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 auto-focuser and a color wheel and connect all of these to a computer so you can guide the mount and acquire your images. If you make a mistake with any of these, you have probably wasted a nights worth of work. You can look for help online but everyones setup is slightly different so you’ll probably have to do a lot of experimentation to make your own equipment work properly.

On the processing side, the tools are daunting. My processing tool of choice is called Pixinsight which consists of a suite of processes that you run your images through to achieve your final image. Almost all the processes have multiple parameters that you can tweek to control the mathematics behind the processing of the images. I suspect few actually understand what all of the parameters do and mostly rely on experimentation to determine the best values for their images.

Understanding what processes to use and the order in which to apply them is another challange. For me, as I suspect it is for most people, the path to learning was to watch lots of YouTube videos, try out the various techniques, and over time, build up a repertoire of things that work while tossing out the things that dont. This takes many hours and often ends with sub-optimal results that you end up just throwing away. It can be frustrating.

Unless you have lots of time and patience, you should probably consider another hobby. On the other hand, if you like challenges and are willing to put in the time, it can be really fun.

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 keep it stable. Thanks to image stabilization and random chance I was able to get a decent shot.

I’m hoping to take this with me hiking since most wildlife is pretty skittish and most of my wildlife photos feature the ass end of deer and birds as they flee from me. I may need to do some serious weightlifting first if I want to be in shape enough to lug it around all day.

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 insure that the touch screen on the back of my camera is not damaged.

Here’s the link if you’re interested:  Screen Protector

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 Back Dial can be used to set the shutter.

Manual Mode (M)
The user selects both the aperture and the shutter speed.

Set the Mode dial to ‘M’, the Front Dial sets the aperture and the Back Dial sets the shutter.

Creative Video Mode (Camera – M)
This mode is used to record video.

Set the Mode dial to ‘Camera – M’, the Front Dial sets the aperture and the Back Dial sets the shutter.

Custom Modes (C1, C2, C3)
These modes are used to configure the camera to preset settings that you have chosen in the past.

To save camera settings for the preset modes, first configure your camera with the settings you want to save and then select the Wrench / Cust. Set Mem menu item followed by C1, C2, C3-1, C3-2, C3-3.

C3 can actually hold three different configurations.  To select the one you wish to use, first select C3 using the Mode Dial and then press the icon on the top left of the rear screen.  This will display a menu allowing to select the configuration you want to use.

Creative Control Mode (Pallete Icon)
Allows you to choose from a number of filters that can be applied to the image.  This mode is probably not worth using since all of this can be achieved during post-processing.

Intelligent Auto Mode (iA)
Camera evaluates the scene and chooses the best settings.  There are actually two sub-modes available in this mode.  Intelligent Auto and Intelligent Auto +.  In Intelligent Auto mode, the camera controls everything whereas in Intelligent Auto + mode you have the ability to override some of the choices made by the camera.

When the camera mode is set to Intelligent Auto, a new menu becomes available on the rear screen which lets you choose between Intelligent Auto and Intelligent Auto +.

Additional menus are also available in this mode:

• iHandheld Night Shot – when enabled, takes a number of images and combines them.  This is probably done to mitigate low light noise.
• iHDR – when enabled, takes a number of images at different exposures to increase the dynamic range of the image.

If you find that iHandheld Night Shot and iHDR are grayed out, it’s because both options are only available when the Drive Mode dial is set to single shot.

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.

Focus Mode Dial – the focus mode dial on the back of the camera gives you the ability to select from 3 (actually 4 different) focus modes.  These modes are as follows:

• AFS (Auto Focus Single) – focus is acquired and locked when shutter is pressed half way or back button focus button is pressed.
• AFF (Auto Focus Flexible) – focus is acquired when shutter is pressed half way or back button focus button is pressed.  If the subject moves the focus will follow.  Use this mode when movement can’t be predicted.  Faster than AFF.  Can focus on randomly moving objects.
• AFC (Auto Focus Continuous) – focus is constantly performed to match the movement of the subject. Slower than AFF.
• MF (Manual) – focus is manually set by the user.  If the back button focus button is pressed focus will be acquired using AFS, you can then fine tune the focus using manual controls.

