How To: Astrotracer on the Pentax K1

[@scrptwic]

I did my Milky Way photo with my Pentax K70 with my Rokinon 14mm2.8 and I used the 330 rule and set my timer for 20 second exposure. Got a great picture. I was at a winery in Paso Robles CA for my Milky Way photo with very little light pollution. I have used astrotracer as well as the intervalometer in my photography makes me glad I have Pentax cameras

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Awesome! Lot's of ways to get a good Milky Way shot thanks to the flexibility of the Pentax system.

[@garyfranklin7747]

Very informative, as have been many of the posts in the "Comments" section. Thanks very much.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Thanks for watching!

[@ilposten]

I got myself a K3 II, which has a build-in GPS, and I am going to try this out at the summer house. Basically no light pollusjon.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Awesome! I think once you see how well it works and how clean the images are, you will be hooked! Good luck!

[@ilposten]

@@CapeNightPhotography thank you, noble one.

[@francoisgagnon5393]

Having a K1 I greatly appreciate your good tips and advice. I had me and my wife to go to Cape Cod this month of June I intended to go see you so that you can guide us for the Milky Way. will book in April for June 2022.Thank you and good continuity !!!!

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Thank you sir! Glad you found the video helpful and hope to see you on the Cape in 2022!

[@brianmccutcheon2471]

@@CapeNightPhotography 😂 well I live out in the Bush north west of NSW Australia 🇦🇺 so the chances of us running into each other are extremely remote: lol All the best

[@67comet]

This worked great for my K-3 ii also. Thank you.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Fantastic! Happy shooting!

[@brianmccutcheon2471]

Thank you I didn’t know any of this. Appreciated

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Thanks for watching!

[@dionhouston]

These are great videos! I love my K-1, and the idea of astrophotography so thanks for very specific videos :) Question: for lenses, what do you think would work better -- zooms that don't get terribly wide (28-80 or 35-70@f/3.5-4.5) or primes (20mm@f/2.8 or 35mm@/f2)? My most expensive glass is on my Olympus and it's hard to justify buying more for the Pentax at the moment...

[@CapeNightPhotography]

I think they key is to get somewhere in between 30mm and 85mm. This is where I have had the most success with minimizing star trailing in the corners. I notice the most drift on my 15-30 and, for me anyway, most of my landscape shots start to get too tight compositionally above 85mm. Also, because of the tracking, I keep my aperture around f/4 as there isn't much need for the ultra wide apertures. Hope this helps and thanks for the comment!

[@gregoneil3523]

Thanks Tim. Makes sense.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Great!

[@ronaldjohnston7989]

Superb, thank you!

[@nancydenham1480]

any chance of a video about the tracer and eclipse??

[@arthurbiniss5432]

You can manually change the focal length settings in the menu if you didn't want to turn it off and on again

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Good point! Thanks Arthur and happy shooting!

[@francoisgagnon5393]

Well i forget to tell you we came from of Shawinigan it s up north of Montreal Canada ....

[@alenk738]

Awesome. Birthplace of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien. And, seemingly, the canoe racing capitol of Canada. (Been a couple of times.)

[@billvinson7859]

I have the Pentax K-70 with the GPS Module. It all works great. I might still get the K-1 Mark 2. I only wish they made a modified version to let in more of the hydrogen alpha light. That would be a super Pentax. The Star Stream feature is magical.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

My understanding is you can send it to be modified by a few different companies. I know of someone who has a modified K1 and it seems to work great!

[@shawnwells5719]

I have the same setup. It captures some pretty impressive images, considering the simplicity of the system.

[@alenk738]

I think in stock form that Pentax DSLRs have reasonably decent h-alpha sensitivity, bested only by Fujifilm cameras and way better than most Sony and Nikon models, for example. I have chosen to live with mine unmodified.

[@tariqalkindi8045]

Nice demo thanks i just bough pentax k1 i was told that using the GSP not easy because i have to turn the cam to 4 positions which makes it difficult is this true?

