1DSmII wrote:
Excellent images!
Thanks.... though these are still experimental at this stage. It is so cold here in Winter (especially in the mountains) that I have only had time to quickly set up, takes some pictures based on what is in the sky at the time, and then pack up and drive home again. I would take these pictures from my backyard, but I live in the suburbs near Sydney (Australia) and I'm afraid that the light pollution is quite strong here. A short drive to the rural districts is about 45 minutes away. I have chosen to drive a little further to get to even clearer skies. Even then, I still have problems with the glow of the cities near the horizons. I guess I could drive further but the risks of hitting animals or having an accident increases if I do. I'm also wary of the possibility of being robbed, which is something other local astrophotographers in the same area tell me is on their mind.
I'm sold on EOS R and 85/1.2. Would love to get my hands on this combo. Hopefully sooner rather than later!
In retrospect, the price is probably fair for this degree of technology and for the features of both the camera and lens. I found the price of that lens somewhat prohibitive initially. Then I realized it was cheaper than the telescope I was considering... and more useful in other ways for terrestrial photography. After months, and even more than a year of many other priorities, I was able to pool the resources together to buy this camera and lens. I have to admit that I was unprepared for the experience of using this specific lens with the Ra. I thought that I would need to be taking multiple shots and then stack them... since some of the earlier reviewers for the Ra were doing this. Fortunately, a single exposure is all it took for me. I haven't stacked any images yet. I did need to increase the overall contrast and saturation to bring out more color and detail...but it's all there in the JPEGs when the images show up immediately after taking them. The live view on the LCD is incredible. And when switching to Manual Focus on the lens, the Focus peaking become active. I set mine to "Blue" but when the lens is aimed at the sky, all the stars are instantly highlighted with blue. And when you pan the camera, it picks up on every star. This makes the LCD come to life in a way that can't easily be described. And the Live View on the LCD even shows a faint pallet of colors depicting the Milky Way live in a manner than no other camera seems capable of doing.
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This lens is well regarded by members of the forum here for non-astro photography (and that's probably what it was intended for). I hope to do more video of the Ra in use that shows what the experience is like. I have only just last week assembled a CGX EQ Mount to try this camera out using longer exposures... although it has dawned on me that I never thought to try higher than ISO 5000. Mainly because I thought that this would be too noisy. It appears I was wrong. I still don't have a suitable battery to operate my CGX mount... but I will attempt to photograph the Andromeda galaxy in about two weeks with the Ra. The Pleiades and Orion will be appearing in our Southern night skies at a respectable hour shortly. In another two months they ought to be up high around midnight. I'll try to test the Ra on those targets with the EF 100-400mmL II lens or possibly the EF 135mm f/2 USM lens... although the 135mmL lens doesn't seem to allow me to apply much in the way of lens corrections. Either way, I'm more than happy with the performance of the RF 85mm lens - so I guess I'm still in the process of exploring with it to see what it can do. It might be another two months before I can get my hands on the power supply I need so until then I will work with limited exposure times and a regular tripod. The coolest thing so far for me, is that the Ra + RF 85mmL can be used without any special tripod or any special long exposures. Heck, even Auto-WB seems to be giving me some reasonable results.
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Yet to be tested but I'm curious to see what an EQ Mount can do for this lens + camera.
Still waiting on a power supply.
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I believe that the EOS Ra is a very interesting FF mirrorless camera. The price is a little steep although it does go on sale every now and then where it drops well below the price of the EOS R camera. I bought my own Ra after missing one sale by just a day, and waiting for another. It was not inexpensive, even under sale. But I firmly believe that it has a degree of usefulness that many overlook. The EOS Ra can be used as a stand-alone camera for astro-terrestrial photography and it can be easily adapted to a telescope. I was at first hesitant to buy this camera, thinking to myself that some folks say you don't need an IR-Cut filter to capture the Milky Way nebulas that exhibit strong reds etc. But the difference is considerable. And I'm seeing better low-noise performance that I could have imagined.
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Hydrogen-Alpha + Sulfur II sensitivity on the Ra?
I am also noticing far more detail in the dust lanes... right across the full stretch of the Milky Way - which is likely to be related to the EOS Ra's increased sensitivity to the Sulfur II channels - not just the Hydrogen-Alpha channels in the 656.3nm range... and this is something that an IR-Cut filter will usually be more sensitive to. This is just with very short exposures too. Companies that modify camera sensors to remove the IR-Cut filter element claim that the increased sensitivity to H-alpha (656.3nm) is 4x (which is the same number that Canon claims for the EOS Ra) but the sensitivity to the Sulfur II (672nm) channels is increased by 6x ... which is something Canon doesn't mention, but is almost certainly the case with the Ra. My own observations suggest this is also the case and that is exciting because I was only expecting to see more of the reds. I would guess that the modified sensor allows for more light from the Sulfur II (672nm) range and this may involve more back-lighting from the areas where the Dust Lanes are located. I think this might be something others often overlook.
Please do come over to the astrophotography forum, and ignore the nay-Sayers. I for one would love to see more of your work, and I'm sure the vast majority of posters there would too.
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Forums
One of the complaints I often see on the Astro-forum is that many members don't recommend the EOS Ra because they assume it's much the same as the EOS 60Da or the 20Da. They also prefer to recommend tube-type CCD and CMOS cameras that need to be plugged into telescopes... not appreciating that those cannot be used to produce landscape-inclusive astro-photography. This is where the Ra is particularly good. It's also the very first Full Frame mirrorless IR-Cut sensor camera from Canon.
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I had considered spending more time at the Astro Forum but even a recent reply to someone on the subject of certain filters produced a chain-effect of unpleasant replies from people who claim to know better. When a University Professor of Observational Physics chimed in to support my comments, they then turned on him... with one element of abuse even being that he had 'dropped his credentials' into the conversation. This just goes to show that no matter how well your intentions, or even the level of your qualification, you simply paint a target on your back when you enter your certain forums. I'm big enough to take care of myself here and I'm sure there's moderators watching over certain threads but I'm not too happy with how some people behave over there. Which is very unusual because I'd expect better behavior from people on that forum.
