Grand Canyon Vacation Pics
Still going through the pictures of our trip but wanted to share a few nice ones. Nothing crazy, but maybe some cool ones if you've never been to the area. I carried my Ricoh GR with me everywhere, sometimes had my Pentax K-01 infrared camera with the Pentax-F 28mm f2.8 attached, and then got my Pentax K-1 out of the bag for astrotracer only once while camping. So, maybe I didn't need to lug around the K-1. I was trying to go light since the primary purpose of this trip was family time and not photography, but this boy can't help himself sometimes. I'm sure you can relate 🙂
We had our little ones with us so no crazy hikes or anything. I felt pretty good with what we were able to do with them though. Trying to get them used to hiking.
The first one is a cool rock formation in Sedona, Arizona. Sedona was the real surprise of the trip. We passed through just a half day there and I wanted to spend so much longer there. Amazingly beautiful.
This one is in the Grand Canyon a little ways and looking up.
More in the Grand Canyon.
These two were at our campsite in Texas on route to the Grand Canyon.
Infrared camera view from the South Rim trail at the Grand Canyon.
Another fun infrared from the trail.
I really like this infrared one from Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. Look closely...
Tested out my DA* 300mm lens with astrotracer now that I 3D printed a bahtinov mask. Makes focusing WAY faster. Just a single exposure. I wasn't going for anything amazing. But now that I know the lens is capable I'll work on my technique more. It means I can sell off my Rokinon 135mm f2 that I was using for nebulas and keep this one as a dual purpose wildlife/astro lens.
That K-1 astrotracer is so handy. I've read it can expose up to 5 mins for astro. Have you tried that yet? Cheers.
Quote from Iron on April 22, 2021, 11:41 amThat K-1 astrotracer is so handy. I've read it can expose up to 5 mins for astro. Have you tried that yet? Cheers.
It is really nice, but the time it claims it can do is a little misleading. It will automatically adjust your max exposure time based on the focal length of your lens, which is one of the factors, but it's always optimistic. Often you'll have to be well below that number to prevent star trails entirely.
There's another factor it doesn't take into account at all in the projected max time and that is the position of the sky you are pointing to, and how close it is to polar alignment. This changes how much the sensor needs to move to compensate for the movement of the earth. So even on the same lens, same location, I can point to different locations in the sky and get different results. The M42 picture above was over a minute with astrotracer, but if I pointed it at an object on the other side of the sky it would start to blur by 10 seconds.
That being said, it really is very neat. Being built in is very handy and means no extra equipment. Also means people like me who are total novices can start playing with it and get some pretty decent results 🙂
Some nice photos there. I think I detect the tell-take sign of a polarizing filter to get those deep blue skies. I brought one on my trip but didn’t up using it.
Re Astrotracer, it does take pointing direction into account when it informs you on the LCD the maximum exposure time it can do. But it is always very optimistic. It bases its calculation solely on the mechanical travel limit of the sensor. But tracking accuracy depends on how well Astrotracer calculated the position of the celestial pole. And that in turn depends on how well the calibration step went and also if anything in your local environment is modifying the earth’s magnetic field. In short, it can be finicky.
I have been able to do one minute exposures
Oops, continuing...
I have been able to do one-minute exposures with a 200mm lens on the APS-C K-3II, which is the same image scale and hence should be the same tracking limit as 300mm on full-frame, but not on a consistent basis. Astrotracer has reported for those same shots over two minutes of tracking time, which I have never been able to approach. With a 300mm lens (equivalent to 450mm on FF), I can sometimes do 30 seconds but most times 20 seconds. Astrotracer reports well over a minute most times and scaling from the 200mm result I would expect to do up to 40 seconds. But no can do. However, 20 seconds does give me 100% frame utilization (no throw-aways) and read noise on the Sony sensor is low, so that is usable. But it does lead to stacking a lot of frames if I want a decent total integration time.
Someone has cooked up a gizmo to mount in the hot shoe that can extend exposure times closer to theoretical. If I understood Mandarin I would be able to replicate it. But alas...
Oh snap, I must have been inadvertently signed out when I made the last two comments above. (There d0esn't seem to be any indication that I am signed in or not.)
Re Sedona, my wife and I visited it as well. We spent two days there. Hands down the most beautiful place we visited in Arizona. Sure, GC is more impressive wrt sheer scale and awesomeness, but everywhere you look in Sedona there is another unique red rock within eyesight (and camera viewfinder). The biggest problem is hitting everything at the best time of the day for optimum lighting. Unless you live there or stay a week, it ain't gonna happen.
