star trails w/ a p&s

D

draka

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Dec 19, 2010
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All,
I carry a dslr and a film camera (canonet) on my backpacking trips, the latter for star trails. As usual, this is more than what I want to carry, and I was wondering if anyone here has used the "T" mode on their compact p&s (ricoh gr1v, tc-1, hexar af) if it has such a mode, to take star trail pictures (i can cnarry extra batteries, my dslr spends half the time taking a dark frame, without which, the results are pretty bad, hence the need for a film camera)..
any thoughts would be appreciated..
 
Assuming your canonet can do "B" (with a locking shutter cable , or just taping the shutter button down, releasing to close, I'm not familiar enough w/ canonet), or "T" (push shutter button to open shutter, push again to close), it should be easy enough, and no different than using any (Digital/analog)SLR for doing star trails.

I had a couple of point and shoots (digital and film) and none offered the B or T, just a longish shutter speed, for something useful for urban night scenes (Olympus XA, Canon A80, up to 30-60sec max, not enough for any sort of dramatic star trail).

A rule of thumb. You can calculate how long the shutter was open with star trail images. A full circle is 24 hours, half circle arc is 12 hours, 1/4 circle arc is 6 hours, 1/8 arc is 3hrs, etc...
 
JOE1951 said:
Assuming your canonet can do "B" (with a locking shutter cable , or just taping the shutter button down, releasing to close, I'm not familiar enough w/ canonet), or "T" (push shutter button to open shutter, push again to close), it should be easy enough, and no different than using any (Digital/analog)SLR for doing star trails.

I had a couple of point and shoots (digital and film) and none offered the B or T, just a longish shutter speed, for something useful for urban night scenes (Olympus XA, Canon A80, up to 30-60sec max, not enough for any sort of dramatic star trail).

A rule of thumb. You can calculate how long the shutter was open with star trail images. A full circle is 24 hours, half circle arc is 12 hours, 1/4 circle arc is 6 hours, 1/8 arc is 3hrs, etc...
Click to expand...

Thanks Joe, I have the mechanical release cable for the Canonet and use the B mode. However, this setup is about 1 lb 5 oz in weight and I need to reduce my weight further (with the camera gear, my backpack weighs ~36 lb, a bit heavy for my liking)..Well, it looks like there is no clear alternative..
 
I know that the GR1s has a T mode, probably the GR1 and GR1v too. From the manual it seems like the timer will go up to 60, then indicate "L" for long exposure. Press shutter release to open and shutter release again to end exposure.

Let's just hope the battery lasts that long ;)
 
I would think battery life would indeed be your problem, P&S or DSLR. However it is done. You might want to go over to the PopPhoto site and post your question. It is almost a dead forum, but a man with the name AstroImager is an accomplished photographer, and used to be a docent at an observatory. He still posts there from time to time. If anyone would know what digital P&S would work and how, I would think it would be him. Others there may also have experience with that issue as well.
 
Hexar AF has a T mode as does the Ricoh GR series. Contax T3 has only a Long Exposure mode and a duration of max 180sec, so wouldn't be appropriate for trails, either of those other two would work fine though. I'm not sure about the other high-end p&s's.
 
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