Panasonic Lumix FZ82 Bridge Camera for Astrophotography? 

Ok thanks for that, I couldn’t find a way to overcome the ISO 80 limit.

@@JenhamsAstro Sorry, you were right. The ISO is set to 80 in artistic nightscape mode. It was the aperture that could be change by using exposure compensation.

Thanks! I really wanted this to work. In the end I have a new found appreciation of my EOS and Live view. On to the next!

I agree, it’s a good camera but not ideal for Astro.

Thanks for the information on the P1000. Here in the UK it costs around £900 so 3 times the cost of my Lumix camera. It's great to hear it delivers superior performance. Clear skies. Graham

got the p900 basically the same

I tried to replicate the “live view” function of my EOS using the wifi on the FZ82 but it didn’t seem to work with my phone. I was hoping to use it for focusing.

True. I think it’s a decent camera for non astro targets. I only have myself to blame for failing to dig into the details of the spec!

Thanks Garnett, I thought it was worth a try. As you say it shows that picking up a used dslr is a better way into budget astro, especially if you can find an affordable lens to go with it. It’s easy to take for granted the ability to fully set up the camera, something that clearly isn’t on the radar of Panasonic. You’re producing some great deep sky images at the moment, I need to get back to that.

@@JenhamsAstro thank you. I’m taking a break from planetary. I’ll probably get back on that in December with upgraded equipment. Larger Maksutov if I can find one lol. I found a really interesting channel for Dobsonian. He’s extremely proficient in EAA. If you get time I think his work would be very interesting to you. I’m hoping you show more content with the one you own. I can actually reasonably forsee myself dumping everything I own off for a very large Dobsonian on an eq platform. Simplicity is no longer something I desire, it’s something I desperately need.

@@JenhamsAstro ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zS1YOGW-IP0.html

@@GarnettLeary What’s the name of the channel? When I first saw a Jovian transit through the Dob I wished I could capture a decent image. I’ve looked at the Dob tracking platforms and may go down that route, but they are a compromise solution and not the eq you need for dso imaging as far as I’m aware (field rotation I think?) Getting a big Dob on a true equatorial is not trivial. Simplicity definitely a good aim though, and for visual use a basic platform may suffice.

Thanks. Yes, it’s is a great camera for many targets, just not ideal for Astro.

How do you do this and would it work for nikon if not still tell me please

Hi John, you’re right that tracking rapidly becomes a necessity - the 1 in 500 rule applies. Aside from this I wasn’t able to set a high ISO when in the 60s scene mode setting, which limited options somewhat. Maybe I missed it if you’ve found a way of forcing a higher value?

Thanks!

Yes it’s surprisingly difficult to match the view even at low power in a telescope or with binoculars, despite the claimed high optical zoom power. I’ve had more success pointing a smartphone into the eyepiece of cheap binoculars.

@@JenhamsAstro Yea, that works quite well on phones with pro-mode, the Nex-YZ is bulky and heavy with my Samsung but does the job nicely. I have experimented with zoom monocular's too. Bought and sent back several on amazon because they didn't show a distant faint light about 1 mile away that i use to test optics on at night which means the so-called 40mm and 50mm apertures were grossly stopped down to reduce aberrations and the magnifications were not 10-30X50 etc. judging by image scale. I kept one monocular that did show the faint light, it said it was metal, 10-30X40, in truth it was 30mm aperture and more like 5-15X and made out of plastic but does have a glass lens and felt that the £8 i bought it for was a bargain when you consider the ones i tested were £30 or more and had worse image contrast. Works well on the moon and brighter objects.

@@allnamesaretaken That’s interesting. Disappointing but perhaps not surprising that many cheap monoculars are stopped down plastic junk.

​@@JenhamsAstro A couple of weeks later and thought i would clarify a bit more on what i heave learnt regarding optical zoom on cameras vs. magnification on telescopes and binoculars. I recently bought a Canon 1300D for both daytime and un-modified anthropography which came with a 18-55mm stabilised zoom lens and bought a Canon 55-250mm stabilised STM zoom lens. I own the SvBony 305 astro cam too and have done one comparison, nothing big but now i understand that the larger the sensor, the wider the field of view you can obtain with a telescope and that smaller sensors give the impression of higher magnification because of the narrower field of view when compared with the much wider field of view on a much larger sensor Canon camera. The same thing happens with cameras, crop sensors look like the view is more magnetified than the view of the same scenery on a full frame. So, a planet, like Jupiter looks more magnified in the SvBony than the Canon, except they are actually the same size, if you crop the image of the one taken with the Canon, all things being equal (which in truth they aren't because of sensor sensitivity etc.), both images would look similar. Anyways, the 55-250mm zoom lens, the view at 250mm looks wide, more than 6 degrees at least but likely wider, crop the image and you can get the impression of a more magnified image but in truth nothing has changed. This is why some say that on a full frame a 250mm is 250mm but on a crop sensor camera it acts more like 400mm. I have performed loads of mental gymnastics to understand this, different sensor sizes but same pixel count and size but the full frame gives a wider image, it was that simple. The above was a response to my above comment regarding the 50mm lens appearing to have more magnification on different cameras and i only posted it for anyone else who may find it useful. As for the optical zoom on cameras, as you know, 10X on binoculars and telescopes means 10X magnification, this is where my confusion came from but after looking further and seen it explained on very old forum posts, optical zoom on cameras is not magnification. Crazy or what. Camera manufacturers are playing fast and loose with the truth, they know that people will associate 26X or whatever they claim to be magnification but cover themselves from false advertising by calling it zoom. So optical zoom, digital zoom (nothing more than image cropping like in a image editor) and magnification are all different and 26X or whatever optical zoom they claim can be different on different cameras. People who buy 60X optical zoom cameras are being cheated because it is never explained to them that this is not 60X magnification. Celestron claim that magnification is (focal length/sensor size) = magnification but some dispute this and with my 55-250mm camera lens at 250mm, that would be 11.2X magnification but i am not convinced, zooming in on the image sort of does give that and more but that's digital zoom and the image doesn't break down because we are talking about reducing 5184 x 3456 pixels to 2K or 3k size etc. Others say that the 250mm is more like 6X magnification or higher on a crop sensor, this seems too low but then, the 1300D has a 1.6X crop sensor, giving the impression of more magnification. What a mess all of this is lol. There should be a standard, like there is with TVs and movies etc. to stop people being misled by manufacturers. They could just put the true beginning and up to magnification but then i guess a high magnification of 6X magnification doesn't sound as good as 60X optical zoom to the unsuspecting public.

