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Saturday, October 20, 2018

And Where is the Delay Photo Control?

When taking astrophotos, it is vital to let everything stop moving after pressing the button.  With my old Pentax, there were two options: wait three seconds or twelve seconds.  I know the new Pentax has them, but trying to find them in the dark was no fun.

The blurred version, not because of tracking problems but telescope still moving after pressing button:
1/1250th second, ISO 3200, 17.5" f/4.5.

1/2000th; ISO 3200.

Trying to use GIMP to improve them.  Why does it take more than a minute to start GIMP?

One picture that was entirely washed out was saved by GIMP:

1/125th; ISO 400.

Try again at ISO 100 with enough delay.







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3 comments:

  1. Windy WilsonOctober 21, 2018 at 1:34 PM

    The film cameras I bought in 1979 and 1981 both had electric activation of the shutters. One had a piezo crystal actuated by your finger, the other had an actual electrical connection if you used their trick cable release.
    Still another way the "old" mechanical technology solved problems that seem to be invisible to the new all-electronic digital technology. The designers just can't get past the idea that they're designing consumer electronics, so who cares about quality past what a person taking vacation snapshots would notice.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SevesteenOctober 21, 2018 at 7:59 PM

    Is there a particular part of GIMP that seems to be slow? I've had problems where it took absurdly long to load fonts--there's a directory you can delete. In theory this will still be slow the next time, but after that will be much quicker.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Clayton CramerOctober 22, 2018 at 7:42 AM

    The first screen takes about 20 seconds.

    ReplyDelete