DSLRs Vs Dedicated Astro Cameras 

Thank you so much Ginny! As long as we help the community, provide answers and make someone's life a little less stressful with making a decision... then we did our job!

Thanks so much, we truly appreciate that!

Thanks IAN!!! OPT misses you

You're very welcome!

Its a total game changer! Sure it's a little more work, but the pay off is 100% worth it

Its our pleasure. DSLRs can produce some amazing images as well. While dedicated astro cameras have an advantage for astrophotography, DSLRs are more than capable to capturing some really epic shots

D850 here with some really nice glass.. so i might have to stick with my DSLR also... but now i'm thinking that a dedicated Astro might be a better move.

polaroid users maybe?

Likely a bot or an accident xD

Could be turned off by the over simplifications, but honestly if you aren’t a technical expert this would be a very informative video.

Maybe because both cameras are made in Communist China and therefore $ goes to support genocide, mass sterilization and concentration camps like an Asian Nazi Germany. (According to the US State Dept, CDN and UK Governments and CNN and many more sources.

@@bryandixon4071 Over simplifications and exaggerations

Thank you so much Stacey!!

Thanks!!!

Its a total game changer! Its a tad more work, and a slight learning curve, but the pay off is worth it 500x over

@@OPTTelescopes Excellent! I am leaning towards the ASI294MC Pro or the ASI533MC Pro.

Is the dedicated Astro cam completely useless? Yesn't. I don't have one of these with cooling, but I got a cheaper, but still similar one for something called Autoguiding. I have a really small lens for it, which can be used mainly for Meteor showers or when star trail pictures are a main goal. So they can't be used without a tracker. The question is, if you plan to do astroimaging, what's the point? DSLR's are great, dedicated cameras are expensive as hell and mainly help when all your other gear is already where it should be. It's a good upgrade to maximase picture quality, signal to noise ratio and step your game up. Without a telescope it would be quite hard to find some good/useful lenses for it. And without a tracking mount it's just wasted money. If you want to advance in astrophotography I can tell you this: Go as far as you can with your DSLR. Start upgrading everything else first. If you are on a really tight budget and rather on "only occasionally" photographer I can wholeheartedly recommend you an Omegon mini track Lx3. It's an mechanical star tracker (don't need battery) and with around 200€ pretty cheap, you will get much much much better results with you cam this way and don't need an telescope, just your lens. There are ofc better Star trackers, like the IOptron and Star Watcher ones, if you wanna go more serious down the line (they can carry small telescopes or can be used with telephoto lens). I started of like you, with nothing but a DSLR. Now I've got some heavy gear rig and still use my good o'l DSLR. I can also generally advise: always do as wide field at possible (at the point where you are) so you can keep exposures longer. A fixed lens might be beneficial, the nifty fifty (Canon 50mm EF lens) is very cheap, but gives great results. Also you can upgrade you DSLR down the line by Astro modification (taking the built in IR filter out), so the camera is more sensitive for H-Alpha Nebula. Can be done by services or by yourself (modified mine by myself, took some 6 hours, but worth it). So in conclusion: is it completely useless? No. Is it nonsensical? Absolutely. Spending over a thousand on gear that one can't use properly just doesn't make sense.

If you have any questions left, feel free to ask.

By the time you buy a DSLR and get it modded, it cost even more then buying a dedicated astro cam. Which is already full spectrum sensitive and has 3-4x better quantum efficiency with much much less noise. Not to mention, a dedicated astro cam weighs 5x less and can shoot continuously with no buffering in between Images letting you capture twice the amount of data in the same amount of time. I started out with a R5TI, then a bought a 60da, I finally got an ASI071 pro color camera and I felt like an idiot for not just getting a dedicated astro cam to start. They are an absolute leap forward in performance and quality of images. If a DSLR is what you have, they get you in the game, but they do not hold a candle to dedicated astro cam for speed, performance and quality.

@@guitargod1882able that's a lie though, you can just get a used dslr like a canon t3i or canon 60d for 200-300 and mod it yourself for free or have someone mod it for you for an extra 100 bucks. Then you have an Astro modified camera which is like 1000 then you need a computer with you at all times, more gear for it to work well, and programs which is a lot of work for a beginner and overall, not a good option

if youre starting out, dont even think... better yet dont even look at dedicated astronomy cameras. They are an entirely new league of Astrophotography. Start with a DSLR, a lens and maybe an EQ mount.

Very few telescopes will illuminate a full frame camera.

you... dont. You can use cctv lenses on some ZWO cameras but thats about it.

We think its always important to make the best from what we have, Your GH5 is more than capable of getting some great images. As far as noise is concerned, just be sure to capture more images for stacking, as well as your darks and bias calibration frames. That should help dramatically.

You can always use the ZWO camera at home with the right filters like the Radian Triad Ultra or L-eXtreme!

Thanks for the feedback! You listed some great benefits of dedicated astro cameras. We wanted to focus on benefits that can be easily understood by the casual DSLR owner. That would exclude things like calibration frames, quantum efficiency, and other more technical terminology. But they are all benefits in themselves as well.

My D3400 body weighs less than 400g. The lightest zwo asi is 60g, the heaviest is over 700g. Most asi cams are somewhere around 230g - 550g. If your mount is sensitive to a 400g difference then there is something seriously wrong with your mount / focuser. And the old "dont exceed 50% of your mounts payload for Astrophotography" myth was never true to begin with btw. You can not beat a DSLR when it comes to ease of use and amount of things you can use it for. Realize that beginners and even some of the best use DSLR's. If youre being bottlenecked by a DSLR then go ahead and switch, but 95% of the time that wont happen. Calibration frames should be re-done periodically. What would a beginner do if you give em a Rokinon 135mm, an asi183pm, a tripod and a SA GTI? Right, theyre not gonna do anything due to not being able to in the first place. Out in the field theyre gonna need a car battery with bms, an inverter, power adapters, an eq mount, a scope, etc. While for beginners, DSLR is used Body + Lens + Tripod (optional) + Tracker (optional). Master the simple before taking on the advanced.

Astronerds need love too :)