Dang, I’d think being a judge in a photo contest would be fun but this sounds painful! I’m always afraid to enter contests because there’s so much competition but now I’m rethinking my decision! Everything you mentioned in the don’ts is what I strive to keep out of my photos.
You'd need to be in a dark location to use it. Your latitude is set when you adjust your declination while aligning the position with the laser or scope.
Mike, nice tutorial about NOMAD mounting options. Personally, I love the (Alyn Wallace designed) V plate option and connection to NOMAD for better overall camera balance on the tracker and overall weight distribution over long axis of the tripod. Low profile pano ball head on the upper “wing” of the V plate affords quite a lot of flexibility. I appreciate the Nomad Vixen plate as a good option for existing base owners (SkyGuider Pro base, William Optics High angle or Low angle bases, Skywatcher Star Adventurer base). However, with MSM’s new base design, as you have reviewed, I don’t think there is a better light weight base option for the backpacker!
Hi Blane, im a noob in all this. To cast away any abiguity, can you please tell me the order of your mounting setup? From what I understand, you have: Tripod > V-plate > Nomad > Ballhead > Camera?
Great videos. I'm new to digital astrophotography, so I find them super useful. I got a newbie question: can I use a tracker like the MSM nomad to follow the sun? For example like during an eclipse?
Thanks. I'm glad you find my videos helpful. You can use an MSM tracker during an eclipse. It won't track the sun at the correct speed, but it will help keep the sun in your frame for a longer period of time, which can be helpful during totality.
Mine is in the mail, but I am curious about your ballhead. It looks very capable, can you tell me the brand, or give me a link. I watched the video a couple times but the branding was always on the other side.
It's the Really Right Stuff BH-40 with the panoramic clamp. When I made this video, I wasn't aware that there's an interference issue when using the BH-40 with the Benro 3-way geared head. I explain that in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-td74H6UBaZk.html. I'm currently using the Explorer EXPPRO tripod and head with the Nomad. I made this video about the EXPPRO: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VvIyO4h0_es.html
Excellent tutorial Mike!!! Now I have to play with all my equipment...I was having issues with my acratech head hitting the Pano head I have on - I bought the Benro geared head finally and didn't realize the knobs would interfere in the same way. Thanks to this video, I have a solution for both!
Awesome video, Mike! Acratech makes a nice spacer that I put under my Benro 3-way geared heads so they don't interfere with the wider mounting plate on my Feisol tripods.
Thanks. I have seen other spacers on the marked. I like the design of the Benro partly because it has an allen screw to use to keep things from slipping.
Thanks for informative video. Question ... I have the Benro 3 way gearhead, and I bought a spacer because I was having the same clearance problem that you described with clearing my ballhead, but now I have the same problem that I had with the old MSM model, the weight of the camera will loosen the ballhead on the spacer and cause the camera to swing down because it doesn't have the Nomad teeth to hold it in position. How do you get around that?
The spacer has an allen screw on the plate that is designed to keep the ball head from slipping. The plate for the Nomad has a similar screw. It can be tightened with an allen key.
I just received My Benro GD3WH. In the position that you have your 3-way head pointing in the video, (Model number plate facing North, camera mounting plate knob facing South), I too had interference issues when I assembled all of my equipment. To alleviate the interference issues during rotation of the Nomad, I simply re-positioned the 3-way head such that the Model number plate now faces East, and the camera mounting plate knob now faces West. In other words, I rotated the tripod 90 degrees clockwise to what you demonstrate, the mounting plate of the Nomad, being a square, still allows for it to be mounted facing North. I have near the same range of motion with the "new" Altitude knob (-15 - +90 degrees) vs. (-30 - +90 degrees). I have yet to test this positioning of the 3-way head, but from what I can tell, I don't need any extensions of any sort to allow for unimpeded movement of the Nomad during it's rotation/tracking. Please advise if I am missing something here. Thanks Mike.
I theory, I suppose you could make that work if you can think sideways, remember what each knob will do for you and easily/successfully perform an alignment. I try to keep things as simple as possible, especially when photographing the night sky, because doing things in the dark is more difficult then doing them during daylight hours. With the normal setup, I know that the clamp knob should face me, and the declination knob and the rotating plate should both face Polaris. This makes setup much easier for me because there are fewer things to think about, and I won't get confused as to which knob performs which adjustment when I'm aligning the tracker. This also allows me to set up the tracker by feel, without using a light, which is important to me when I'm with a group of students and don't want to interrupt them by turning on my headlamp.
Thank you for the excellent tutorial. You showed a couple of accessories and options I was not aware of. Another option you didn’t show was using MSM’s accessory V-Plate between the Nomad and ball head, which also avoids collisions and makes it easier to aim the camera at certain areas of the sky and also to take tracked panoramas, allowing the camera to pan horizontally. But using the extended Arca-Swiss mounting block would still be useful to get the V-Plate’s small lock knobs away from the Nomad to make them easier to get at. Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing. I picked up a nice filter for that full eclipse a few months back but had gotten all cloudy sky's. So I'm going to try it on the full sun and go from there. This video is just what I needed.
I’ve just found out that MSM has been discontinued so if someone wanted to create a Timelapse with the new nomad devise they would have to move the camera manually. The nomad apparently does no not have the Timelapse function apparently?
