ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY: Photographing ORION With A CANON R7 and RF 70-200 (Will It Be Any Good?)

[@tma2001]

The main advantage of the counterweight and dec bracket allows you to polar align with the camera mounted which is a big deal if you dont want to so much as breath on it after alignment! Alternatively with just the ball head adapter setup, use the scope to get the alignment close, mount the camera and then use software alignment to nail it with a laptop or asirair etc.

[@sallyjberry805]

It's nice to see you back... even if it's in your driveway. This little demo reminds me that I need to get out more at night and practice so that some of this information gets imprinted. You gave an easy-to understand explanation of the process. I love seeing the creations from the Orion region. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

[@KIDDYLAN]

loved the information you gave after the shoot. i learned tons. thanks loads brent

[@IllusionInfusion]

I really appreciate the detail you went into with Photoshop. I feel that post-processing is something that I really need to get better at and I didn't quite know where to begin with astro. I like the incremental process that you go through. It makes a lot of sense. Calling out the subjective bits is good too. The first pass of star reduction looked good, the second may have been a bit much, but it still looks good either way. Thanks for sharing what you know. It really does help those of us who haven't been doing this for too long and are still building out our kits, but already have some hardware to work with.

[@BrentHall]

Hey thanks man, I really appreciate that, and I'm glad the video helped!

[@swhamilton]

I've had a Star Adventurer for awhile and have been waiting to get to the lower 48 to use it (I was in Alaska for awhile). The whole time you were going through your process I kept wanting to ask if you had an astro-modded camera or used an H-Alpha filter, but you answered it as I was thinking. This is definitely the nudge I needed to set this up in my backyard and give it a shot! The only hindrance I have is my D750 only has a 30" shutter, but I can probably get a few shots using an IR remote and stopwatch for 1-2 minute exposures. My main focus with astro has always been Milky Way but I'm excited to try for some nebulae. Thanks for your awesome video, Brent!

[@matthewfletcher]

I also was weirded out by the lack of composition opportunities with the counter weight... I never considered you could attach your ball head to the counter weighted mount. I wonder if you'd thought about that. Great vid!! Thanks for the info and showing what you can do with a 200mm! 😘

[@brianrose2487]

Thanks for the explanation! Lost my mind in post last year, will give it another go this summer. Take care and hope you get to feeling better.

[@michaelkokot6349]

I find your voice claiming and explanations great. I have tried to do a bit of this and found I don't have the patience for it at least right now in my life. Maybe in a few more years, I will try again.

[@BrentHall]

Hey thanks man, I really appreciate that! It definitely takes some patience and ability to deal with getting frustrated, lol.

[@judahbertolotti7364]

Hi Brent love the video and the material. I’m using an a7iii and hoping to get out with a star tracker for the first time this next new moon. Thanks for the inspiration I love to see what unmodified cameras can do.

[@BrentHall]

Hey thanks, I'm glad you liked it!

[@aymanalfayez]

I am looking for the head light that your are using, pleasr provide the link. Thanks

[@du6fztech]

Hi, this is wonderful. Did you use any filters for the lens?. I have a canon rf 24-240lens with my eos rp. Wondering if I could get a photo like that. What are the setup if I May ask? Please let me know. Thank you.

[@BrentHall]

I don't remember if I used a filter for that one or not. If I did it would have been a night sky filter, and it should be listed in the video description.

[@МихаилРусин-ы1о]

Hi, Brent. What native UWA RF lens you may recomend for milky way shots you may recommend? MF is not a problem.

[@hakanp54]

Very useful information. I learned a lot. Thanks for sharing.

[@andrewmoran9192]

Great video! I’m definitely interested in getting a tracker, would love to use a tele for some Astro! What tripod are you rolling with now? That thing looks real nice! Thanks, keep the videos coming! P.s. love the Canon R5, and the lovely L lenses. 👍🏼

[@BrentHall]

Thanks man, I appreciate it! Unfortunately, the tripod I use isn't available anymore though. It's the Colorado Centennial.

[@andrewmoran9192]

@@BrentHall oh, is Colorado tripod company out of business? I have heard of them.

[@MarkJ1776]

Driveway shooting is the best. During the last lunar eclipse I was standing by the tripod and people walking by didn't even see me.

[@colintraveller]

More likely they were engrossed looking at there phones ..

[@7inrain]

Just got an adapter for the Panasonic G91 of my wife to put on my Skywatcher refractor and another adapter for her Sony Alpha 6400 is incoming. The weather is quite bad at the moment so our first shots will have to wait. But thx for the video. That will definitely help when it comes to editing the images. And I'm delighted to hear that you have a degree in Geology. Would be great if you could take some more shots and video clips of rocks when you are out in the woods and mountains. Sad to hear that your shoulder is still bad. Hopefully that gets sorted soon.

