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SD14 Bulb & telescope adapter

wa1sov

New Member
Does anyone have an idea how to get the SD14 to take longer exposures than 30 seconds on bulb. If this cannot be done it severely limits the usefulness of the camera for astrophotography. With it's removable NIR/dust protector, this camera should be a natural for this application to augment its' great flexibility. If it hasn't already been contempleted Sigma might think about another firmware upgrade to fix this problem, ie., greater than 30 second bulb.

Also, where can I find a T mount adapter for my telescope so I can marry the camera to my Meade telescope. The T mounts avasilable do not fit the SD14 which is another significant issue for astrophotographers that might want to use the excellent SD14/F3 sensor for this application.

Best Regards,

Pete
 
Pentax-K to T-mount available at Ritz camera. Fits the Sigma bayonet. I used it on a 500mm mirror.
-peace-
 
Thanks for the tip, I will try one if those. DO you know anything about modifications to get more than 30 second exposures from the BulB mode on the SD14?

Best Regards,

Pete
 
Hi Pete,

Stephany is right. The Pentax bajonett does not really fit the SIGMA bajonett. It is nothing but a less-than-ideal-solution first of all because Pentax and SIGMA employ different flange to film distances. Infinity focussing does not really work this way .The lens is too close to the image sensor then!

Therefore go for the adapter, which Stephany recommends above!

The other point is as easy to cope with! The SD14 can do up to 120s exposures with its bulb mode ... if you update its firmware to the now available 1.08 version!!

HERE you go for the latest firmware!!

Look, all your problems can be solved!! :)

See you with nice pictures

Klaus
 
Whether you've upgraded your SD14's firmware to support 120 Second exposures or not, the short exposure time, 30 or 120 seconds is not a problem.

Many astro-photographers, from amateur to professional have turned to a technique of combining multiple images as a means to reduce noise and increase image quality. Referred to as image stacking, the idea is to align and combine multiple images so that the random thermal noise cancels out. I have also seen examples of large astronomical observatories aiming their cameras onto a uniformly pure grey region of the dome's interior to measure a base line of each pixel element in the imager chip. This base line is then used to compensate for hot pixels and to enhance weak pixels.

Here is also a free software package, RegiStax, to align and stack images:

http://www.astronomie.be/registax/index.html

Here is an example of what enhancements can be achieved from the RegiStax web site:

http://www.astronomie.be/registax/html/multipoint_alignment2.html

Another example of a image stacking program is Startrails:

http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

Here is something that I found, by searching on google, to add to this post to demonstrate what imaging stacking can do. The link:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=29727985

Shows the results of stacking 35 images taken with a EOS 50D with a Canon 100-400mm set to 400mm, each exposure being just 1 Second. The page does show the results of the 35 frames stacked and an example of a single frame to show how the image was captured.

I personally have not yet gotten around to my own astrophotography with my SD14, mainly because I have yet to either find or design my own interval timer to automatically shoot a series of images. I will be posting my results when I have them.

Finally, here is a link for a multitude of astrophotography resources which may help:

http://www.eaas.co.uk/news/astrophotography_resources.html

I've noted that there is little to no mention of the SD14 in astrophotography applications, so fellow amateur astronomers here should speak up about their efforts.
 
Hi Steaphany,

thanks a lot for so much efforts to explain the technique of Image stacking.

Although I am no expert on astro-shooting, I would like to complete your above list with this nice software .. that I once tested ...

http://www.tawbaware.com/imgstack.htm

See you with nice pictures

Klaus
 
Hi,

Just to ask if anyone has tried this method to shoot startrails. I've just bought a SD14 yesterday and really don't know much about this as it's my first DSLR. Can anyone please teach me how to make an interval timer?

Thanks a lot!

Calvin
 
Hi Calvin,
welcome to the forum.
Maybe this helps:
www.doc-diy.net/photo/hdr-jack
I´ve built one and after slight modification it works with the SD14 / SD10
There are several timers on the e-market as well,but for use with Sigma
they all have to be modified.
Regards
Uwe
 
Hi Bob,

Thank you so much for the information! I bought SD14 because I really loved it's film-like tones and I also knew about it's 30 seconds limit before I bought it. But now I'm really glad to know that I can still use it to shoot star trails! It's a bonus! :D

Calvin
 
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