13 replies to this topic

[RNSpeed]

Hello Everyone;

 

Less than 3 months to go for the eclipse.  I have this doubt; Mechanical shooter or silent shooters for DSLR Mirroless camera?  For the 2017 Total Solar Eclipse I used a Canon 70D and used mechanical shooter with good results.  For next April Total Solar eclipse I want to travel light and will take my Micro four thirds OM-5 Mirrorless Camera to take photos.  The OM-5 has mechanical shooter as well as silent shooter so any advantage on using one or the other?

 

The equipment setup will be the Camera connected to my AP Stowaway and for the mount I'll use an iOptron HAE29 Strain wave mount on a CF tripod.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Dan Starr]

Hey Ray not an expert on shutter / sensor readouts but I do have Olympus.  My OM-D E-M1X's and OM-D OM-1's will be on an equatorial mount.  As such I expect very little relative movement in the sun and will be using electronic shutter.  During totality I will have 7 exposures centered around 1/15 +/- 2 stops so up to 4 seconds and as fast as 1/1000...taking series every 8 seconds.  Prior to totality 1/500 every 30 seconds and then during transition 1/2000 +/- 2 stops.

 

Will handle the 1/500 with the camera intervalometer on TV 85 and then for Bailey beads and Totality will utilize a remote intervalometer.  For my location I have 4 minutes of totality so I keep telling myself I have plenty of time to make these changes.  Just sold an X so now I have 2 OM-1's and 2 X's so I'll have two menu systems...ugh.

 

Lens to be used: TV85 will capture the whole time, 40-150 f2.8 and 300 f4 will only capture prior to and immediately after plus totality portion.  So prior to C2, these cameras will be focused, IBIS off, HDR set, all settings set then simply need to turn on and click the intervalometer which will be firing every second for 60 seconds.  Then change these to 1/15 HDR 7 +/- 2 intervalometer to shoot every 8 seconds.  Get a few and do opposite when 30 seconds or so to totality ending.

 

Have downloaded and purchased Solar Eclipse Timer so I am practicing.  Realizing the TV85 has the priority and then I have 4 minutes is hopefully going to make this not too stressful lol.

 

Good luck and let me know if you feel electronic isn't the way to go...the OM-1 reads out very fast.

 

Dan

 

PS - HDR mode requires electronic shutter btw.  

Edited by Dan Starr, 16 January 2024 - 10:41 PM.

[Dan Starr]

Hey Ray also finally played with the C1, C2 and C3 settings on the OM-D E-M1X and will be utilizing these so no hassle at all changing exposures and HDR settings.  As expected the C1, C2 and C3 will line up with the order of changes I'll need to make:

 

C1 - At Beginning: Rotate all cameras 22'ish degrees counter clockwise, get all lens in focus, then every 30 seconds take exposure at 1/500, f7.1, ISO 200, and silent.  Controlled via the camera intervalometer.  Camera remembers everything except to set this to ON.  So at beginning I'll need to open that up and select ON then trip the shutter and away we go.  Most likely only using TV85 and solar filter at this point.  Other lens have screw on filters I'll use for focusing but I don't think I want to bother taking them off...maybe I'll use the 300 but really not much too see hear the TV85 won't more than cover.

 

C2 - 30 seconds prior to totality:  Remove the TV85 solar filter and lens caps from 40-150 and 300, every second take 3 exposures at 1/2000, f7.1, ISO 200, +/- 2 and silent.  Controlled by external intervalometer which will be set up for 60 exposures every second.  So this should be easy, hear the warning, change to C2 and trip the external intervalometer.

 

C3 - Totality:  every 8 seconds take 7 exposures at 1/15, f7.1, ISO200 7 +/-2 and silent.  Controlled by the same external intervalometer where I'll need to just change the time between shots from 1 to 8, leave the count of shots to 60 since it will cover the entire time...again not so bad, remember I have 3 min and 30 seconds at this point, change to C3 and change time on intervalometer.

 

Coming out of totality just do things in reverse...let me know folks if this seems about right or anyone sees glaring issues.  Getting my initial exposures from past sun exposures.

[RNSpeed]

Thanks a lot for your reply Dan!  That's really good info.  Unlike the OM-1 the OM-5 only have one C quick dial option for custom modes. What I was planning to do was to assign AE Bracketing 7f 0.3EV  or 7f 0.7EV for the total phase  and for the partial phases probably shooting it manually using the OI. Share app on my iPhone.

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Dan Starr]

Sounds like that will work.  Prior to totality if the camera doesn't have an internal intervalometer I've found the Vello's to be very nice and then no wifi / bluetooth concerns.  I've bracketed that portion before only to have way more images than I'm ever going to do anything with ever again...so I'll pick an exposure and let it go for the duration.  In Colorado Springs for the annular and past Solar images 1/500 works out pretty well at ISO 200 and f7.1.

 

Good luck and for both of us cloudless skies on the 8th!

