Canon Rebel EOS T100 Astrophotography

[J15c0d3r]

I am looking to buy the canon Rebel eos t100 but first I want to know what people recommend for settings on this camera to do astrophotography and automotive photography. Please help me with this as I don’t know all too well on how to make this happen.

[shadowsports]

Greetings,

Automotive photography sure.

Astrophotography, thats iffy.  Even with a high quality lens this body's nightime shooting capablity and ISO performance is a little low.  The sensor is more of an entry level shooter with limited performance.

However, someone more wise than I has always said any camera is better than no camera, so buy what you can afford and start taking pictures.

It's important that you set reasonable expectations for night time performance with this body.  You'll need a tripod as well, so factor this into your budget too.. 

[Waddizzle]

This is Canon's most basic and stripped down entry level camera.  It is not the camera for the hobbyist who is looking to push the boundaries of what a camera can do.  I suggest that you aim a little higher than the least expensive camera that you can find.  I only see them for sale on eBay, which is almost never a good place to shop for products that you are not familiar with.

[ebiggs1]

I had to look up what a Canon Rebel EOS T100 was!  It is a snapshot camera and for that is probably does s decent job.  It will fall short for astro work.  It will likely do a decent job for shooting cars.

However, it isn't the camera that makes the photo.  The camera is just a storage device.  It is the lens that makes the photo.

In this case a low ISO number isn't going to help the lens do its job.  That will hamper astro work as usually the highest ISO number is unusable. That puts the ISO limit to 3200 and more likely 1600 will be all that's good.

For cars it and the standard kit lens will work fine.  I am the one that says any camera is better than no camera.  But like the post above, I suggest you save a bit longer for a better camera. I do not have a Canon Rebel EOS T100 nor did I really know what one was but I read it has no sealing at all.  So again the limit is apparent in this bottom of the line camera.  It is a fair weather only camera.

[jrhoffman75]

When you say “astrophotography” do you mean deep sky, star trails or Milky Way?

I am assuming your camera will come with the 18-55 kit lens. Set the camera to manual and the lens wide open. In good light focus on a distant object. Switch the lens to MF and tape the focus ring so it can’t shift.

You also need to get an intervalometer. About $50 on Amazon.

For star trails you want to shoot about an hour total. Set your camera to ISO 800. Set the intervalometer to 4 minute exposure for 20 shots. Blend the photos using free StarStax software.

Milky Way is more critical since you want point stars. Set the shutter to 13 seconds. ISO to 3200. Check the histogram. You want the peak around the 20 percent point. First vertical line. Take 10-15 images. Combine use Sequator software.

The nice thing about star trails and Milky Way is you can use a lower spec camera. No need for 70 focus points or 20 frames per second.

[IBEWelectronut]

Thank you for some great information. I highlighted and printed out your advice. This will be a great start to me taking photos of the night sky and the moon. 

[TysonPruitt]

Im new does Sequator make the milky more visible or does it just make the pictures match up.

[jrhoffman75]

Welcome to the forum. 

There may be a slight brightness increase, but the primary effect is reduced noise. 

I haven't done extensive testing, but I wouldn't say there is a marked difference between one shot and the stacked one. 

But, it free and easy to do.