLR at what appeared to be a good price: a Nikon D3200 with the 18-55 and 55-200 lenses and a bag to carry everything. The D3200 has DXO rated low light sensitivity over 1,000 (compared to around 100 for the FZ200) and significantly more color depth.
So I bought it, brought it home, and ran off a few test shots with each camera at full telephoto at a distant wood pile. (I figured for wildlife shots -- my other passion -- the 24 megapixels of the D3200 would allow me to crop the image to get the equivalent zoom of the FZ200 and possibly better image quality.)
Then came the shocker: at 100%, the D3200 with the 55-200 simply wasn't as sharp as the FZ200. Doubting what I was seeing, I moved the images from my laptop to my main work computer (which has better monitors). The result was the same: not as sharp.
I announced to my wife that I was returning the D3200. "What about the low light sensitivity for photographing the stars?" she asked.
Well, I said, I figure if it can't render a woodpile sharp at 200 yards, what is it going to do with stars at a few million light years?
So if any of the denizens here have done astrophotography with their rigs -- I know killramsey has -- I would be glad to see examples with descriptions of your setup.
Cheers, Jock
So I bought it, brought it home, and ran off a few test shots with each camera at full telephoto at a distant wood pile. (I figured for wildlife shots -- my other passion -- the 24 megapixels of the D3200 would allow me to crop the image to get the equivalent zoom of the FZ200 and possibly better image quality.)
Then came the shocker: at 100%, the D3200 with the 55-200 simply wasn't as sharp as the FZ200. Doubting what I was seeing, I moved the images from my laptop to my main work computer (which has better monitors). The result was the same: not as sharp.
I announced to my wife that I was returning the D3200. "What about the low light sensitivity for photographing the stars?" she asked.
Well, I said, I figure if it can't render a woodpile sharp at 200 yards, what is it going to do with stars at a few million light years?
So if any of the denizens here have done astrophotography with their rigs -- I know killramsey has -- I would be glad to see examples with descriptions of your setup.
Cheers, Jock