Sony Lounge Thread MKIII (All Sony cameras welcome)

Bill in Texas wrote in post #19275228
Can anyone recommend a tutorial in some form for shooting the Milky Way? I don't plan to use a tracker. A little less than a month for our trip to the Davis Mtns and a visit to the McDonald Observatory. Dark sky area in West Texas so there will be opportunities. TIA

14mm f2.8 ISO 6400, 30 seconds
24mm f1.4 ISO 6400 8 seconds

start from there, tweak in the field if needed, post work requires a bit more work.

Love these little guys.

Image hosted by forum (1118104) © Miranda1 THIS IS A LOW QUALITY PREVIEW. Please log in to see the good quality stuff.

WooHoo! Looks like I will be joining the A1 club this week. I just got a call from my local (well in Portland ME, which is about as local as I can get round these parts) camera shop asking if I was still interested as they have received a few. I was thinking it would take a lot longer as they have been on backorder at all the big online shops for quite a while. I replied most definitely and gave them a credit card to hold. Should be in town on Thursday or Friday

I finally got a decent Kingfisher pic! Since I saw one a while back on a local river, I've returned three times with the 200-600. No joy the first couple of times, but this time after just 15/20 mins of crouching, one landed in roughly the spot I was hoping for (and seen before when I didn't have the 200-600).

So, here it is after as much processing as I dare! This is at 600mm, ISO 8000, and a crop from 24mp - 3.8mp!! Given those settings and the crop I think the IQ has held up amazingly well!

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Charlie wrote in post #19275521
14mm f2.8 ISO 6400, 30 seconds
24mm f1.4 ISO 6400 8 seconds

start from there, tweak in the field if needed, post work requires a bit more work.

I prefer to shoot ISO 1600 and 3200 and the push the exposures in post, I have found that with all 3 of the bodies I have, they all tolerate that well and result in less noise than the straight ISO 6400 image.

Itsed65 wrote in post #19275600
WooHoo! Looks like I will be joining the A1 club this week. I just got a call from my local (well in Portland ME, which is about as local as I can get round these parts) camera shop asking if I was still interested as they have received a few. I was thinking it would take a lot longer as they have been on backorder at all the big online shops for quite a while. I replied most definitely and gave them a credit card to hold. Should be in town on Thursday or Friday

That is awesome! Congrats!

Monkey moss wrote in post #19275603
I finally got a decent Kingfisher pic! Since I saw one a while back on a local river, I've returned three times with the 200-600. No joy the first couple of times, but this time after just 15/20 mins of crouching, one landed in roughly the spot I was hoping for (and seen before when I didn't have the 200-600).

So, here it is after as much processing as I dare! This is at 600mm, ISO 8000, and a crop from 24mp - 3.8mp!! Given those settings and the crop I think the IQ has held up amazingly well!

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/2miZ​Y38 Kingfisher by Jonathan Millard, on Flickr

Well done John, was that on the Frome? I never managed to get one on my local stretch in Frampton Cotterell when I lived there, but did on a visit to the centre of Bristol in Eastville park!

Ok I will bore you with my trip.

Day one leave Phoenix after work meetings...... Get to Canyon De Chelly National Monument....... Find Spider Rock campground $15/ night.... its a bit of a dump. Meet Harold the owner he says "pick a spot their all open" hand him a $20 and ask him if Spider Rock is good for sunset too and he says oh yeah...... So off I go its about 4 miles from there. Sunset shots from Spider rock overlook

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After the tour thru the canyon headed off to Valley of the Gods which is BLM land north of Monument Valley which is tribal land

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Bill in Texas wrote in post #19275228
Can anyone recommend a tutorial in some form for shooting the Milky Way? I don't plan to use a tracker. A little less than a month for our trip to the Davis Mtns and a visit to the McDonald Observatory. Dark sky area in West Texas so there will be opportunities. TIA

On my bucket list still not attempted. Have read of a 500 rule for astro, shutter speed = 500/focal length. I have saved a list of settings for astro but never tried yet. Maybe those that do astro and milky way could comment.
Mode - Manual
Aperture - f/2.8 or wider
iso - start with 3200 at f/2.8 and 1250 at f/1.8
SS - no more than 20 secs at 20mm & 30 secs at 14mm
Drive mode - selftimer 5 secs
focus mode - manual with focus magnifier
Focal length - 200mm or wider

On the way to Capital Reef I found Natural Arches National Monument - What a gem of a place!!! and like everything I WAS ALONE THERE

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Capital Reef was great I would pick this over the crowds at Zion any day!!! except the smoke was so bad I really couldn't get any good big shots. However

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Then I dropped my lens and just went back to the camp

Next day bad smoke for sunrise but just made coffee and sat with this view.

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Miranda1 wrote in post #19275556
Love these little guys.

Hosted photo: posted by Miranda1 in
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forum: Sony Digital Cameras

Nice closeup. I think they are pretty amazing spiders too.

Here's one I shot some time ago that I may have posted before.

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Nice