The Horsehead Nebula and Flame Nebula (lower left). Narrowband hydrogen-alpha, sulfur II and oxygen III data was acquired over two nights, processed using Pixinsight and the channels were mapped to the Hubble Palette. Not my favorite color combination but it does bring out a lot of detail in the image. Astrophotography is tough. Before you can produce anything of interest, you first need to learn how to use your equipment to acquire images and then you need to learn how to use the software tools to process those images. On the acquisition side, you’re having to master the use of a lot of different hardware. You need to understand and be able to set up a telescope, a mount, an …
UPS delivered a Sigma 150-600mm lens for my camera today. I decided to test it out by going into the backyard and taking a couple of pictures of a tree or the neighbors house. As luck would have it a hawk was just sitting in the middle of the hill. The lens is huge and heavy, but not as big as a lot of lenses in it’s class. I was hand holding it for the hawk photo and had a hard time keeping it steady enough to get the hawk in focus. I took about fifteen shots and about a third of them were usable. I’m not blaming the lens, something this big really needs a tripod or mono-pod to …
Guess what’s in the box. This may be the most extreme case of over packaging I’ve ever seen. The container makes it look like it’s something of great value but in reality it contains nothing more than a piece of tempered glass film used as a screen protector for a camera. Sandwiching it between a couple of pieces of cardboard would have worked just as well but the box does add a bit of extra class to the product. As for the screen protector itself; it’s top quality and comes with the appropriate cleaning pads to clean your camera’s screen before installation. I’m really pleased with this and can highly recommend it. $9.99 is a small price to pay to …
Here’s a quick synopsis of the modes available on the Panasonic GH5. There’s a lot more information available in the manuals, but this might help you when you’re just starting out. Program Mode (P) Set the Mode dial to ‘P’, the camera has full automatic control of shutter and aperture settings. Aperture Priority (A) The user selects the desired aperture while the camera selects the appropriate shutter speed. Set the Mode dial to ‘A’, Both the Front Dial and the Back Dial can be used to set the aperture. Shutter Priority (S) The user selects the desired shutter speed while the camera selects the appropriate aperture. Set the Mode dial to ‘S’, Both the Front Dial and the …
The Panasonic GH5 is a great camera but it can be a bit overwhelming due to the number of features and options available. This is particularly true with the focusing system. There are many ways to use it but figuring them all out can be a bit of a task. Since I spent an afternoon figuring out all the available options, I decided I would share my notes here in hope that they might be helpful to someone else. These settings are for still photographs only, I have not yet had a chance to explore all the options for focusing when recording video. When I do get around to it I will make sure that I post the info here. …
Caught this amazing sunset over the Wachusett Reservoir in West Boylston last night.
Ferris Wheel at the Sterling Fair.