Yes that’s the setting I used in SCN mode. Its ISO is fixed though.

@@JenhamsAstro Se puede modificar el ISO y obtener mas segundo de exposicion? Saludos

Hi, when you say flip mirror, do you mean the star diagonal? Mine is a mid range unit branded by Altair Astro.

Thanks! It’s Bortle 4.

Not this model - The limitation on the maximum exposure time makes deep sky imaging very difficult. A DSLR would do a better job as you can control the exposure more easily.

I have never used an Astro camera app like sharpcap or fire capture with a Chromebook. Most people use windows laptops. I suggest you have a look at the Sharpcap and firecapture websites and see if they mention support for chrome books.

Personally I’d spend my money on an affordable astro camera like an asi120 or 224. In the long term you will get better results. Just my 2p. Clear skies.

Thanks Kevin. For DSLRs there are a lot of options. People sit mainly in Nikon or Canon camps. I'm a Canon user so can only given first hand feedback for these, which are well supported by astro apps. Budget may dictate of course but assuming that you don't want the highest-end model there are a couple of routes to suit. 1) buy a new 250D or 2000D and use it to build your experience. 2) buy a used astro-modified EOS. These come up regularly on Astrobuysell and, while used and unwarrentied of course, they cost less than half a new model and will show emission nebulae much better - more red light will reach the sensor. If you buy used then make sure the model has "live view" - old ones don't. Nikon followers can give you their 2p - i've heard that Nikon sensors have lower noise, but again this isn't through my own experience - just forum talk. One other banana skin - if you want to use the camera with your ST120 you NEED a tracking mount. Without this you would be limited to lunar AP through the scope, or using the camera and lens on a tripod, without using the scope. I expect you know this anyway but wanted to mention it as the mount becomes very important in Astrophotography. I hope this helps, Graham

@@JenhamsAstro Graham thank you very much mate that's brilliant information, I will have a good think about all that. My friend is gonna sell his camera soon he wants to upgrade, it's in great condition with lots of extras, I might buy it, he could then show me how it all works it's a Nikon D 3200. Would that suffice for now ? Also I've bought a Skywatcher Star quest 102 MC +eq alt. Az Maksutov Cassegrain like the one you reviewed, it's got a RA drive with it, second hand eBay, hopefully it will be here tomorrow. Would that be ok to track the sky.? I've just bought a Ostara 2inch 45 degree prism diagonal and a 32mm wide field eyepiece for it and have just put it on my Skywatcher Startravel 120, it's fantastic !! Ye , I won't rush into a camera yet I will have a good look on Astrobuysell, I've never heard of them before so thank you for that as well. Keep up the good work Graham it's most appreciated mate. Kev.

@@Kemagic Hi Kev, a D3200 will be fine as it has a Manual mode with bulb setting and Live View on a laptop. Focusing is key, along with tracking. The 102MC will be a challenge as Maks have small fields of view. The camera and lenses or the ST120 with the Camera will be easier. Have fun!

@@JenhamsAstro Brilliant, thanks Graham, great advice. Have a belter mate. Kev.

Message received Brian!

@@JenhamsAstro Oh good. Thanks for letting me know.

Basically you can’t. The lens is not removable as it is with a DSLR. So the camera is limited to use on a tripod or piggybacked on a tracking platform.

@@JenhamsAstro ah my misunderstanding , i thought you were connection it to a telescope like you would a DSLR , not actually doing the astrophotography with just the camera

Thanks, good to know. 👍🏻

Yep. Certainly a fail for astro.

I haven’t used the p950 so can’t comment on what it can do vs the LUMIX. For astro with a scope, a small apo with a dslr is a popular way to go, but you need to factor in the cost of a mount as well, to give you a complete AP setup.

@@JenhamsAstro alright thank you! Because I have some friends in the discord channel of Astro biscuit and they calculated that it isn’t that much of a bad idea to use Nikon p950 with the star tracker instead of getting the sky watcher since I don’t wanna spend money and again thank you!