AllSky: taking pictures of the night sky

I'd heard that a meteor shower was on its way

so I rushed around and built a camera system.

Fixing my Pentax K-30 exposure problem: #4 more details on solenoid

I spent a jolly day thinking about the exposure solenoid and doing a few checks.

Everyone has a theory about why the green solenoid is problematic.

I've tried to work out how it operates...

Fixing my Pentax K-30 exposure problem: #2 let's do it!

My new JIS screw drivers arrived from China a few days ago.

Following on from an earlier post, I needed these to fit the tiny JCIS screws on my camera.

So its time to strip down both my K110D and K-30 Pentax cameras to see if I can repair my K-30.

Fixing my Pentax K-30 exposure problem: #1 prep

The exposure problem on my Pentax camera has been gradually getting worse.

It is now more likely to produce underexposed images than correctly exposed ones.

So its time to open it up and have a go at fixing it.

Photography: #1 Exposure Explained

When you make the transition from "point and shoot" to SLR photography, there is one very important subject you really need to get to grips with:-

      ***   Exposure   ***

 

Using an SLR camera in "manual mode" puts you in total control, not only of composition and focus, but also exposure.

When you take a photo, you allow light into your camera. Assuming you are using a "digital" camera, the light reaches a "photo-sensitive sensor" which produces an electrical output, and ultimately this is processed into a picture. If this picture is correctly "exposed" it will not be too dark or too light.

"So what's the problem..." I hear you say,  "...if its too dark or light I can just use the Gimp or PaintShop Pro to adjust the brightness?"

The problem is that you will lose detail if your initial photo is too dark or too light. Adjusting the brightness will not recover that lost detail.