Is a dedicated astrophotography EOS R coming in 2019? [CR1]

[Architect1776]

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Why not mount the camera on a dedicated astro telescope? Is a wide range of lenses that critical? Especially as the purchaser will likely have a bunch of perfectly good and 100% compatible EF and EFS lenses.

 

[ivan11]

I shot this on my Canon EOS R using the RF 35mm F/1.8 STM lens stopped down to F/2.0 for coma.

I would love to get more latitude on both ends of the light spectrum with the sensor. It would also be great to have a dedicated intervalometer for ramping holy grail timelapses. Some other features could be an internal closure for the eyepiece to block light, dedicated color temperatures for night skies, a better way to regulate sensor temperature, a simple process that takes blackout frames for noise compensation in camera, a night-mode for all screens, better battery performance (think ability to connect to a battery pack), improved infinity focus peaking, and illuminated or glowing buttons externally.

I think Canon's biggest hurdle is lenses as almost all their fast primes exhibit the annoying coma aberration. I saw this at f/1.8 on the 35mm lens in my most recent tests. It's Milky Way season this week, and this news is exciting!

Wow, that's a beautiful video!! i hope i can get my hands in one Eos R soon!

 

[degos]

I think Canon's biggest hurdle is lenses as almost all their fast primes exhibit the annoying coma aberration. I saw this at f/1.8 on the 35mm lens in my most recent tests. It's Milky Way season this week, and this news is exciting!

Yes, that's the main problem. Canon is notorious for not giving a crap about coma, because their lenses are orientated towards wedding / wildlife / PJ use-cases and not the fringe outliers of astrophotography.

Which is the reason I think this rumour is junk, someone has read the earlier comments about the headscratcher camera and fed the Ra suggestion back into the feedback loop as a new 'rumour'.

 

[crazyrunner33]

I shot this on my Canon EOS R using the RF 35mm F/1.8 STM lens stopped down to F/2.0 for coma.

I would love to get more latitude on both ends of the light spectrum with the sensor. It would also be great to have a dedicated intervalometer for ramping holy grail timelapses. Some other features could be an internal closure for the eyepiece to block light, dedicated color temperatures for night skies, a better way to regulate sensor temperature, a simple process that takes blackout frames for noise compensation in camera, a night-mode for all screens, better battery performance (think ability to connect to a battery pack), improved infinity focus peaking, and illuminated or glowing buttons externally.

I think Canon's biggest hurdle is lenses as almost all their fast primes exhibit the annoying coma aberration. I saw this at f/1.8 on the 35mm lens in my most recent tests. It's Milky Way season this week, and this news is exciting!

That's amazing! Did you have to do anything to prevent condensation from hitting the lens? I've done a test of the Holy Grail with city lights on the 5D Mark III and am planning on trying for the milky way on Linville Gorge.

I'm curious, what's your process? For the MKIII, I use ML with ETTR and iso limited to 6400 iso, then timelapse deflicker and ramp script from Magic Lantern. Using the free script for Adobe Bridge, you can ramp your white balance and most other ACR settings.

I thought about getting the R to try and obtain a higher dynamic range Holy Grail Timelapse, I assume the larger range of ISO invariance would allow the AV setting to be sufficient until Magic Lantern makes it on the R.

 

[neonlight]

Could be, but my head-scratcher vote would be for an APS-C "R" body. That would make no sense, as the whole R philosophy seems to be aimed at FF, and the "M" series is doing just fine for a smaller lighter model.

 

[Pape]

if they dont want make high resolution ,sport autofocus full frame.
Maybe they could make somekind of compromise. Shooting speed between 1d and 5dr with 3 processor? and price 7k
I guess second best option then is crop sport R
there is some logic release same camera same time on 3 different mount too.
Big handed peoples may want crop camera too, my handspann is 23cm . even with RP i misclick things lot.
I wish there would be joystick on RP ,touch drag ef moving works perfect but camera setting change constantly when thumb clicks something accidentally.
Back lcd works best when it turned inwards
I would also make little behind buttons higher so could feel them better with fingertips and each of them should have unique surface profile, so would know them without watching when eye on viewfinder.
And would change another wheel on topright ,to like one what is next shutterbutton . two wheel on same position gets mixed.

 

[miketcool]

That's amazing! Did you have to do anything to prevent condensation from hitting the lens? I've done a test of the Holy Grail with city lights on the 5D Mark III and am planning on trying for the milky way on Linville Gorge.

I'm curious, what's your process? For the MKIII, I use ML with ETTR and iso limited to 6400 iso, then timelapse deflicker and ramp script from Magic Lantern. Using the free script for Adobe Bridge, you can ramp your white balance and most other ACR settings.

I thought about getting the R to try and obtain a higher dynamic range Holy Grail Timelapse, I assume the larger range of ISO invariance would allow the AV setting to be sufficient until Magic Lantern makes it on the R.

I use a dedicated external intervalometer for two reasons. ML is an additional drain on the battery and doesn’t give you perfect intervals. I assemble time-lapses in LRTimelapse and have seen the 1-2 second misses on regular intervals.

For my EOS R I set the ISO range and shoot AV when doing Holy Grail timelapses. The camera ramps for me and I adjust anything additional in post.

As for condensation, dew isn’t really a factor most places I shoot. If I was in an open field where this might be a problem, a simple lens hood, umbrella, or matte box eyebrow would do the trick. Dew and condensation fall out vertical from cooling air, so guards above the lens catch the droplets and not the lens.

 

[SaP34US]

Will this camera use a Digic 9 processor if the upcoming 90D ?

 

[Hoka Hey]

EF 35 L ii is as good a lens for coma I have seen and works great on the R for Astrophotography with the adapter.

Will be interested to see if an Astro R comes out at around the same time as the RF 15-35 2.8. Given the advancements that could could come from the reduced flange distance, it will be interesting to see what the RF 15-35 can do about coma.

I also wonder if a drop-in filter could turn an Astro R back into a camera for more common uses. No clue. Just putting it out there for those who know more than me to comment on.

 

[Kit Lens Jockey]

Some other features could be an internal closure for the eyepiece to block light

What exactly would you be blocking light from reaching by blocking off the viewfinder of a mirrorless camera? It's not like there's any passage way between the viewfinder and the sensor as there is in a DSLR. I would think that even if there were some tiny cracks between the viewfinder housing and the chamber that contains the sensor, you would pretty much need direct sunlight going right into the viewfinder to be able to maybe get any light leakage from the viewfinder into the sensor. The tiny amount of ambient light when doing astrophotography at night would almost definitely not be enough to get through the viewfinder and wind up reaching the sensor somehow.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Kit Lens Jockey.
My guess is that Mike was thinking along the lines of a normal DSLR where light coming in to the viewfinder from the eye side would mess with the metering sensor? Another piece of tech eliminated on mirrorless? Or maybe now it is about stopping the light from the evf Fromm spilling out and ruining his night vision acclimatisation?

Cheers, Graham.

What exactly would you be blocking light from reaching by blocking off the viewfinder of a mirrorless camera? It's not like there's any passage way between the viewfinder and the sensor as there is in a DSLR. I would think that even if there were some tiny cracks between the viewfinder housing and the chamber that contains the sensor, you would pretty much need direct sunlight going right into the viewfinder to be able to maybe get any light leakage from the viewfinder into the sensor. The tiny amount of ambient light when doing astrophotography at night would almost definitely not be enough to get through the viewfinder and wind up reaching the sensor somehow.