There are basically two ways to record video at 1:1 pixel resolution for high-magnification planetary photography with lucky imaging. So far, only the Canon T2i (550D), 60D and 60Da record 640 x 480 Movie Crop Mode. If you don't have one of those cameras, you will have to record Live View to a computer with one of these programs: We will cover each of these programs in detail in the following sections. Software can be a great help in controlling your camera for high-resolution planetary photography. You can use it to adjust camera settings such as ISO and shutter speed, to help with focusing and collimation, and to start and stop Live View. If you have a camera that has 640 x 480 Movie Crop Mode, you don't need software or a computer at the telescope. You can record high-resolution videos directly to the memory card in the camera. If you want to use software to control the camera, you can use Canon's EOS Utility that comes with the camera. We will discuss how to use EOS Utility in a later section. With some scopes the LCD screen on the back of the camera can be at an awkward angle. Unless you have a camera with an LCD screen that tilts and swivels, you might want to use a computer with your scope for convenience. Canon's EOS Utility, software that comes with all Canon DSLR cameras for free, will allow control of the camera on a computer via a USB cable for all Canon cameras with Live View. Canon's EOS Utility does not, however, record Live View. It will only record video with a camera that has a video recording mode, and it will only record this video to the memory card in the camera. Live View can usually be recorded from any camera that has the Live View feature, even if it doesn't record video in the camera. Live View can only be recorded to a computer with the software programs listed above. Notes We have already discussed some of the trade offs and special considerations for each method of recording video for high-resolution planetary imaging in detail in Chapter 2 section 5. Here we will briefly go over the highlights. If you have a Canon T2i (550D), 60D or 60Da, you can access a special Movie Crop Mode that records the central 640 x 480 pixels on the sensor at 1:1 pixel resolution at 60 frames per second. This high framing rate is very advantageous for high-resolution planetary work because it records a large number of frames. This gives you a better chance of getting some frames with really good seeing that software can pick out later. The downside to this method is that the video is recorded with compression. The compression is very good, but some data must be lost. The video is also recorded in a MOV file format that must be converted to an AVI file format that RegiStax, AviStack and AutoStakkert! can work with. For most other DSLR cameras, you will have to record Live View with special software with a 5x magnification factor to access 1:1 pixel resolution. Using the software is easy, but it does require a computer at the telescope. The downside to recording Live View is that the framing rate you get will depend on the particular hardware and software running on the computer that you use to record the video. With old or slow laptops, this framing rate can drop as low as 5 frames per second. Another downside is that most of these software packages use some type of compression to record the images. Astro Photography Tool records high-quality JPEG still images out of the Live View video feed. JPEG-compressed images can sometimes have compression artifacts. EOS Camera Movie Record , and Backyard EOS record AVI files with compression. Images Plus, however, records bitmaps in an uncompressed special SID file format. These bitmaps can be extracted and used in a specialized planetary imaging program like RegiStax, AviStack or AutoStakkert! The downside to Images Plus is the cost of the program, and the storage space needed for the uncompressed image files.
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