New Canon 450D

Canon have announced the next dslr in their range with the introduction (from March) of the new Canon 450D. I wonder how this will do for astrophotography? Or even is it necessary giventhe more than capable 350/400D cameras?

But...is comes with a live view!!!!!!!!!! If you can hook the camera up to a laptop, perfevt focus would not be a problem....

news.sky.com/skynews/xml/article/tech/0,,91221-12433,00.html

www.dpreview.com/news/0801/08012403canoneos450d.asp

Keith..

Certainly a good specification - does most of what my new Sony A700 does for a lot less money!

Not sure whether live view will collect enough light to focus on stars - it's a 30fps video feed so may not be very sensitive - we'll see.

Live focus will be very good methinks. Currently, using either DSLR Focus or the the accompanying Canon software, I need to take a picture, then view it to know if I am in good focus or not. Sometimes, with the lens at 300mm, it takes about a 30 second exposure on dim areas of sky to achieve a bright enough image to judge the focus. I wonder if the live focus feature will help cut the time wasted trying to get it into focus before tracking?

Seanie.

If the live view works on brighter stars and the moon, that will make the focusing alot easier, lets hope it can do it.

I find Auto-Focus works on the Moon and Venus, it's dimmer objects that are problematic.

I see the 450D is out.

specs - www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/...0D/index.asp?specs=1

Same sensor size as the 400D but its now 12million mp. Uses the DIGIC III processor, not sure whats improved over the DIGIC & DIGIC II of earlier models.

Don't see much else of interest to astrophotographers. Well perhaps this means that there will be a flood of 300D's on ebay with the slightly bigger sensor.

Cheers,
~Al