Also, it's a digital camera, just play with the settings, you're not going to waste any film. Also the A7iii can handle higher ISO. Turn on LENR and it is possible to shoot three (with the 6D MkII) or four (with the 6D) Raw images in quick succession even with LENR turned on. Your cameras are getting worse for astrophotography while Sony’s are getting better.Â. However, I emphasize that the noise increase from using LENR with the Sony was visible only when severely boosting underexposed images in processing. But when shooting aurora videos I found, to my surprise, I could “drag” the shutter speeds as slow as 1/4-second, fully 4 stops better than the Nikon’s slowest shutter speed of 1/60 second in Full HD, and 3 stops better than the Canon’s slowest movie shutter of 1/30 second. I expected the new BSI-equipped Sony to better the Nikon by about a stop. At 24 fps videos are full-frame with no cropping. It offers 4K (or more precisely UltraHD) video recording for videos of 3840 x 2160 pixels. the 500 rule is pretty bad for today's cameras. Its red sensitivity is not bad, but its lack of a light frame buffer results a less productive imaging cycle when using LENR on deep-sky shooting. In a mirrorless, the camera remains in “live view” all the time, with the sensor always feeding a live image to either or both the rear LCD screen and electronic viewfinder (EVF). The design lends itself to video shooting, with many mirrorless cameras offering 4K as standard, while often in DSLRs only high-end models do. Video Capability  Reddit's most popular camera brand-specific subreddit! And neither are 4K. In the Sony, LENR did not eliminate all hot pixels nor the magenta amp glow at the left edge. FINDING BRIGHT MONITORING – The excellent Bright Monitoring function is accessible only off the Custom Key menu where it appears as a choice on the Display/Auto Review2 page (below) that can be assigned to a C button. CANON: The 6D MkII’s lack of an ISO invariant sensor rears its ugly head in underexposed shadows in dark-sky nightscapes. Introduction The Sony … It just needs to be better, Sony! However, I did not consider “star eating” to be a negative factor, as the Sony showed just as many stars and as well-resolved as did the competitors, and what more could you ask for? In most shooting situations, I found using LENR provided the overriding positive benefit of reducing hot pixels. How evenly an image is illuminated is a common factor when testing lenses. All with the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony A7III at ISO 3200. But astrophotography, which often requires extreme contrast boosts, reveals non-uniform illumination of the sensor itself, regardless of the optics, originating from hardware elements in front of the sensor casting shadows onto the sensor. NOISE AT ISO 6400 – At ISO 6400, the Canon begins to show excessive noise, about a stop worse than the Nikon and Sony. Try it. The Canon is more neutral and natural. I want to switch to Sony A7 III. That includes simple intervalometers like the Vello, the Syrp Genie Mini panning unit, and the Dynamic Perception and Rhino sliders, to name devices I use. Two other functions are useful for Live View: In all, the Sony provides superb, if well-hidden, Live View options that make accurately framing and focusing a nightscape or time-lapse scene a joy. I put this on C1. MILKY WAY AT DINOSAUR PARK A stack of 2 x 90-second exposures for the ground, to smooth noise, and at f/2.8 for better depth of field, plus a single 30-second untracked exposure at f/2 for the sky. While these might add glows to long exposure images, if they could be designed not to do that (i.e. Sony A7 III, A7R III, A9 Metering Settings. Most tests focus on its superb auto exposure and auto focus capabilities that rival much more costly cameras, including Sony’s own A7RIII and A9.Â, For astrophotography, none of those auto functions are of any value. The Star Eater is gone. This is most noticeable – indeed usually only noticeable – when shooting deep-sky targets though telescopes. Turning this ON superimposes a shimmering effect on parts of an image judged in focus. This is with the EVF and rear LCD Display OFF, and the camera in Airplane mode to turn off wireless functions to further conserve battery power. And, as I found, the Sony might need to be placed into Continuous shooting mode to have the shutter fire with every trigger pulse from the motion controller. Here are some other Sony A7III features I found of value for astrophotography, and for operating the camera at night. This is on paper the best lens for astrophotography today, but it does come with a few flaws: it is very big and heavy and coma correction is not exactly as perfect … In this test, the Nikon did not perform as well as the Sony for ISO invariancy. I shot with the Sony A7III on Single shot drive mode, on Continuous Low drive mode (with the camera controlling the shutter speed in both cases), and a set with the Sony on Bulb and the shutter speed set by an external Vello intervalometer. Live View was absolutely superb, though the outstanding Bright Monitoring function is as well-hidden as Sony could possibly make it.