The other problem for my photos, which was true over most of our vacation, was cloudless or near cloudless skies. We astrophotographers love them at night, of course, but not during the day. It looks like you got a least a few days with interesting skies.
My most interesting photo from Sedona is probably this one of the Buddha at Amitabha Stupa & Peace Park. (K-3II with 18-135mm kit lens.) I originally shot it in landscape orientation but given the bland cloudless sky, this portrait crop looks better by cropping most of it out.
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Quote from Snappy on April 20, 2021, 1:42 amTested out my DA* 300mm lens with astrotracer now that I 3D printed a bahtinov mask. Makes focusing WAY faster. Just a single exposure. I wasn't going for anything amazing. But now that I know the lens is capable I'll work on my technique more. It means I can sell off my Rokinon 135mm f2 that I was using for nebulas and keep this one as a dual purpose wildlife/astro lens.
Not bad! The DA* 300mm f/4 is my dream astro lens for my K-3II. But I can't afford it. I bought instead an ancient SMC Takumar 300mm f/4. It was about $100. I must stop it down to f/5.6 and yet it still gives a fair bit of chromatic aberration. I took this image of the same target using it at a local dark site (dark for here: about Bortle 4.5). I did no noise reduction and only minimal CA reduction. Now that I have Affinity Photo, I think I could do a better job of processing. This was 12 minutes (36 x 20s). I did bring the 300mm with me to Arizona and used it at GC but chose to do the Cygnus Loop with it instead. On Orion, I used an SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8, both also vintage glass, resulting in this and this. It's amazing what is possible in a really dark sky!
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Hi
I just saw you latest YouTube. I travel with a Panasonic LX7. It's only 10MP, but the lens is great, the camera has manual controls, and it shoots RAW!
The results I get from it are outstanding.
Here are my Grand Canyon pics.
Cheers
Glenn
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Quote from Alen K on April 22, 2021, 11:54 pmOh snap, I must have been inadvertently signed out when I made the last two comments above. (There d0esn't seem to be any indication that I am signed in or not.)
Re Sedona, my wife and I visited it as well. We spent two days there. Hands down the most beautiful place we visited in Arizona. Sure, GC is more impressive wrt sheer scale and awesomeness, but everywhere you look in Sedona there is another unique red rock within eyesight (and camera viewfinder). The biggest problem is hitting everything at the best time of the day for optimum lighting. Unless you live there or stay a week, it ain't gonna happen.
The other problem for my photos, which was true over most of our vacation, was cloudless or near cloudless skies. We astrophotographers love them at night, of course, but not during the day. It looks like you got a least a few days with interesting skies.
My most interesting photo from Sedona is probably this one of the Buddha at Amitabha Stupa & Peace Park. (K-3II with 18-135mm kit lens.) I originally shot it in landscape orientation but given the bland cloudless sky, this portrait crop looks better by cropping most of it out.
I agree about Sedona. Stunning. Can't wait to go back. We had cloudy skies perfect for the daytime photographs, but I only got one partial night of astro 🙂 love that picture. Great composition with the statue and the rock formation kind of mirroring each other.
Quote from Alen K on April 23, 2021, 12:42 amQuote from Snappy on April 20, 2021, 1:42 amTested out my DA* 300mm lens with astrotracer now that I 3D printed a bahtinov mask. Makes focusing WAY faster. Just a single exposure. I wasn't going for anything amazing. But now that I know the lens is capable I'll work on my technique more. It means I can sell off my Rokinon 135mm f2 that I was using for nebulas and keep this one as a dual purpose wildlife/astro lens.
Not bad! The DA* 300mm f/4 is my dream astro lens for my K-3II. But I can't afford it. I bought instead an ancient SMC Takumar 300mm f/4. It was about $100. I must stop it down to f/5.6 and yet it still gives a fair bit of chromatic aberration. I took this image of the same target using it at a local dark site (dark for here: about Bortle 4.5). I did no noise reduction and only minimal CA reduction. Now that I have Affinity Photo, I think I could do a better job of processing. This was 12 minutes (36 x 20s). I did bring the 300mm with me to Arizona and used it at GC but chose to do the Cygnus Loop with it instead. On Orion, I used an SMC Pentax-A 50mm f/1.4 and an SMC Pentax-M 100mm f/2.8, both also vintage glass, resulting in this and this. It's amazing what is possible in a really dark sky!
Fantastic work on that nebula shot. Looks soft and dreamy, in a good way. Plenty of detail but looks more realistic than over sharpened.
