camera nerdery

So, while we were camping I stumbled (er, walked) off with my camera intent on taking pictures of the stars, since it was a clear fall night in the mountains. Where better? Well, maybe not the “smoky” mountains, but anyway. This is my best result:

Yes, I said “best”. The Canon D30 is ah.. not so good with the noise in long exposures. Here’s almost the exact same shot that Scott took with his Nikon D80:

Uh, wow? I am once again astounded by the Nikon CCD’s lack of noise. That shot was taken at roughly the equiv of like 2500 ISO – a 97 second exposure. I’d like to experiment a little more trying to get a shorter exposure – the reason the stars are blurry in the D80 shot is because, well, stars move over the course of 97 seconds. Anyways, cool shot.

I am still happy with my D30, since it’s the best I could possibly ever hope to afford – I’d be strapped to even replace it, if it ever broke, knock on wood, which is a good indication that I’m in over my head. But I was blown away by the difference a more modern DSLR can make. Unbelievable. I wonder how the Canon 30D or the new Rebel XTi compare with this..