PENTAX  K10D  ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY

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The Pentax K10D is a 10 megapixel DSLR which has many features which are well suited to astrophotography:

• The K10D accepts older Pentax manual lenses. See the manual Pentax 50mm f1.4 lens fitted above.
• Option to switch off rear LCD display and disable the illumination button for the top LCD display. The rear display also has limited adjustment for brightness. A single button press displays the images on the rear LCD when required.
• There is a 'mirror up' function. The shutter fires after the mirror has been up for 2 seconds. This allows vibrations from the mirror to die down before the shutter is opened.
• The exposure mode dial has a USER setting which can be used as an 'Astrophotography' setting. More on this below.
• The image preview can be zoomed in from x1.2 up to x20. This is controlled by the rear scroll wheel. (There is a customisation option to set the initial zoom level when zooming in at x1.2, 2, 4, 8, or 16). This is useful when checking focus. The front scroll wheel can be used to jump through the stored images while to same zoom level is maintained.
• Option to save two formats for each image eg. Adobe Raw (.DNG) and JPG. The raw images can be opened up in the Pentax Photo Browser and Pentax Photo Laboratory software provided.
• Optional in-camera Noise Reduction by dark field substraction. Useful for removing hot pixels. The camera takes a second exposure with the shutter closed for the same duration as the original and subracts this from the original.
• Can be operated remotely by a computer via a USB connection. The can be carried out using Pentax Remote Assistant software which can be downloaded free from the Pentax website. More on this below.
• Bright x0.95 magnification viewfinder with good eye relief for those who wear glasses.
• The inner workings are protected from humidity and dust by 72 seals.
• There is a dust removal functuion which vibrates the sensor to dislodge dust.

 

USER Program Mode

The USER setting on the top program mode dial saves a lot of time when changing from normal photography to astrophotography.

The image opposite shows some of the USER settings that have been set-up. These include:

• B (Bulb) which is selected from a menu rather than using the B setting on the top exposure mode dial.
• The 'Mirror Up' 2 second delay is selected (4th symbol along from the B).
• The preferred ISO setting can be set.
• File storage format. In this case both raw (DNG) and JPEG 10MP at best quality.
• Manual Focus (MF).
• Shake Reduction disabled (hand symbol). Note: SR should always be disabled when a tripod used.
• The various in-camera compensation levels have been left at their default settings.

The K10D can be operated remotely via the USB connection using the Pentax Remote Assistant software. The two images below show a couple of the on screen windows.

 

 

The software has a comprehensive Bulb Timer mode which enables repeated long duration exposures to be setup. This provides an ideal way of taking repeated exposures automatically when trying to capture meteors. The images are stored to the computer hard disc so the camera memory card capacity is not an issue.

 

 

 

 

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