Â. Dunja Djudjic is a writer and photographer from Novi Sad, Serbia. The Canon 6D MkII has a fully functional touch screen which can be, quite literally, handy at night. Thanks for reading! This is from a thin metal mask in front of the sensor. Up to now my report on the Sony A7III hasn’t shown as glowing a performance as all the YouTube reviews would have you believe. Raw Therapee offers a choice of de-Bayering, or “de-mosaic,” routines, and each produces different looking stars, and none look great! Hurray! Is the A7III as good for low-light video as the Sony a7s models, with their larger 8.5-micron pixels? Give me a Canon full-frame any day for prime-focus deep-sky shooting.Â, It’s just a pity the 6D MkII has only a 3-frame buffer when using LENR. The lowest cost units just adapt the lens mechanically; the more costly units also transfer lens data and allow auto focusing with varying degrees of compatibility.Â. Effectiveness of Long Exposure Noise Reduction (LENR), Quality of Raw files, such as sharpness of stars, Brightness of Live View for framing and focusing. Looks like you're using new Reddit on an old browser. Posting to instagram). Hi Mark, many thanks for the two blogs on A7RIII settings for action and landscape. Japan’s top-selling DSLR in 2020 was the Nikon D5600 – Wait, what? With its good shadow details, you have to apply less shadow recovery in post-processing, which does keep noise down. Here’s another area where the new Sony A7III really shines. The A73 has the following shooting modes: Intelligent Auto: All settings are handled by the camera and it’ll even try to identify the scene from the list of 11 scenes (which we’ll go through in a bit). (True 4K is actually 4096 x 2160 pixels.). (See other lenses that work.) But the dark shadows in underexposed nightscapes withstood shadow recovery better in the uncompressed files. STAR EATER SERIES at 400% – This is the same series as above but now blown up 400% to better reveal the very subtle change in pixel-level sharpness as exposure lengthened from 3.2 to 4 seconds. Then we have the RAW file type with two options: Compressed or Uncompressed RAW. STAR TRAILS and AURORA With the Laowa 15mm lens and Sony A7III, for 155 exposures, all 20 seconds at f/2.8 and at ISO 800, and taken as part of a 360-frame time-lapse. DARK SKY ISO INVARIANCY – Here the Sony A7III performed well and better than the Nikon D750. SONY LIVE VIEW – The Sony A7III’s excellent Live View screen display. But the Nikon did show more image artifacts in the “odd-numbered” ISOs of 640 and 500. In shots on Bulb controlled by the External Timer, maybe the stars at 4 seconds are a little sharper still. For astrophotography, I carry the Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 G Master, Sony 12-24mm f/4 G, the Zeiss Batis 18mm f/2.8, and now, the low light monster Sony 24mm f/1.4 G Master. With a mirrorless camera the sensor is not set far back in a mirror box, as it is in a DSLR. Uncompressed Raws are 47 Mb in size; Compressed Raws are 24 Mb. An example is the Laowa 15mm f/2 I used for some of the testing. When using its internal intervalometer, the Nikon D750 has an excellent Exposure Smoothing option. Canon and Nikon both offered factory modified cameras at one time, notably the Canon 60Da and Nikon D810a. NIKON: I deducted points for real-time video of auroras – the D750 can do them but is pretty noisy with the high ISOs needed. I hope you found these latest tests of interest. Also missing, and present on most new Canons, are Multiple Exposure modes for in-camera stacking of exposures in a Brighten mode (for star trails) or Averaging mode (for noise smoothing).Â. UNCOMPRESSED vs. COMPRESSED DEEP-SKY – A real-world deep-sky example shows the same comparison. I show only the Sony and Nikon compared here, shot at the common range of ISOs used for nightscape shooting, 800 to 12800. His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival, Tom Saimon is a fashion and editorial photographer based in Haifa, Israel. Dark frame subtraction using Long Exposure Noise Reduction removed most – but not all – hot pixels from thermal noise.