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qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? (/Thread-qdslr-auto-holy-grail-for-solar-eclipse)



qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - dtbclay - 2017-07-08

I'm new to qDSLRDashboard, and wondering if it could help me make shooting a time lapse of the upcoming solar eclipse by using the Auto Holy Grail settings (both directions).

My current plan is to take shots every 10s or so leading up to and following the eclipse. Since the eclipse itself only occurs for about 2-3 minutes, which is clearly much more quickly than actual sunset or sunrise, I'm not sure if it would be able to keep up?

Any advice you more experienced folks have with shooting time lapse of a total solar eclipse would be much appreciated! I'm hoping qDSLRDashboard can make this shot a bit easier than manual.

Thanks in advance for your help!


RE: qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - Gunther - 2017-07-09

A solar eclipse is very special. It's fast and not only the brightness changes, but contrast too. So you will really have to take care to not overexpose the sun too much, if you want to see the eclipse shading the sun too. If you shoot with a wide angle, probably, you will care more about the landscape. So it really depends on what you would like to do, how you will expose.

Therefore I do not recommend using qDDB and the Auto Holy Grail for this. For once the transition will be too fast and the other reason is that you will not have enough control.

What I'd recommend is to use qDDB in the LRT mode, start the interval shooting (use an external timer) - then long press on "Display next JPG". The button will turn red. Now you will get every image transferred and you can use the buttons for Shutter/ISO/Aperture manually to change the camera settings as needed. The histogram will help you to judge the brightness.


RE: qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - dtbclay - 2017-07-09

Thanks, Gunther! I came to a similar conclusion after doing some testing yesterday. qDSLRDashboard will still be very useful in making changes, but automating is a bad idea. I'll use the method you describe. 

For anyone interested, I did find a Windows application called Eclipse Orchestrator that does some automation for eclipse shooting, but I have no plan to pack my laptop with me for the trip.


RE: qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - jramosva - 2017-07-12

Any concerns of damaging the camera sensor during a solar timelapse with a wide angle lens? With a tele lens, it is not recommended without using a solar filter but with a wide lens both the sun and the landscape are part of the equation, which makes the use of a filter unpractical.


RE: qDSLR Auto Holy Grail for Solar Eclipse? - Gunther - 2017-07-12

It's the same as shooting a wide angle right into the sun without an eclipse. Normally you shouldn't need to worry about your sensor, since the exposures will be rather short. But of course you could use a regular ND filter that's not too strong, so that you can leave it on during the totality.