E-M5 as Astro Camera?

Sorry, this is nothing fancy at all, actually a boring image. But I wanted to see the performance of E-M5 and El-Nikkor lens as astro camera.

El-Nikkor should be used as a macro lens. Above was taken at F4. Still coma at each corner. Unfortunately, I don’t think it works well for astro. The center is really sharp though. So it’s perfect for macro imaging.

Meanwhile, the above shows 5-minutes and ISO800 dark. I’m shameful. The last time dark was taken while noise reduction and noise filter were both on. I didn’t realize those were on as default. That’s why it was extremely low noise. Here is the fair data. BTW, thank you, Olympus. User selection – on/off for noise reduction and filter is very good features. I was told Nxxxx cameras don’t allow to take off noise filter even in RAW image. As a result, tiny stars are erased by noise filter since software judges such tiny stars as noise. Anyway, E-M5 camera functions made me very smooth preparation including focusing. That’s good. Max 14x liveview allows for accurate focusing even with short focal length lenses. Noise doesn’t look bad to me at all. Sensitivity? I don’t know. I want to compare and see after modified. In any cases, I’m feeling E-M5 sounds similar to Canon’s. Remote timer controller is available from 3rd party. AC adapter is available although it must be used with a bit pricey battery holder grip. So necessary accessories for astro are ready. Only issue is how to apply dark frame. So far, no astro software doesn’t support Olympus RAW yet. I will make real test shot after modification.

~ by tedishikawa on June 23, 2012.