Olympus and Intervalometers for Astrophotography
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2024
- This is a little known feature that you should use. And it is one of the reasons I choose Olympus OMD cameras for my terrestrial and daytime photography. The only downside to the built in intervalometer is that it is limited to 60 sec exposures.
I agree that sensors need to be kept cool or at least at some stable temperature. Having worked professionally as a radiometrologist (measuring radiation) for many years - heat increases electronic noise. These MFT cameras have a number of features to reduce electronic noise. Both Olympus and Panasonic use LMOS sensors which are biassed and sweep stray electrons off the sensor. The 4/3 sensor is relatively small, small sensors produce less heat and can be cooled more easily. The Panasonic camera utilise a heat sink, mainly for shooting movie. The Olympus, due to its Body-IS, have a lighter sensor assembly, and will tinge the image magenta after about 12-15 minutes of continuous movie shooting; this is noted in the small print of the manual. Olympus cannot see the pale violet end of the spectrum, this is probably the TruePic engine attempting to mask out the magenta. The Panasonic Venus engine faithfully reproduces the violet. To improve cooling do swing the Monitor out to the side exposing the camera back and turn off both the EVF and Monitor, they both produce heat in use. The WiFi is also power hungry and chucks out heat, use a cable release and store to card.
The LMOS sensor is a Panasonic design used by Panasonic, Olympus and Leica. The sensors are being made by Sony. Sony's own camera sensors are CMOS. LMOS uses less power than CMOS. It is normal to have components made by a rival company. The batteries in the Olympus are made by Panasonic.
Both Olympus and Panasonic have the 60 second intervalometer, I have no prejudice one for the other. I do use an E-M5ii for astro, mainly for its better haptics. It is lighter than the GH4. The Pan G7 is also a decent astro camera but like the E-PL7 lacks some of the higher functions.
They will dark frame in-camera, this is the long exposure NR. I have found this subtraction slightly better than that on the computer apps, it 'understands' the camera better, but can be a time-waster when you are shooting multiple frames. The other forms of NR need to be reduced to avoid removing faint stars but not turned off. The contrast and sharpness can be pushed up. Don't forget the highlight/shadow (curve) control to adjust gain. These cameras have a lot of functions to acquire good images.
The Picture Mode or PhotoStyle does monkey with the gain and push the colours about even in raw. On a Panasonic the Standard Photostyle has the most faithful colour reproduction, on Olympus the nearest is Natural. There are at least three places where NR can be adjusted, (apart from the long exposure NR) in each Picture Mode, and twice in the menu (on/off and noise filter).
If you have a very lightweight mount like a Skyguider or Star Adventurer, be really light with your touch on the buttons. Its really easy to bump them out of alignment while setting up the intervalometer.
Its great for tripod wide field timelapses, though. Almost all of the timelapses on my channel are with my E-M1mkII.
Ya I cannot tell you how many times I have bumped mine out of Polar alignment.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel so wouldn't an external intervalometer work better to prevent this?
@@JohnGilbert49 I can justify it. I still use the internal one very often though because of the convenience and reliability. I have had batteries in my external ones go mid session before.
Is it possible to make a time-lapse video of the upcoming total solar eclipse with the built in intervalometer? Given that someone had an OM-1 + solar filter + star tracker + tripod + external monitor + external batteries. From first contact to last contact is approximately 2 1/2 hrs. One could spot hi meter on the sun itself (with filter installed), but there is no way to test exposure for totality when the filter is removed, and no practical way to practice. I photographed the 2017 eclipse with a series of bracketed exposures and gimbal (no tracker). What are your thoughts? Btw, I asked this question of Rob Trek, but he didn’t have any experience.
Watch Nicos channel. He has covered this topic in detail.
If exposures exceed 60" then an external intervalometer is necessary, right? And if so the only option is bulb I believe.
Yes as far as I know that is the limit. There might be a work around with the phone app used to control the camera I just do not have an Em10 to try it with. Olympus capture can side step this limit but it will not connect with the Em10 series. Give the phone app a try since it is free, but after that an external and Bulb is your friend.
Would I use Starry AF before I set the intervelometer, or right before I start shooting? If is is the latter, do I have to refocus for every burst, or will the camera hold focus and intervelometer sessions until I turn them off or change them?
Starry AF works when you use the ael button so its separate from the pulse sent from the intervalometer.
" @The Narrowband Channel Since the beginning, Olympus has always had a built-in intervalometer." I'd like to see you demonstrate the intervalometer that Olympus has in the E-M1 and E-M5.2
Drive mode -> Custom drive (10 frames max). Or time lapse mode. I prefer the custom drive way so I can manually dither every 5 or so frames
For both cameras: RTFM
I think I did one a long time ago for the Em1 or at least went through the process in one of my videos.
I have the EM1 M3 and I would like to be able to change exposure values during a time lapse, some times you need to do that. Hope they add this feature in a firmware update.
I totally agree. When I was shooting this last lunar eclipse the need to change exposure is especially apparent. With an external one I can but not the internal one.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel possible with OM-1
Hi, I want to stop the IR lamp blinking when the internal intervalometer is running at night. Is this possible?
If you have an Em1.3 hit menu>gear>A3>AF Illuminator off
If you are using an Em1.2 it about the same path.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel tried this. Its off already, yet when intervalometer is on, the orange lamp blinks.
