Point and Press photos of transit

As I don't have a Web-cam, CCD or digital camera I was intending to use my thrusty 35mm point and press camera to take photos of transit.

What film should I use and any advise guys??

PS I'm not a camera buff so keep it simple please

I'm in a similar boat, I'll try the webcam and canon digital but It looks as though I'll be mainly using 35mm film.

No idea about exposures, but I have a test roll of film getting processed at the moment. So when I get that back I may have a better idea on exposures.

jessops.com have a special offer of 10 rolls of 36exp Kodak elite 100 slide film for Stg£19.90 go to jessops.com and search for KOD@EEB23536P10 seems like a decent offer.

Are you using a scope or a telephoto lens? An 800mm lens at least will probably be needed to see venus, see www.u-net.com/ph/mas/observe/solar-p/solar-p.htm#Lenses


Cheers,
~Al

Al

I'll be using my 8" sct with orion solar filter (arriving on the Sunday before so no testing possible).just pointing it in the eyepiece and hoping for the best. Any ideas of my chances of one good photo?

Any ideas of what speed film to use?

Conor

As I don't have a Web-cam, CCD or digital camera I was intending to use my thrusty 35mm point and press camera to take photos of transit.
What film should I use and any advise guys??
PS I'm not a camera buff so keep it simple please

Well, I'm going to use my Olympus OM1 with a 500mm mirror reflex and 2x teleconverter, giving me 1000mm, unfortunately at f/16, but the mirror lens is a fixed f/8 so I can't alter it. Anything much less than 800 to 1000 and you're going to have a small image on film. Use mirror lock if on your camera.

Probably best to use a slow film, say 50 or 60 ISO, 100 ISO tops, to give you sharpest results. Fast films will be too grainy.

If anyone wants to know exposure times, let me know your setup, e.g film speed, f/ and the fastest shutter speed (eg 1/2000, 1/4000 etc) and I'll look it up in the Covington book tables.

Gordon

Hi Gordon,

If anyone wants to know exposure times, let me know your setup, e.g film speed, f/ and the fastest shutter speed (eg 1/2000, 1/4000 etc) and I'll look it up in the Covington book tables.

I'd really appreciate it if you could calculate this for me.

I'll be using most probably 100 ISO 35mm colour slide film.
The fastest shutter speed is 1/1500
and the scope is f/12.7, 102mm Maksutov with 1300mm focal length with suitable solar filter.

I got some test photos back yesterday, on 200 ISO coulor film, and it seems that I need to use the fastest shutter speed, so it would be interesting to see what the tables suggest.

Probably just as well to use a fast speed since my camera doesnt have a mirror lock.

Cheers,
~Al

Hi Gordon,
i'd really appreciate it if you could calculate this for me.
I'll be using most probably 100 ISO 35mm colour slide film.
The fastest shutter speed is 1/1500
and the scope is f/12.7, 102mm Maksutov with 1300mm focal length with suitable solar filter.
I got some test photos back yesterday, on 200 ISO coulor film, and it seems that I need to use the fastest shutter speed, so it would be interesting to see what the tables suggest.
Probably just as well to use a fast speed since my camera doesnt have a mirror lock.~Al

Hi Al,

According to the tables, for 100 ISO and assuming filter density of 6.0 (Solar Skreen or equivalent - filter factor 1,000,000):
f/11 = 1/60 sec
f/16 = 1/30 sec

For a filter density of 5.0 (Thousand Oaks Type 2 -Visual and photo filter - filter factor = 100,000 = 1/1000 of 1%) - 100 ISO.
f/11 = 1/500
f/16 = 1/250

The Baader visual solar filter film most of us use is density 5 so same as above.

For a filter density of 4.0 (Thousand Oaks Type 3 - photo only filter - filter factor = 10,000 = 1/100 of 1%) - 100 ISO.

f/11 = 1/4000
f/16 = 1/2000

Baader photographic filter film is density 3.8 so equivalent to above.

I seem to recall bracketing between 1/125 and 1/1000 with my f/10 ETX90 the last time I used it with Baader visual solar filter (density 5) but I can't find my notes as to which was best.

Clear skies

Gordon