Canon EOS Ra question

[himavaris57]

Hello everyone,

Hopefully someone can answer this question for me. Am considering purchasing a Canon EOS Ra (i know its an astrophotography camera), but would like to know if it can be use as a regular photo/video camera ( example: youtube videos)? Kind of a multi purpose camera. Thank you in advance to everyone!👍

[wliphotos]

I don't own the camera but from my research the modded IR-cut filter makes the white balance go out of wack, but some "baked in" white balance settings let colours return to normal. It should be alright to use, but if the white balance is too far off, a correction filter from a reputable brand like Astronomik or Optolong ("original white balance" or OWB filters) should eliminate any issues.

[kvbarkley]

Check this post out for an idea of what you would get.

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/EOS/Canon-Eos-R-Red-Tint-AWD/m-p/325185#M47644

[TCampbell]

There are two answers to this question ... the "technical" answer and the "practical" answer.

"Technically" you can use it as a regular camera ... but you'll have to white-balance all your shots.  I own a Canon 60Da which is also astro-modded and I've tested this ... you'll get a STRONG amount of red in every ordinary image you shoot.  I tried using the Astronomik OWB filter ... but it over-corrects and everything looked blue.  The only way to make it work was to manually white-balance every photo.

So then there's the "practical" answer... which is (for me anyway) it was a lot easier to have the camera body I used for traditional photography and the camera body I used for astrophotography.  I really DO like the 60Da for astrophotography and it's increased sensitivity to Ha wavelengths (probably on the order of 4-5x more than a traditional camera).   That extra sensitivity to reds means that when imaging something that is strong in Ha you can use shorter exposures than would be required for a non-modded camera and since exposures tend to be rather long for astrophotography, being able to collect Ha data in 1/4 or 1/5 the time is a really big advantage.