Â, Live View Focusing and Framing This would be tougher to eliminate in deep-sky images where the extreme contrast boosts we typically apply to images of nebulas and galaxies will accentuate any odd glows. In the meantime, Sony commands the full-frame mirrorless market. The Sony showed some slight edge-of-frame shadowing from the mask in front of the sensor, as well as a weak purple amp glow. The Sony would perform better for noise under dark sky conditions, at high ISOs, rather than the moonlit scene above. I rate the Sony excellent for nightscape imaging and for real-time aurora videos. They’ve proven very useful to me. (See my test at https://amazingsky.net/2017/08/09/testing-the-canon-6d-mark-ii-for-nightscapes/). It’ll be ok at 3200. In Live View it is possible to make the image so bright you can actually see the Milky Way live on screen! The camera itself can be used in a number of different settings such as dusk and dawn, and … This is a blow-up of the lower corner of the frame, as indicated. • The A7III’s red sensitivity for recording H-Alpha-emitting nebulas was poor.Â. Canon really needs to improve their sensors to keep in the game. What little “star-eater” effect I saw might be mitigated by shooting on Continuous drive mode or by firing the shutter with an external timer. I did put all the high ISO images through the classic noise reduction program Noise Ninja to measure total Luminance and Chrominance noise, and included the Canon 6D MkII’s images. SENSOR CLOSE-UP showing intruding mask edges. You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube. The Sony doesn’t do quite as well as the Canon 6D MkII. Video Title: Astrophotography Slideshow Orion Trees Sony A7iii 1.4 Lens Sony E-mount FE 24mm F1.4 GM Full Frame Wide-angle Prime Lens (SEL24F14GM), Black Sony Alpha Full-frame E-mount Wide Prime G Master Lens Very noticeable star trails so images really arent good for anything other than small posts like instagram. Adam Frimer is a Guinness World Record holder, producer, and DoP based in Tel-Aviv, Israel. So beware! I shot images over a wide-range of exposures, from 2 seconds to 2 minutes, but show only the ones covering the 2-second to 4-second range, where the “star-eater” anti-aliasing or noise smoothing applied by Sony kicks in (above 3.2 seconds it seems). Today we’re going to walk you through how I set up my Sony A7iii for video. To get the most out of the Sony for deep-sky imaging you would have to have it modified by a third-party, such as Hutech, Spencers, or LifePixel though, as of this writing, none list the Sony A7III as a model they can modify. SONY REAL-WORLD LENR COMPARISON – A real-world example with the Sony, with a properly exposed nightscape, shows that the ill effects of using LENR don’t show up under normal processing. Note the size difference. This is wonderful for taking a set of noise-reduced deep-sky images for later stacking. You can see her work on Flickr, Behance and her Facebook page. Try 24mm, f/4, 15 seconds, iso 1600. Both the Sony and Nikon use sensor and signal path designs that are “ISO invariant.” As a result, images shot underexposed at slower ISOs, then boosted in exposure later in processing look identical to properly exposed high-ISO images. Sony for wedding photography Here’s my opinion. In well-exposed images, I saw little difference in image quality. The inset image at right in Photoshop shows the scene, the Milky Way above dark trees in my backyard! Yet frames taken with LENR on were the same 47 Mb size as normal uncompressed frames. MF Assist: On – a great feature that automatically zooms in when you move the focus ring in manual focus mode. This article was also published here and shared with permission. Now it’s time to get deep into those camera menus and show you how I setup my camera to shoot surf and ocean images. John Aldred is based in Scotland and photographs people in the wild and animals in the studio. Here I compare all three cameras for this effect in two-minute tracked exposures taken with Long Exposure Noise Reduction (i.e. The cameras were on a Star Adventurer Mini tracker to keep stars pinpoints, though the ground blurred in the longer exposures. MILKY WAY and PLANETS With the Sony A7III and Laowa 15mm lens at f/2 for a stack of 4 exposures for the ground to smooth noise and one exposure for the sky, all 30 seconds at ISO 3200. Price expected to be $5,999, This software lets you test movie lights without leaving your home, This trippy macro timelapse turns shriveling of plants into art. I just got my Sony A7III with the 24-105mm G lens. I love it! For this purpose I … The Sony showed poor deep-red sensitivity, though not unlike other cameras. The 500/focal length rule for exposition time is also usually working to avoid star trails, but it can wield different results depending on how far from the Polar star you are actually aiming. He is an associate editor of SkyNews, Canada’s magazine of stargazing, and a contributing editor to Sky & Telescope magazine. Released five years after the original A7, the Sony A7III marks the third generation of Sony’s ‘entry’ level full-frame mirrorless camera series. These beginner-friendly camera settings and tips should Noise The compressed images appear identical to the uncompressed files for noise and star content. Compressed files showed more noise and magenta discoloration in the shadows. For use on telescopes, the simple adapters will be sufficient, and necessary as many telescope-to-camera adapters and field flatteners are optimized for the longer lens flange-to-sensor distance of a DSLR. The compact A7III body weighs a measured 750 grams, vs. 900 grams each for the Nikon D750 and Canon 6D MkII. Stars are not smoothed out in long exposures.