Tracked Astrophotography with the Sigma fp L and the Move Shoot Move Star Tracker

In this on-location vlog, Ian Norman brings us along on a full night of shooting at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park, Florida with the Sigma fp and fpL cameras as he tries his hand at some tracked astrophotography using the Move Shoot Move Star Tracker.

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2 Replies to “Tracked Astrophotography with the Sigma fp L and the Move Shoot Move Star Tracker”

  1. Great video as always. I was looking into modifying a Sony a7riv or fp l. I got a hold of kolari vision about doing a full spectrum conversation. They informed me that like the a7riv modified or not they can both suffer from banding. Did you notice any banding while editing your files? If so were they easy to correct?

    1. I did not encounter any noticeable banding with the exposures I made. That said, I bet if you made a really low signal exposure that you pushed really hard in post or with ISO, you could probably find some fixed pattern noise from the phase detection pixels. Most cameras with phase detection pixels will have this behavior. There are two ways to mitigate this: the first is recording a dark frame stack and subtracting it from your normal light frame stack. The second is dithering your light frames… Basically re-framing your camera ever so slightly between sets of tracked exposures, or shooting untracked such that your subject drifts with the motion of the earth. The repositioning of the frame that occurs with pos process stacking will then allow the averaging of the fixed pattern noise and should eliminate it. Ultimately, if you’re doing fairly bright exposures as I did in my time shooting with the fp L, you’ll not need these methods, but any deep sky targets or other fairly dim stuff will greatly benefit. If you’d like to discuss further, feel free to contact me directly at [email protected]

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