Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: SlowPhotography on September 06, 2013, 09:48:42 am
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Hi!
I wish to place a DSLR on top of a mountain to document weather day and night.
I'm thinking a D600 or 6D with a 28mm, connected to a Raspberry Pi and a 3G device.
A photo every 20 mins is enough. The photos must be about 4 mpix and accessable from anywhere within 10 mins so that the weather conditions are pretty up to date.
The camera will be placed in Norway so the temperatures could vary from +30 to -30 degrees C.
I will be able to get electricity to the camera "box".
Money isn't important in the idea phase.
Does anyone have experience with anything like this? I am open to other cameras and solutions.
(The attached photo shows the minimum of quality I need at night)
Kind regards,
Johan B. Skre
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Does anyone have experience with anything like this?
http://www.auroraskystation.com/live-camera/9/
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If this is for weather, I'd want the widest lens I could find. The Samyang 14 would be the obvious choice here.
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The Aurora Sky Station is definitely interesting and something along the lines of what I need.
There is an issue I can't seem to get past, though. The camera doesn't exploit it's flexibility in auto-modes (A,S/Av,Tv).
For example the shutter speed can't be longer than 2 seconds and the entire ISO range isn't used.
This goes for Canon 6D, Nikon D600 and Sony a99.
Has anyone noticed this? Am I overseeing something?
In order to get well exposed photos day and night one needs flexible auto-settings.
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Actually, you might do well with a 180 degree fish-eye lens, particularly if you are trying to quantitate data about percent sky coverage etc. One thing that needs to be worked out is how to deal with fog and other precipitation.
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There is an issue I can't seem to get past, though. The camera doesn't exploit it's flexibility in auto-modes (A,S/Av,Tv).
For example the shutter speed can't be longer than 2 seconds and the entire ISO range isn't used.
This goes for Canon 6D, Nikon D600 and Sony a99.
Maybe that's why the Aurora Sky Station uses a top-end DSLR.
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Have you considered using a trail Camera? Many trail camera models already have built in wireless / cell phone senders, you can set them most of them up as time lapse plus the detector, and they can all be powered by an external battery that is attached to a solar panel for auto-recharge. There is also a new model(I have one on order) that does auto stitched 120 degree panoramas and all of them are weather sealed. I use several different Trail cams as security(mostly with no glow infrared flash on our property(try TrailCam Pro dot com)
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The official reply from both Nikon and Canon is that their light meters have a limit which is reached at for example ISO 12800, F2.8 and t1/2s or ISO 51200, F2.8 and t1/8s.
Is there anyone illuminated out there that knows of a way to exceed this limit? Can the cameras be tricked? Exposure controlled from software?
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Is there anyone illuminated out there that knows of a way to exceed this limit? Can the cameras be tricked? Exposure controlled from software?
If you use a high end DSLR the only way to accomplish the range you need is with tethered operation and a computer program to control the camera. Given that, the potential is vast!
I'm not sure about details (and can't get them right away but probably could in a few days), but there is an ongoing experiment here on the Arctic Ocean coast that relates closely to your project. There are a series of something like 5 to 10 cameras set up on tripods at intervals of about half a mile along the beach (actually up on the tundra, 10-20 feet above sea level) southwest of Barrow Alaska. They are not connected via radio or cell phones, but they are operational over a wide range of light conditions (and a very large range of temperatures). I have no details about intervals, but the purpose is to monitor sea ice and shore errosion rather than weather. I think the significant point is that there are cameras made specifically for that purpose, and they are probably much better suited than a DSLR.
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Hi Floyd!
The sea ice project sounds very interesting and I would be extremely greatful if you can give me any leads on how they do it or get me contact details of someone working with it. Sounds like they've had some of the same challenges as me.
We have to do this right the first time, which is why I'm spending a lot of time researching and testing out different options.
Thank you again.
Kind regards,
Johan
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The camera will be placed in Norway so the temperatures could vary from +30 to -30 degrees C.
I will be able to get electricity to the camera "box".
Cameras don't work by -30°C. Can you get enough power to the box to heat it?