[@CapeNightPhotography]

I have not heard this! You can run a GPS calibration in which it asks you to simply rotate the camera in three different ways. I usually only do that if I have travelled more than 50 miles from the last location I used the camera. Otherwise the GPS seems to do just fine without any extra effort. Good luck and thanks for the comment!

[@earth9258]

Thanks for the video, I pick up my k1 tomorrow. I’ve got a question though, I’ve been doing tracked astro for many years at like 1600mm, and untracked astro at 7.5mm (crop sensor). But this astro tracer will be a new challenge. My initial choice of lens was going to be a 14mm rokinon, but I now know that astro tracer doesn’t necessarily do well with really short focal lengths as the lenses aren’t equirectangular. It’s possible there are better options that are, but I’m not going to spend 1.5k on a lens quite yet. So I’m wondering if the 35mm FA would be a better pick? Or if you have any recommendations, I’m kinda looking to stay under $500. Vintage lenses are always an option, but corner sharpness seems to vary.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Congrats! I am thrilled someone is going to five the K1 a whirl! The 28-105 from Pentax is a fantastic lens for this! There is one used on BH Photo RIGHT NOW for less than three hundred. I have used it for this purpose and highly recommend it. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?sts=ma&InitialSearch=yes&searchType=USED&q=pentax%2028-105

[@spudbeau]

Thanks for the video. Great information. I have a Pentax K1, ii with a 28-105 & have been using Samyang (Rokinon)14 mm for Astro. I noted an earlier comment to this post that a wider lens doesn't work so well with the Astrotracer on the K1. Happy to try the 28-105. I have also been using Starry Sky Stacker not so successfully, but still learning! Is there any need or value in stacking multiple images if you are using Astrotracer? Also do you have or can you recommend a tutorial on Photoshop & layering foreground for Astro? I have subscribed & will look through your posts! Im from Australia & heading to the desert next month for some Astro. Thanks again. !

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Thanks for your comment! I've had a lot of success with Astrotracer and the 28-105. I agree with folks that wide angle lenses don't seem to work as well presumably because of the amount of motion they capture in the corners. Tighter shots are much more forgiving. The magic number seems to be around 50mm as this gives you enough foreground to work with on a full frame but plays nicely with the tracking. Here's a shot at 28mm with the 28-105. I had a little play in the corners but it didn't bother me. capenightphotography.smugmug.com/Lighthouses/i-9mJnJKt/A In my opinion, tracking eliminates the need for stacking since you will be shooting lower ISO anyway and won't need to worry about averaging noise. Some may disagree, but I believe tracking is superior because the lower ISO provides better color capturing in the star field. However, stacking is a fantastic tool when tracking is not available and higher ISO is the only way to go. Masking/layering can be tough. I will add that to my video list for upcoming recordings but I encourage you to go get the shots anyway so you can process them later even if you're not sure how to do the photoshop side yet. The video below covers the layering part in the second half. My advice to you is to make sure you have as clean of a horizon as possible. Foreground trees, telephone wires, poles and anything else that "breaks" the sky can be difficult to process later. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHbHZnqNo9qnlck I hope this helps and thank you for watching!

[@spudbeau]

@@CapeNightPhotography thanks for all the info. It all makes sense. Heading to the country with salt lakes, hopefully clear sky and plenty of foreground. So keen to try some different methods. So thanks again.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

@@spudbeau Good luck and hoping for clear skies for you!

[@BuddyBullwinkel]

with the gps no external tracker needed. but what benefit could an external tracker add? Like this gadget ?

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Well, with an external tracker you could shoot longer exposures which some people like to do. That said, I think just a few minutes is long enough. However, an external tracker is a cheaper solution for some people with older cameras and small aperture lenses that want to shoot Milky Ways without upgrading their existing equipment.

[@PentaxLife]

Great video thanks a lot

[@CapeNightPhotography]

Safe travels!

[@arthurgphotography]

Anyone try the Pentax 24-70 for Astro?