When the Focus Mode button is set to AFS/AFF you can select which option to use with the Camera AFS/AFF menu item.

Focus Recommendations: AFS is recommended for still subjects, AFF is recommended for moving subjects or you can just use manual mode.

Setting AF/AE LOCK button – Select the menu item Custom Settings / ‘Focus / Release Shutter’ / ‘AF/AE Lock’.Options are:

• AE LOCK – lock the current exposures settings.
• AF LOCK – lock the current focus settings.
• AF/AE LOCK – lock both the current exposure and current focus settings.
• AF-ON – acquire focus when pressed, lock it when released.

Focus Lock Recommendations: Back button focus is probably the most useful method for focusing your camera.  With BBF, instead of having the focus acquisition take place when the shutter button is pressed, you instead use the AF / AE LOCK button to tell the camera when to focus.  This decouples the focus process from actually taking the picture which results in more flexibility when focusing.  To enable back button focus, set the AF / AE LOCK button to AF-ON, then enter select Custom Settings / ‘Focus / Shutter AFF – OFF.

Adjusting the Focus Algorithm – for both AFF and AFC focus, you can tell the algorithm what kind of focus situation to expect so that it can acquire focus as quickly as possible.  This is done using the Camera / AF Custom Setting(Photo) menu.  Options are:

• Set 1 – Basic settings.
• Set 2 – Object is moving quickly in one direction.
• Set 3 – Object with slow random movement.
• Set 4 – Objects with fast random movement.

Focus Algorithm Recommendations:  Unless you have a very specific situation you’re trying to handle, the best overall choice is probably Set 1.

Customizing the Custom Settings -Each of the items that appear in the Camera / AF Custom Setting(Photo) menu can be customized to further optimize them.  The settings that can be modified are:

• AF Sensitivity – sets how long the camera will wait to adjust the focus when the distance between the subject and the camera changes.  The higher the number the quicker the change.
• AF Area Switching Sensitivity – how quickly the camera will move the AF area after the subject has moved from it.  The higher the number the quicker the movement.
• Moving Object Prediction – the camera is attempting to predict the future position of the subject based on its speed. A higher number means the camera will be more aggressive in predicting the future position of the subject.  Use zero for stationary subjects and 1 or 2 for subjects that are moving.

AF Custom Setting Recommendations: Panasonic probably spent a lot of time optimizing these settings so it’s unlikely you’ll improve upon them.  Unless you have something very specific you are trying to accomplish, don’t even bother messing with them.

AF Mode – allows you to set the method the camera uses to focus.  AF Mode can be set using the F3 button.  AF Mode options include:

• Face / Eye Detection – the camera will attempt to focus on any face or eyes it finds in the image.
• Tracking – the camera will lock on to the subject when you half press the shutter or the back button focus button and will continuously track the subject.
• 225-Area – will attempt to focus on anything found within the 225 point area.
• Custom Multi – similar to 225-Area except you can modify the shape of the area that will be evaluated for focusing.  Various options appear on the screen that allow you to resize and specify the shape of the area.
• 1-Area – camera focuses on anything within the small area.  If you press the AF Area button on the rear screen, you can adjust the size of the area using the back dial or modify the position of the area using the joystick.
• Pinpoint – camera focuses on a single precise location.  If you press the AF Area button on the rear screen, you can adjust the size of the area using the back dial or modify the position of the area using the joystick.

AF Mode Recommendations: In most cases you should use 1-Area or Pinpoint.  Both of these give you maximum control over the focus point and lessens the chance that the camera will select a bad place to focus.  For precision shooting, such as when photographing a portrait, use pinpoint.  This will give you absolute control over the focus point and allow you to focus on the subjects eye.  For other situations, 1-Area will usually do a good job and makes it easier to pick the focus point.  Tracking is useful if you are shooting moving subjects.  It allows you to pick the subject on which to focus and then attempts to keep that subject in focus.