Edit: by "intervalometer" I actually mean "Custom self-timer" . Sorry I wasn't aware of the nuance.
Yeah I hope Olympus opens up the app APIs so us codemonkeys can make an astrophotography-specific app. Even just an intervalometer, automation for darks and bias frames, temperature readouts, those kinds of things.
Question: given you have an ASIAir Pro, can it use the 2.5mm remote jack and an appropriate cable (JJC has a generic remote with a 2.5mm jack that has a replaceable cable ie they have cables for every brand) to trigger shots in bulb mode? Thanks!
That would be truly awesome.
Adding dithering would be high on my list too.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel correct me here if I'm wrong, but dithering (when done by the tracker) is effectively "pausing" the tracking, pulsing the RA/DEC motors a bit, then restarting tracking, right? I like the idea, but I'm not sure how well it would work for sensors with different ranges of motion, and how it would interact with your tracker/guider
@@marcusa3177 That is sorta how it works. Usually the mount moves the camera a few pixels between shots. This obviously has to the since with the camera and adds a lot of complications.
Now Olympus could ver easily do this though just using the sensor stabilizer. Nearly shifting the sensor after every picture.
I have found dithering can upset the camera during a shot. If the dither period is very short then the Olympus Body-IS does try to take it out. It is not always successful. With an adapted lens (such as OTA) you have to set its focal length into the stabiliser, this has to be 'cheated' shorter than actual so the camera only reacts to small vibrations. It is not a good solution, the camera can only react on its gyros, it does not align the dots. When the mount pauses on a dither it can jerk the mount causing vibration and tailing. It would be nice if dithering could be switched off whilst the shutter is open.
The only camera I know of that has its own star tracking is Pentax, that does move the sensor and align frames. I don't have one of those.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel Have you ever tried the HiRes mode for this?
Does the Olympus the 6 have this setup. Any tips about tg6 and astrophotography
I do not have any experience with them.
@@TheNarrowbandChannel Thank you for your reply
First of all, I absolutely love your channel. Thanks for all the great info. Took me forever to figure out Oympus' intervalometer on my EM1 mkii but it is simple to set the bulb to any time you want it out to about 15 minutes. Don't use BULB, use LIVE TIME. There is a "timeout" setting somewhere in the menus (I've had a glass of wine or I could remember where) for bulb and live time, set that to what you want and then set up the intervalometer. It starts the exposure and the timeout sets the length. Works great. Been a while since I've used it on camera, Olympus' tether software, Olympus Capture, is even better. It allows you to actually set the bulb length to anything you want directly. I'm also curious if anyone has experimented with hi-rez mode for deep sky. I tried a few shots with very intriguing but somewhat mixed results.
The thing with Live Time is that the LCD is on ie it introduces noise from the generated heat and current flow.
Another side effect is that it'll kill your battery faster, unless you're using external power (which isn't available for some models)
Had not thought about the increase in noise. I’m using a Bescor battery eliminator for power. The camera tells me it prefers Olympus products but it works just fine. The Bescor dummy battery does require that the battery cover stay open, I don’t much like that but it hasn’t been a problem. Wrecks the weather sealing. Recently I’ve used it tethered with a 65 ft usb cable to control the telescope while I’m warm inside. Olympus Capture lets you set a bulb time directly so no need for a work around. I generally close the on camera monitor but you make a good point and it should probably be left open to increase air flow near the sensor.
@@polecatrecords good point re the monitor, I really need to do that since the EM5.2 can get toasty. Hopefully it won't make balancing harder than it should be.
Olympus Capture, via wifi? Won't that introduce more heat/noise? And too bad dummy batteries are the best option we have for older bodies. Once my EM5.2 dies (or when I get the budget) I'm going for the EM1.3, I think you don't need a grip for it to charge/run out of a phone powerbank via USB? Goodbye weathersealing though; unless the grip can do the same (use a USB powerbank) and still retain the weathersealing? Hmm.
I'm using a USB connection to the camera so no wifi. I think that Olympus' answer to external power is the grip but In the interests of weight reduction I chose the Bescor eliminator for the moment. I generally don't use the camera storage card and just transfer images directly to my PC. I would like to be able to close the battery door considering that this camera's weather sealing in dewy environments is one of it's strong points. I did a quick review on these settings this morning. You can disable the "live" part of the time mode. These settings are in menu E2 under the gear wheel camera settings menu on the EM-1 mkii.
That is a really good point about he bulb option. However I think the sensor is read multiple times in that mode. Correct me if I am wrong. At least that is the case for Live time. Not sure about bulb. and I have not tried that. I will soon though.
Based on what information do you assume that the sensor needs to cool down between shots?
Any sensor or any electronic device heats up when used and which runs for some time needs to cool down. Goes without saying.
Nonsense. Or do you shut down your phone/PC every few minutes? :-D That it warms up does not imply that it needs cool down periods. The camera acts at a heat sink and the temperature stabilizes. The question is whether the temperature it stabilizes at causes IQ issues or not. Swinging out the monitor as suggested in another comment will probably have a bigger effect than shutting it down for a few seconds.
@@panorari The difference is that the heat inside the camera causes noise. Bad for your exposures. And the heat is coming from the sensor. A very bad place for heat.
@@georgeanderson2316 Is that so? :-D
Sorry I missed this. George is right.
do you have a patreon acct? or other means of supporting you?