[@kenanderson1124]

Just bought a tracker. Looking forward to testing the theory. Standby…….

[@mvp_kryptonite]

Cool video. If the star tracker isn’t too expensive I might give this a whirl

[@toledocamilo]

how I focus with the R7, using the 18 150 , and the screen it's all black, i cant see the stars...

[@ericalexandre1]

Increase your ISO and take off lens cap.

[@Mosesybanez]

When I try with my r7 and the 100 400mm rf to take a photo of the sky even at 15 seconds it comes out blurry or shake looking on a tripod locked in and focused on point and the stabilizer off with it on it seemed worse.. what am I doing wrong? With my old camera m50 I was able to take like 25 or 20 second exposures and everyrhing is fine but anything over 3 or 4 seconds with the r7 and the zoom it seems like it's blured or streaking.

[@BrentHall]

That's because the earth is rotating. You can use the NPF rule (Photo Pills has a built in calculator for it) to figure out how long of an exposure you can get with any camera, lens, and aperture setting before you will see star trails from the earth's rotation. In your case, with an R7, at 100m at F/8 you will only be able to get a maximum shutter speed of 4.44 sec before you will get star trailing. Less if you zoom in any more. I'm using a star tracker in this video, which allows for much longer shutter speeds. And yes, when on a tripod, having the IS on can cause additional motion blur because the IS motors are moving and causing more camera shake.

[@Mosesybanez]

@BrentHall okay that makes sense I've been looking at the star tracker things too. I've only had this camera for a week and before it I had a much cheaper camera m50 mark to and was using a 16mm and a 22mm and was able to take m7ch longer exposers, I wasn't sure if I was doing g something wrong on this camera with s3ttings I've never tried to use such a large zoom lens with the stars and never used this r7 with astro other then last night when I we finally got a clear night and it was dark enough early enough for me to stay up since you know work ruines everything haha. But thank you for the reply I will invest in a star tracker for sure I love taking. Ight photos long exposures and astro I'm new to it and fumbling around has been fun now I want to know the actual way and get some amazing photos like I always see from your videos and all over the web.

[@flixzy_vfx]

You have got me really interested astrophotography. Do you know what the best time to take photo's is at?

[@BrentHall]

I mean, night time is usually the best for stars...😅🤣 but seriously though, new moon is the absolute best time for astro.

[@deltacx1059]

So for the actual normal people who are not rich or already infested with equipment, go ahead and get used camera gear from MPB or similar shops and find a used mount, there is no reason to ever buy over 1500$ worth of gear to start in a hobby no matter what astro KZbinrs say.

[@jesuschrist2284]

What is your tripod and how do you rate it?

[@19Photographer76]

So Brent, how did you remove the stars, Dust & Scratches?

[@BrentHall]

Well, there's a few methods to do it, but for this one, I did the slowest, most tedious way, by hand with the spot healing tool.

[@19Photographer76]

@@BrentHall Your shoulder has you in slow motion mode.

[@yannickfillon3851]

You should hook up with Nico from nebula photos while you are in New England for your workshop!

[@BrentHall]

Nico is an incredible human. I'd love to meet him.

[@jameslove1092]

Hi brent hope you feel better great vid. James in cloudy scotland

[@BrentHall]

Thanks man! Unfortunately the shoulder is still quite messed up. I just booked my trip to Scotland for this may though, so the surgery will have to wait till after then.

[@Jimydog72]

starting to really regret my purchase of the R7, lol. You keep on pointing out it is not as good as the others :(. that being said i appreciate the truth. Hope your shoulder gets healed sooner than later.

[@BrentHall]

It's still a great camera. I'm just in a fortunate situation where have other options.

[@ronancullen4565]

@@BrentHall would the R3 be good ?

[@BrentHall]

Well of course the R3 is good. It's amazing, but it's also way too far out of most people's budget.

[@ronaldcphotography]

@@BrentHall I happen to have one and also the rf 70-200 f4, and 85 1.2, your video made me curious about taking pictures looking up ha

[@colintraveller]

I managed to bag a UFO last week whilst capturing Stars .. it was travelling west to east ...

[@fgb3126]

How about that comet? Nearest to Earth today

[@telemaq76]

you have that huge negativ clarity because you didnt make any darks. flats are important but darks too, it s a common issue with cmos sensor. Flats without darks give that important negativ clarity. DO some darks and bias and your image will be far better , and far easier to process

[@BrentHall]

Oh, thanks man! I always forget about doing darks.