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Going wider.

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Author Topic: Going wider.  (Read 546 times)
Paul
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« on: August 10, 2008, 08:09:14 pm »

So I was thinking about how I might get wider coverage of the sky for Perseid photography and also general weather stuff. Generally I use the Dimage bridge cameras (I have two, an A1 5MP and an A2 8MP) for this sort of thing as I often shoot hundreds of pictures ata time and having worn out one DSLR (actually just a minor fault, but a warning) I'm keeping the A700 for the serious work! These cameras have a 28-200mm equivalent lens which covers most eventualities but I want more at the wide end. I have a 0.45x fisheye adaptor for my camcorder and wondered if it would do the job. Problem - lens filter thread is 49mm, adaptor is 46mm. Solution - sticky tape Smiley



Initial tests are quite promising - surprisingly so given the bodgartisrtry involved...



I reckon I'm getting over 100 degrees angle of view there, maybe even a bit more.

P.
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brianb
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« Reply #1 on: August 10, 2008, 09:55:46 pm »

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Solution - sticky tape Smiley
I think you might have been better off with one of these http://www.speedgraphic.co.uk/prod.asp?i=12485&1=Step%2Ddown+Ring
but now you're going to be cleaning sticky mess off your kit anyway so it's probably too late.

If the sky ever clears enough I intend to use my Tamron Adaptall SP 17mm f/3.5 manual focus lens with my Canon 5D, the field of view is 93 degrees by 70 degrees.
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Paul
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« Reply #2 on: August 10, 2008, 10:17:19 pm »

Yes, a step-down ring would do the job better of course, but I wanted this for tonight, though it's now 100% cloud cover, not "partly cloudy" as the Met Office claim. The tape attached to the removable "petal" hood and is of a sort that seems to leave little residue so it's not a big problem - I was surprised how good the results have been - better than I expected.

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martinastro
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« Reply #3 on: August 11, 2008, 02:31:31 pm »

That's a great set up Paul. With a huge field like that you have a high chance of catching something cool. It looks the same size as the field generated by my wide conversion lens to. The only problem is that any meteors will look small on the image. However we are not after an average meteor are we..we want big fireballs so the wide angle will be good for that. I had 10 min's of semi clear sky last night. Seen 1 Perseid and 1 horizontal moving Alpha Cap. I was using the wide angle to..which is huge. Here's a patrol image, pity about the noise.



Weather looks very poor indeed but I will be keeping an eye out anyway. On the plus side it may be improving for the lunar eclipse.  Smiley
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brianb
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« Reply #4 on: August 11, 2008, 03:19:23 pm »

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I had 10 min's of semi clear sky last night.
Wow. From here the sky looked very unpromising so I went to bed early & set the alarm for 0145 BST - when this rang it was immediately apparent that there was no point in getting up, solid cloud cover & a gentle drizzle. Metcheck is promising me 99% or 100% cloud cover as far ahead as the forecasts go, so I reckon I've had the Perseids for this year.
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