Astro-Photography Image Proccesing

A little bit about how I currently do my "image stacking" and post-processing.

I'm using "linux Ubuntu" and have loaded "Hugin Panorama Creator" from the software repository.
With this installed and two simple commands you can align and stack your images. You need to be a little conversant with using a command shell.
First put all you jpeg images in a folder and open a command shell and type the following at the prompt

align_image_stack -a  drag and drop all your files from your folder onto the terminal window, then hit return. Nothing will happen for a while....then it should start writing .tif files to the same folder as your jpegs.

When this has finished type enfuse -o 'name.tif' where "name.tif" is the file name you want to use complete with the full directory path, then drag and drop the tif files previously created onto the terminal window, it should then start stacking them and you will end up with a composite image called whatever you nominated at the "name.tif" part.

I then follow up with "Gimp"  adjusting "Curves" and "wavelet de-noise" for a final image.

There is also a good "Java" based program called "Regim" and it runs on any platform and has a nice user interface. This will do the aligning and stacking, but no post processing.

For "Windows" users "DeepSkyStacker" is another good option. Just do a Google search and you will find plenty of options.

I will post some more info and pics soon.

Snorkelling, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia

Saturday the 11th of April greeted us with a reasonably sunny, but not too warm day.
Just before lunch Lisa my wife suggests a trip to the beach to do a bit of snorkelling, OK sounds great I said, its a good job we've got wet suits.

Another opportunity to take the little Sony TX10  out for a swim, and nice to get some pictures from our local waters.

Moondah beach on Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne ,Victoria

Perfect Snorkelling Depth

There's quite a diverse variety sea life in the Bay, most are very shy, and hard to sneak up on, if you manage to take a picture you will most likely have to crop the image to bring it closer.

A good technique when snorkelling is to just float and let the fish come to you. Taking pictures becomes a bit tricky though, as soon as you move your arms they tend to scatter, that's when you learn how fast fish can swim.

Snapper, Port Phillip Bay

Porcupine Fish Port Phillip Bay

Purple Sea Urchin

School of "White Bait"

Pentax SMC K 28mm f3.5 Lens Review

The Pentax K 28mm f3.5 Wide Angle lens is quite rare, you don't see too many coming up on Ebay.
It is very well received by most reviewers and some believe it to be one of the best lenses Pentax ever made, not sure if I agree, still a very good lens.

I had, and sold the M version of this lens. The optical formula is different for the two lenses but I have to say that I couldn't see a lot of difference in images that I took. I suppose with lenses, it all about how hard you look and what you're looking for. I kept this one, and it certainly is the rarer of the two.
As with all the Pentax lenses I have, or have had, the build quality is excellent, with very smooth focus. It's quite heavy, but feels very nice in use. This lens is of course "Super Multi Coated" resulting in better transmission of light.

• Focal Length:     28mm
• Aperture:            f3.5 thru f22 in half stops up to f16 5 blades
• Focus Throw:     50 degrees approx
• Min Focu:           30cm
• Filter Treads:      52mm
• Weight:               286 gm
• Elements:           8 in 7 groups

F3.5 Close Focus

F3.5 Bokeh

"Out House" Valhalla Vic

Rubbish day in our street

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-TX10

My wife and I are keen snorkelers. Trying to Explain to others the wonders and beauty that's under the water was just becoming to hard, this meant  purchasing a camera that wasn't afraid of the water.
I spend quite a long time trolling through reviews without really finding a clear winner, they all had their good and not so good points.
I eventually decided on the Sony TX10, this guy is water proof to 5 meters and can take a knock or two.

Sony TX10 With Lens guard slid down

All things considered I would have to give this little camera a 8.5/10 score.
Its been on many trips with us both overseas and at the Great Barrier Reef and has never let me down.
Couple of tips, always set the camera to "Underwater Mode" before getting in the water, as you can't use the touch screen after that.
The quality and clarity of underwater shots vary immensely being dependent on water depth the amount of particles in the water and the angle of the sun.
I also move my divers watch from my left to right arm so I can loop the strap through its band. If your wearing a "stinger suit" you can then tuck the camera in the sleeve leaving both hands free to get back on the boat.
Its not easy taking pics under water, just be prepared to take many and delete many, as with most things you get better as you go along.
I have always followed the washing instruction supplied with camera, and have no leaks or issues so far.

OK a select few pictiures, I have hundreds, possibly thousands.