Thanks. The scope and eye piece are on the MSM website. You can save 5% by using my code "3 Peaks Discount" when you order. www.moveshootmove.com/collections/move-shoot-move-rotator/products/polar-scope-with-mount-for-sifo
That is my Explorer EXPPRO. I am an Explorer dealer, and you can purchase their products from my website adventurecamphoto.com and save 10% with code SAVE10. Here is a video I made about that tripod: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VvIyO4h0_es.html
@@MikePach3PeaksPhoto Mike I feel like I'm living on a sponge 😄 wettest winter ever. Bet there are some great locations to shoot where you are....one day 😊
Ive been planning to record the April 8 eclipse for a while now but it looks like it is going to be cloudy where I live. So I'm not sure what I can do. I can't just drive to a different spot because I'm 14. I have the things I need for my camera but its not gonna fix cloudy. I don't know what it is going to look like if it's cloudy or how to film it if it is cloudy.
You just have to hope for the best and not be too concerned with the final outcome. Keep in mind that weather forecasts can be very wrong. I had an astrophotography workshop last night that I almost cancelled because of the forecast. We were supposed to have snow, 50 mph winds and 30-50% cloud cover all night. By the time I met up with my students, there was no wind, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Your experience is far more important than any photos you take. My advice would be to set up as planned and simply enjoy observing if you can't get any photos.
💥Great info, Mike. Thanks. Do you know Nikon? When I go to live view everything is pitch black but if I look through my viewfinder I can see barely see the sun since I’m viewing it through the ND filter. I can see it enough to align it in the frame.
@@Jimmy_Cavallo You will have to set your focus prior to placing the filter on your lens if you can't see the sun. Autofocus on something far off in the distance or a cloud in the sky to put your focus at infinity, then flip the switch on the lens from AF to MF.
Question: I have the solar filter for the max zoom on my lens is 140 mm. The shutter spoed was at 2 sec is that normal? How do I get a faster shutter speed? My Iso was 100 and F3.5. Advice please
With these settings 1/400, f8 iso 200 I am still clipping and the image is white. I have tried adjust the iso to 320 and 400 still clipping. Any suggestions? btw, I like your approach very comfortable and easy to follow.
Thank you. I try to keep things simple. If you're increasing your ISO, then you're increasing the exposure and increasing the clipping. Lower your ISO, choose a smaller aperture or decrease the shutter speed to shift the histogram to the left and eliminate the clipping in the highlights.
I added information at the end of the video to answer your question. The phone does not need to be parallel to the tracker if you're not using it to align the longitude.
Ok I don’t get the phone mount part. It has a ball head of its own and can be positioned any ole way which will totally change the outcome of the alignment. I mean I can just align the app by just moving the phone around separately from the rest of the tracker and camera mount.
Just today bought the Nomad with ballhead and phone mount. I cannot find any video help on how the phone mount is used in this combination. I am out in Utah starting in Colorado Springs on 2nd/3rd April 2024 but have my Star Adventurer Pro set up to bring along from the UK which I am much more used to. Can you point me in any direction?
I just got the phone holder for the Nomad and will be working on a video on how to use it during the next couple of days. There's a bracket for the phone holder that attaches with the red adaptor for the laser pointer. I am available for hire if you need help while you're in Colorado Springs.
I do not recommend doing that because you're going to be looking directly at the sun, and you won't be able to block it entirely with your camera. It will be very difficult to look through the viewfinder while facing the sun, and you still run the risk of damaging your eyes.
Thank you for the video. I am going to photograph the eclipse with a Kase Wolverine ND100000 Magnetic Filter without IR or UV protection. Do you have any scientific report saying that a filter that does not limit IR or UV will degrade the camera and lens? Kase markets this filter as capable of eclipse photography, and I asked the expert at BH, and they said they have shot eclipses with 16 plus stops nd filters only and did not cause damage to the equipment.
My comments were based on what I've read and what I've been told by other experts regarding potential damage to the camera's sensor. The Kase website doesn't say what coatings this filter does or does not have. If you have an older camera that you don't care much about, you can run some tests with it to see what happens.
I'm confused too. I bought from B&H their Tiffen 16 stop ND solar filter and when I unpacked it found a card stating not to use it for extended solar eclipse viewing. I think they mean don't hold it up to the eye to view the sun but I sure don't want to wreck my camera. I'll call B&H to clarify. I'm traveling to Texas for the eclipse and I'll be using a Nikon D750 with a Nikkor 200-500 zoom.
I'm starting on planning for the 2026 Spain Solar Eclipse and bringing along two camera's. One 70-210mm Tamron on a cropped sensor Nikon D7000 with a 77mm lens thread and a 150-600mm Sigma and 2x extender on a Nikon D780. The Sigma has a 105mm lens thread. I'm planning on setting the D7000 on a MSM Nomad with intervalometer and having that on taking continuous photos. I'll use the D780 for taking closeups. Now I've bought Ice ND100000 Solar Filters for both lenses but having seen this video I am in doubt if these are the correct filters since they don't says they possess IR/UV protection. On the other hand they are listed as "Solar filters". What are your thoughts on these filters? Do I need to go out and buy a Nisi UV/IR Cut ND100000 77mm and a Thousand Oaks Solarlite Polymer (for the 105mm) or are the Ice's sufficient?
Last October I bought an ICE 77mm Coated ND100000 for the partial eclipse in Mazatlán, and did not have a problem with it, I used with a sigma lens like yours as well.