 

Dan

[ch-viladrich]

Hi Ray,

 

What focal length will you use ?

In any case, silent shutter minimise the risk of vibrations. This is one of the big advantage of mirrorless camera.

 

I used the silent mode (and also RAW mode) on my Nikon Z6 during last october eclipse, with my HAE29EC and Sigma 150-600 mm lens :

http://astrosurf.com...SA/usa2023.html

 

If you have autobracketing on your Olympus, you should use it too. It is way easier than changing speed manually.

[RNSpeed]

Hi Ray,

 

What focal length will you use ?

In any case, silent shutter minimise the risk of vibrations. This is one of the big advantage of mirrorless camera.

 

I used the silent mode (and also RAW mode) on my Nikon Z6 during last october eclipse, with my HAE29EC and Sigma 150-600 mm lens :

http://astrosurf.com...SA/usa2023.html

 

If you have autobracketing on your Olympus, you should use it too. It is way easier than changing speed manually.

Thanks a lot for the information, I'll use the camera with my AP-Stowaway which is 612mm natively and I guess with the micro four thirds crop factor the focal length will be close to 1024mm.  My mount will also be an iOptron HAE29, the tripod is an Artcise AS95C CF tripod.

 

For the partial phases Im thinking on using my Daystar quark full disk solar setup; (ZWO ASI290mm, svbony 40mm guidescope, GSO 0.5x reducer)  on top of the AP Stowaway.  A similar setup that I used for the October solar eclipse which for my location in the Caribbean was a partial solar eclipse.

 

I tested the solar guiding using Lu-Sol solar guiding software with a Svbony 30mm guidescope, white light solar filter and a  ZWO ASI 120mm-mini camera. The setup worked great keeping the sun centered on the frame.
 

Regards

 

Ray

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[ch-viladrich]

Thanks a lot for the information, I'll use the camera with my AP-Stowaway which is 612mm natively and I guess with the micro four thirds crop factor the focal length will be close to 1024mm.  My mount will also be an iOptron HAE29, the tripod is an Artcise AS95C CF tripod.

 

 

Ray

Interesting ! I am having a lot of issues with the keypad of the iOptron HAE29EC... What kind of adapter do you use to instal the mount on the Artcise AS95 CF tripod ?

 

This time I will be using a ZWO FF80/600 quadruplet and a Nikon Z7II. And also maybe a 135 mm f/1.8 Sigma + Nikon Z6 on the counterweight side of the mount. Not sure of that yet.

 

Christian

[RNSpeed]

Interesting ! I am having a lot of issues with the keypad of the iOptron HAE29EC... What kind of adapter do you use to instal the mount on the Artcise AS95 CF tripod ?

 

This time I will be using a ZWO FF80/600 quadruplet and a Nikon Z7II. And also maybe a 135 mm f/1.8 Sigma + Nikon Z6 on the counterweight side of the mount. Not sure of that yet.

 

Christian

Hello Christian.

 

Im using a TS-Optics Photo Tripod Adapter for GEM28 and CEM26 to Photo Tripods to connect the HAE29 to the CF tripod https://www.teleskop...ntierungen.html

 

Regards

 

Ray

Edited by RNSpeed, 21 January 2024 - 12:41 PM.

[Dan Starr]

Details on the sun auto guider please.  Thanks in advance.

 

Having recently acquired a Celestron Star Sense Autoguider it's amazing.  I am planning align the night before and then not have to move the tripod but back up options are always nice.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dan

[RNSpeed]

Details on the sun auto guider please.  Thanks in advance.

 

Having recently acquired a Celestron Star Sense Autoguider it's amazing.  I am planning align the night before and then not have to move the tripod but back up options are always nice.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Dan

Hello Dan, for some time I was looking for solutions on how to improve tracking during solar capture and found the Hinode but that device seems to be out of stock like forever   so I kept looking and came across a software called LuSol Guide. Its an old software but so far its working for my setup.  Apparently is not being developed anymore, seems that the site has been down for a some time now. (http://www.oc-lab.fr/) according to the wayback machine website last snapshot was back in 2019.

 

Some notes for my setup;

1. Im using it with a Svbony SV165 30mm guidescope and a Spectrum Telescope solar filter
2. To make it work with my ZWO ASI120mm-mini camera I installed the ZWO DirectShow drivers
3. It uses ASCOM to connect to my HAE29 Mount.

 

Hope it helps

 

Regards

 

Ray

[Dan Starr]

Thanks Ray I will check this out...Dan

[kdenny2]

With an electronic shutter, is there not a concern for rolling shutter issues at fast shutter speeds?

[RNSpeed]

With an electronic shutter, is there not a concern for rolling shutter issues at fast shutter speeds?

Well; thinking in photography terms to my understanding rolling shooter gets affected by fast moving subjects that may appear distorted or skewed on the final image.  But for the eclipse I don't think it matters, its not a fast moving subject.

 

Regards

 

Ray