How do I film stars with ML2.3 Advanced fps?

[mickeyg]

Hi Everyone,

      Last night I was trying to film the stars with a low FPS, (0.5) for example, but I nothing was coming out.

Can someone confirm if this is possible and what setting I should use?

I'm using a 550d at 15mm, F4.

Many thanks

MickyG

[KarateBrot]

This is not just dependent from your optics but also where you are at. It helps a lot if the sky is not brightened by street lights and the less atmosphere above you that's blocking starlight the better. So it's ideal to film somewhere on a mountain in the wilderness.
But to speak about your camera setup I don't really know what settings you should use. I just open up the arperture, lower down the ISO to 100 and drop down the shutter speed until I can see something. Try something like 0.2 fps and a 360° shutter. If you still can't see anything you need to take photos with a very long exposure.

[mickeyg]

Thanks for the reply KarateBrot.   I guess it's going to take some more experimentation.

MickeyG

[Alain Maury]

Hello,
Start shooting photos first. If you don't see anything on the photos, you won't see anything on film. It all depends on the conditions. Sky in cities stink ( no milky way), have to have a dark place, nice foregrounds, as said above...
Manual focus using live view ( 10x) aiming at a bright star. Center the star first in the viewfinder, and then use live view with high magnification. On a zoom lens, focus should be made at the focal length at which you are going to shoot ( some zoom lenses have a change of focus versus focal length).
Full aperture (helps to have L lenses), high ISO settings (at least 1600, 6400 possible), grain is not too much an issue, the video will smooth it, and depending on the conditions between 10 to 30 seconds of individual exposure time. I sometimes use 2 minutes exposure times but I have dark skies.
Alain

[darethehair]

As I mentioned/questioned in my own thread (http://www.magiclantern.fm/forum/index.php?topic=1663.msg5123#msg5123) I am also not clear on whether the 'FPS Override' function is all that useful for astrophotography, considering that in my own picture taking I usually have much longer exposures than that mode will allow.  However, I have not actually tried doing it this way, and so if you (or anyone else) can test it, I would appreciate it