Â. Camera Settings 1 > Peaking Setting. His work has been commissioned by Adobe, Microsoft, Nike, Samsung, Dell, AVS, Starbucks, Viber, and WeWork. AURORA VIDEO FRAME – This is a frame grab from a real-time 4K video of a “Steve” aurora. I like its image stacking options, which can help alleviate the noise and artifacts in still images, but aren’t practical for time-lapses. Overall Recommendations The A7 III is a fairly complex camera with tons of features, so I’m going to share exactly how I set my camera up for maximum efficiency on a portrait shoot. I would assume not, but not having an a7s (either Mark I or II) to test I can’t say for sure. Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time, I put the new Sony A7III mirrorless camera through its paces for the features and functions we need to shoot the night sky. Mode 1 was selected on the Sony lens. One question though, I set Memory 1 to your landscape settings and Memory 2 to Action. The site may not work properly if you don't, If you do not update your browser, we suggest you visit, Press J to jump to the feed. For another example of using the Sony A7III for recording real-time video of the night sky see this example of the Space Station crossing the sky. This emphasizes just how good the Nikon D750 is.Â, Nevertheless, noise performance of the Sony A7III was still excellent, with both the Sony and Nikon handily outperforming the Canon 6D MkII, with its slightly smaller pixels, by about a stop in noise levels.Â, NOTE: I performed all Raw developing with Adobe Camera Raw v10.3. It’s unfair to blame just the hardware or the software. Noise at typical astrophoto ISO speeds – 800 to 6400 – were about equal to the four-year-old Nikon D750.Â, That was a bit surprising. The correct exposure for the scene was 30 seconds at ISO 6400 and f/2. But Live Focus is where the A7III really stands out. I wanted to reach out to the community and see if anyone has great astrophotography settings they've used. Also, when boosting the exposure a lot in processing, the images taken with LENR on showed more shot and read noise than non-LENR frames. When using a slow shutter speed with ND filter for waterfalls on a Sony mirrorless camera, like the Sony A7riii or A7iii, don’t forget these settings: Use a tripod; ND filter attached to lens, between a 6 stop and a 10 stop filter. Really Canon? In Movie Mode ISO speeds go up to ISO 102,400, but are pretty noisy, if unusable at such speeds. The Sony A7 III RAW bit depth is 14-bit when taking pictures in single shooting mode, and this is also valid for the A7R IV, A7 II and A9 series. All images are well-exposed, for tracked and guided 4-minute exposures. Star Eater Shooting typical 400-frame time-lapses used about 40% of the battery capacity, similar to the other DSLRs.Â. STAR EATER SERIES at 200% – This series of tracked images (shown here blown up 200%) goes from 2 seconds to 2 minutes, with decreasing ISO speed to equalize the exposure value across the series. It controls the Sony through the camera’s Multi USB port. The recently released (late 2018) Sony 24mm f/1.4 GM lens is another top-quality lens for astrophotography from Sony. The Sony A7iii is a powerhouse but to unlock its full power you need to be able to get into the settings. Turning on LENR did eliminate most hot pixels in long exposures, but not all. They can cost anywhere from $100 to $400. I’ve done quite a bit of professional photography work but have always shot on Canon cameras owned by my employers and have never been good at figuring out settings on my own, as I’ve always had other people help me. View fullsize Camera settings - 20 seconds / f1.4 / ISO 800 / incandescent. Sensor Illumination Uniformity The Sony A7III uses a sensor that is “Backside Illuminated,” a feature that promises to improve low-light performance and reduce noise.