Dinner on the beach. Navini Island Fiji

Turtle Lady Elliot Island QLD Australia

Black Tip Reef Shark Navini Island Fiji

Manta Ray. Lady Elliot Island

Clown Fish. Navini Island Fiji

Blue Fin Trevally. Navini Island Fiji

Clown Fish (Nemo) Vanuatu

Fujifilm XT-1 Extended Eye Cup

I have  just received my recently ordered "Long Eye Cup" for my XT-1 Camera.

I've found at times I need to shield light coming in from the side, to do this I use my hand, which is not a big problem until you are using a manual focus lens, then you need three hands.


This is a third party Cup being manufactured in China by JJC Photographic Equipment Co Ltd.
Model EF - XTL  
A$13.00 through Ebay.

It's made of Silicon just like the original, and appears to be of very high quality. It slides on perfectly and looks great.

Unfortunately I wear glasses, so it doesn't help a great deal as there is still a great big gap between my head and glasses. 
But with the glasses off, it does a good job of keeping stray light out from the sides.

I can almost get enough correction out of the XT-1's diopter adjustment to allow removal of my specs, but even if I could it still means you have to wear them on your forehead whilst taking pictures.
This eye cup is of course deeper than the standard one, which can make things a little difficult if you slide your camera into its bag or case.

I think this cup will certainly help many people with stray light problems, and is worth trying out.

Pentax 100mm f4 Macro lens Review

Another great manual focal Pentax lens from thirty odd years ago. Many positive comments regarding this lens can be read over on the "Pentax Lens Forum"

Pentax 100mm f4 macro lens

This lens uses a "Heliar" optical design.

• Focal Length:     100mm
• Aperture Range: f4 thru f32 half stops thru to f22  6 blades
• Focus Travel:      350 degrees
• Close Focus:       45cm
• Filter threads:      49mm
• Weight;                370gm

Beautifully smooth focus ring, nicely damped, great lens.

Pentax 100mm f4 macro lens Close Focused

This is a great lens if you like taking shots of insects. Its focal length allows a bit of clearance between you and your living subject, they tend to run or fly away given the chance.
Like its little brother the 50mm it exhibits no aberrations that I can see, no purple fringing no chromatic or general distortions. This lens at f4 does display a small amount of "Coma" at the edge of the frame, it disappears from f5.6 as shown in the picture below.

Pentax K100d 100mm macro at f5.6

 No Coma visible

Eta Carina Region taken with Pentax 100mm f4 Macro Lens

As well as being a close up lens it's also a 100mm telephoto, so if you have an "aps-c" sized sensor in your camera, you get a field of view equivalent to 150mm on "full frame".

Pentax 100mm F4 Macro 100% Crop

Pentax 100mm f4 Macro

more pics to follow

Pentax M 50mm f4 Macro Lens Review

You can read about the Pentax 50mm f4 Macro lens on the "Pentax Lens Forum" , and It's well worth the read.
This lens is over 35 years old, and In my view, it's a little ripper.

Pentax 50mm f4 macro lens

It's a very simple lens in that it's based on the Zeiss "Tessar" optical design. Four elements in three groups. The Tessar design lends itself to a sharp and distortion free lens, but this comes at the expense of speed.
You won't find a really "fast" Tessar lens from any company, Zeiss made some at f2.8 actually millions of them. I don't call that fast, I'd like to try one though, think I will.

• Focal Length:    50mm
• Aperture range: f4 thru f32  5 blades  half stops up to f22
• Filter Threads:   49mm
• Weight:             169gm 
• Close Focus:     23.4cm
• Focus throw:     350 degrees approx

The Lens assembly is set so far back from the front you don't need a lens hood with this little fella either.

Pentax 50mm f4 macro lens close focused

You might say "A bit slow at f4" but who cares, once you step outside into the sun you start at f4, or f8
Being wide open at f4 also allows for some nice "bokeh" as you can focus very close to your subject and have an "iris blade free" background blur.

Pentax 50mm f4 macro lens Bokeh

The only down side I have found is at the far end of things, as you approach infinity the focus travel gets rather small, so nailing focus at that end takes a bit more patience.

As the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words" so some pictures.
 

All taken with Fujifilm XT-1 Camera

One of those weeds at f4 and 

100% crop at the right.

Nice flower and

100% crop

As you can see very sharp, and as I believe also free from distortion. No only a great close up lens, but also great as a walk around lens as well.

The following two are straight from the camera, not cropped, just compressed a bit.

The bike is a colour shot

Probably f8.Focused on the motor.

Most likely f8 

Flinders St Station, Melbourne, Victoria