[@telekas7335]

I noticed that even if you get all green symbols after calibration and open electronic compass, sometimes it is twitching about 5 degrees here and there. I guess it means something magnetic is close that's affecting it. Do you perform such or similar tests after calibration? Sometimes i get bad trailing in traced shots, i suppose this twiching is the reason.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

I sometimes have to recalibrate after taking a test shot with things moving at the center a bit more than expected. Apparently there is a firmware update coming that may negate that sort of issue..

[@billgosma]

Very good video - I've yet to use the Astrotracer function in my K-1.....Question: does one need to 'calibrate' the GPS at each location that one is shooting? And....I presume if there is no cellular signal then the unit can't be calibrated, correct or no? Thanks

[@alenk738]

Correct on both counts. (Clarification: Assuming that by "cellular" you really meant "GPS.") However, on the plus side, if you do have a GPS signal, you can move about at any one particular geographic location, even by many yards or meters, without needing to recalibrate. Provided that is, that there are no magnetic anomalies in the area or large chunks of ferrous metal (e.g., your car) nearby, as those can throw of the magnetic compass. Also, leave your phone and car fob back in that car you moved far away from. (K-3II user here, so I know from experience.)

[@CapeNightPhotography]

I always recalibrate even if just driving a few miles between locations. I think it is good practice and takes just a few minutes.

[@loujost]

​@@alenk738 When Alen says "Correct on both counts", it seems like he or she is referring to your two questions, and is saying that you need to calibrate the GPS at each new place AND if there is no cellular signal the unit can't be calibrated. The second assertion, though, is false. Nothing in the camera uses a cellular signal.

[@alenk738]

@@loujost You are correct. It does not need a cellular signal. However, I read his use of "cellular" as really meaning "GPS." I don't know of any dedicated camera that can make use of a cellular phone signal and I am sure that Bill knows that his Pentax doesn't either. But thanks for the correction.

[@loujost]

@@alenk738 I wanted to avoid ambiguity. I still meet people who think their telephones require cellular service to geolocate.

[@alainbelisle4543]

I got the k 3 iii with 50mm and the 100mm ,lens what else do I need to start doing astrophotography?

[@alenk738]

Since K-3 Mark III has Astrotracer Mode III (with latest firmware update) you don’t really need anything else except, of course, a tripod. The built-in intervalometer of the K-3 Mark III works with Astrotracer, unlike most earlier models (with the exception of the KP), so you don’t even need an external intervalometer. If you are doing single shots, just use the shutter delay mode to avoid vibration from pressing the shutter. Or indulge yourself with a $10 IR remote from Amazon.

[@chinacpc1921]

宾得

[@roadtrippin2781]

The npf equation is far more accurate but then comes ISO or stacking.

[@CapeNightPhotography]

It definitely can be but it's also a lot of engineering for what the result is unless you're shooting for nasa :)

[@henrikbengtsson3566]

Great explanation. Thank you! Would you say the K1 works just as well as the K1 MK2 for this? Also, we are beginners and want to take some nice images of the Orion Nebula and simply wonder if 3 mins or so would be enough or do we need an external tracker?

[@CapeNightPhotography]

As far as I know there was no difference between the mark one and mark two bodies so they should work equally well. I took a shot of the Orion nebula a few months ago using Astro Tracer. My settings were f/5.6, ISO 640 for 2 minutes at 105mm (which was the longest lens I had with me) and I was happy. Give it a try!

[@alenk738]

@@CapeNightPhotography one difference is that the K-1 Mark II has non-defeatable noise reduction that kicks in a little under ISO 800. But I have never seen any data on its effect on astrophotos, good or bad.

[@gilknutson]

Now….. Pentaxians MUST get on Sigmas a$$ and convince them to make their “new” 14mm f:1.4 lens in the Pentax mount…. And, if they do, hundreds of Pentax users MUST buy the lens. Incredible lens… expensive, for sure!!… buy a superb night/stars lens.

[@gilknutson]

Oops….typo… …but a superb night/stars lens…. …but NOT buy…