Â, I saw no great benefit from the BSI sensor. ISO INVARIANCE COMPARISON – Here I shot all three cameras at ISO 6400 for a correct exposure for the scene, and also at ISO 1600 and ISO 400, for images 2 and 4 stops underexposed respectively. Features  Most DSLRs do not offer this, but the Sony’s option of an electronic front curtain shutter and the additional Silent Shooting mode completely eliminates vibration, useful for some high-magnification shooting through telephotos and telescopes. • It lacks the “light-frame” buffer offered by full-frame Canons that allows shooting several frames in quick succession even with LENR turned on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en4eeK33UoE This should help you! Sony A7iii - Essential Settings for a DSLR convert! Using the right lens adapter (I use one from Metabones), it is possible to use lenses with mounts made for Canon, Nikon, Sigma and others. . Instead the Sony must be used with an external Intervalometer. It magnifies the Live View by 5.9x or 11.7x, allowing for precise manual focusing on a star. Again, here I show only the Sony and Nikon, the two “ISO invariant” cameras. However, long deep-sky exposures also exhibited a faint purple glow at the left edge, probably from heat from nearby electronics, a so-called “amp glow.” Taking a dark frame with LENR did not eliminate this, and it should, demonstrating again that for whatever reason in the A7III LENR is not as effective as it should be. they turn off during exposures), lit buttons would be very handy at night.Â. The Bulb Timer would allow setting long Bulb exposures of any length in the camera.Â. While the Sony has a Bulb setting there is no Bulb Timer as there is with the Canon. I have now retired my Sony a6000 and added a new filly to the stables, a Sony a7III. Only being f/4 is gonna limit you. It was not supplied to me by Sony in return for an “influential” blog post. A few remained. An example is in a 4K video I shot on May 6, 2018 of an usual aurora known as “STEVE.”. Camera Settings for Astrophotography There are certain rules that you must abide for capturing the space and the Milky way. UNCOMPRESSED vs. COMPRESSED – Here I compare any image degradation from using compressed vs. uncompressed Raws, and from employing Long Exposure Noise Reduction. Quick Answer: The 5 Best Rated Lenses For Sony a7iii For 2021 Sony SEL50F14Z Planar T* FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Lens And star colors are not affected, though very small stars are sometimes green, an effect seen in other cameras due to de-Bayering artifacts. the lens cap on!) One battery can get you through a night of shooting, though performance will inevitably decline in winter, as with all cameras. All images are equally well exposed. Indeed, at slower ISOs and longer exposures, more stars are visible. (See my test at https://amazingsky.net/2017/09/07/testing-the-canon-6d-mkii-for-deep-sky/), And its light-frame buffer is great for minimizing shooting time for a series of deep-sky images with in-camera LENR dark frames, which I find are the best for minimizing thermal noise. See http://docs.view.tl/#camera-specific-notesÂ, With the Alpine Laboratories Radian2, exposure ramping is not possible with a Sony, only basic shutter triggering. No noise reduction was applied in processing. Sony a7II Settings for Astrophotography: Sony Alpha Full Frame E-mount Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. The dark frame the camera was taking and subtracting was actually adding some noise, perhaps due to a temperature difference. I used the Metabones Canon-to-Sony adapter when attaching the Sony to my telescopes using my existing Canon telescope adapters. taken at room temperature with and without Long Exposure Noise Reduction. Released five years after the original A7, the Sony A7III marks the third generation of Sony’s ‘entry’ level full-frame mirrorless camera series. Sony in part led the way for highly customizable cameras that are commonplace on the market today. Even with uncompressed Raws, the Sony was not quite as ISO invariant as the Nikon, though the difference shows up only under extreme push-processing of badly underexposed frames. To me, the star eater effect on the Sony A7III is a non-issue. This feature is little known and utilized, and only Canon full-frame cameras offer it. When shooting deep-sky objects, particularly red nebulas, we like a camera to have a less aggressive infrared cutoff filter, to pick up as much of the deep red Hydrogen-Alpha emission line as possible. The Sony A7III is a superb camera for still and time-lapse nightscape shooting, and excellent for real-time aurora videos. COMPACT CAMERA and LENS – The Sony A7III with the compact but fast Laowa Venus Optics 15mm f/2 lens. As expected the filter-modified camera picks up much more red nebulosity. All three are “entry-level” full-frame cameras, with 24 to 26 megapixels and in a similar price league of $1,500 (Nikon) to $2,000 (Sony).Â.
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