Star Trails - Digital or 35mm?

[ekenny]

Hi,

I am awaiting arrival of my Pentax *ist DL. I still have a Pentax Spotmatic from ~1968. Just wondering your opinion on shooting star trails. Do you get better results with film, or digital? If so, what kind of settings (obviously bulb but anything else)?

Thanks for any input.

[MacSA]

I think you need a "wired remote" to operate the bulb setting for long exposures. As your not using Film anymore you can afford to experiment. I used to do quite a bit of astrophotography with my old Pentax K1000.

You could start with this group on Yahoo:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/digital_astro/

[seenew]

I used a Nikon Coolpix 8800 earlier this year to take some star trail shots. It did pretty well for a P&S camera. I used ISO 50, f/8, and held the bulb for 10 minutes. Resulted in a nice, orange glow on the low horizon from distant city lights, and a sky full of about 1-inch star trails. I'd use a wide angle lens if I were you. I think the CP8800 was capable of 28mm for the shortest focal length.

Good luck!

[pulsewidth947]

I think you may be better off with film. Long exposures with digital sucks battery power so you'll have to be careful about that, unless you have a power supply.

I found a page (http://www.danheller.com/star-trails.html) that has a wealth of astro-photography advice.

Let me know how you get on with your *ist DL, I recently bought a K1000 and I like the idea of using my lenses with a digital body!