Weasner's Olympus Astrophotography Page

ASTROPHOTOGRAPHY WITH THE OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAS

Last updated: 4 December 2006

This page documents Olympus digital camera models comments, tips, and photos. Search the site for "olympus" for other items about the Olympus digital cameras. Contributions welcome.

Subject:	[Astrophoto] Olympus SP-500 UZ Ultra Zoom 6MP
Sent:	Sunday, December 3, 2006 07:47:58
From:	Yesid Lopez (yesidlopez@hotmail.com)
I'm interested in buying a middle range digital camera suitable for some
entrance-level astrophotography (I can't afford a DSLR yet).

I'm looking forward to upgrade from my Pentax K-1000 film SLR, which I
have used for constellations imaging.

The Olympus SP-500 UZ Ultra Zoom 6MP

http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-SP-500-Digital-Camera-Optical/dp/tech-data/B000A7B9Z8/ref=de_a_smtd/103-2615705-8809440

has a good price for me, good objective aperture, bulb shutter speed and
is adapter-ring compatible.

I'd kindly appreciate any comments you may have.

Yours truly,

Yesid Lpez

Bogot, Colombia.

Mike here: It appears to have a fixed lens, which means your choices will be piggyback astrophotography (camera attached to a telescope tube for wide angle photos and use the telescope for tracking), unguided astrophotography (just point at the sky and capture short or long exposures) and afocal astrophotography (camera mounted on the eyepiece and shooting through an eyepiece). Having the Bulb setting is good but to use it you will need to be able to trip it without having to hold it open (cable or wireless usually required); otherwise you will enduce image vibrations.

Go to the 2005 Olympus Astrophotography Page.

Go to the 2004 Olympus Astrophotography Page.

Go to the 2003 Olympus Astrophotography Page.

Go to the 2001-2002 Olympus Astrophotography Page.

Go back to the Astrophotography Page.

Go back to my ETX Home Page.