Panasonic I continue to be astonished at the performance of the FZ150 . . .

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
You have to picture this scene at 5 am this morning: I am in my pajamas, putting the trash out to be collected, when I notice Orion hanging in a crystalline sky. I seem to remember something about stars in the scenes menu on the FZ150. Quick -- inside, grab the camera; basement, grab the tripod; find the tripod adapter plate, put it all together . . . pant, pant . . . outside . . . paging through the menu. Handheld night shot? No. Ahhhh, Starry night.

I can't see anything on the LCD or through the EVF, so I guess at the framing. I choose the 15-second mode, which includes a 15 second count-down, followed by a 15 second exposure.

So here's the result, 15 seconds, 25mm equivalent, ISO 200:

birdfeeder_and_starry_night_009_Medium_.JPG
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I think the exposure is a hair too long, the stars are starting to streak, but still . . .

Cheers, Jock
 
I've been told that 10 seconds is where stars start trailling. Great work, Jock, its never occurred to me to use a small sensor camera for night work, except the GRD where I did one just to see how it would go (very well indeed, as it happens). My FZ100 has never been asked to do this... perhaps... might...

Well shot!
 
Somewhere between 10 and 13 seconds is where I begin to notice trails. It depends on a few things - how sharp the shot is (based mostly on your sensor and glass ability, and if you stopped it down), and how close the shot is centered on the north star. Stars way out at the edge of the spinning sky are moving a lot quicker than the guys in the center. So if trees are blocking the edges of the shot, or you have a longer lens cropping out the edges, you can get away with a little more time on the shutter and not really get hit with trails. Wide lens and open sky, you'll see trails out at the dges by 10 seconds at the most.

It's frustrating... you want to open that lens up to get the shutter time down, but all you're doing is blurring the edges anyway with soft wide-open lens performance.
 
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