Nikon D7200 Night Photography Settings

[Margaret Sigars]

Asis typical when receiving astronomical gear, cloudy nights and a nearly full moon greeted my receipt of my new camera. But I was able to photograph the Total Lunar Eclipse, 4 April 2015, using the new camera. This full-frame photograph of the pre-eclipsed Full Moon shows the field-of-view of the 18mm-140mm zoom lens set at f/5.6, 1/250sec, ISO 100, FL 140mm:

I used the ML-L3 wireless remote and the Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility (WMU) iPhone app to take photos during the eclipse. Both worked fine. It was very convenient to use the WMU app and Wi-Fi on the D7200 to download images to the iPhone 5s and then post them almost immediately on Twitter using the phone. You can see more of the D7200 DSLR eclipse photos on my "Total Lunar Eclipse" report.

Since the D7200 Raw converter had not yet been released for Mac OS X as I was preparing this review, the D7200 was set to save photos as JPEG Fine Large (6000x4000 pixels). I also set my older D7000 DSLR to use JPEG Fine Large (4928 3264 pixels; the maximum) for its comparison images. On 8 April 2015 I imaged the Leo Triplet (galaxies M65, NGC3628, and M66) at 8" LX200-ACF prime focus + f/6.3 focal reducer using the indicated exposure settings below. Post-processing editing of the comparison images was limited to just image size reduction for posting here. The D7000 image is on the left and the D7200 image is on the right when comparing the same ISO exposures. I used the Vello ShutterBoss remote for all these images.

Two things stand out in the above comparisons: the D7000 images are redder and noisier than the D7200 images when using high ISO values. But even at ISO 12800 and 25600 the D7200 DSLR does an amazing job for just a 1 minute exposure. Using ISO 51200 did a pretty good job with minimal noise. The ISO 102400 image looks a little overexposed in the galaxy cores. These very high ISO values should prove useful on very faint objects.

I also tested the D7200 DSLR video recording modes for capturing some planets for later image stacking using Keith's Image Stacker. Since having many image frames for stacking is important, I set the D7200 to the 1.3X crop mode to allow 60 frames per second in the highest resolution (1920x1080). (The D7000 only allowed 24 fps at its highest resolution.) The downside to using this high frame rate and highest resolution is that video recording length is limited to 10 minutes. That's not an issue with planet imaging, but could be with imaging long duration events like Jupiter Moons Mutual Events or long passes of the International Space Station. Video duration can be increased to 20 minutes and even 30 minutes by using slower frame rates, lower resolutions, and/or lower quality. With my D7000 I had determined that using the highest resolution worked best for astro video recordings, so I used the highest resolution for my tests with the D7200. I configured the D7200 camera to use the shutter release button to start/stop movie recordings as that setting would allow me to use my Vello Wireless ShutterBoss Timer Remote to start/stop recording without needing to touch the camera. No more image vibrations at the beginning and ending of my astro video recordings which needed to be trimmed off!

I will be using the 1.3X crop factor and 1920x1080 60fps for my next ISS imaging attempt. I'll discuss that on its report. On 14 April 2015, I used the D7200 DSLR to capture the HST crossing a waning crescent moon:

With my D7000 DSLR I had determined that my photographic limiting magnitude with the 8" LX200-ACF was +17.48. I will be doing a similar exposure at some point with the D7200 to determine a new photographic limiting magnitude. I'll report on that when I've done it.

As you probably expect, the D7200 DSLR is an outstanding camera for general photography. I was able to do some general photography prior to completing this review. I had used my D7000 DSLR a lot during the previous 4.5 years to take photos of people, wildlife, weather, landscapes, and important events, as well as lots of astrophotography. The D7000 was a great upgrade from my D70 DSLR and the D7200 DSLR is already giving me even better photographs.

As for astrophotography with the D7200 DSLR, the preliminary results reported here are impressive, even with using JPEG images. I expect that I'll be using ISO settings greater than 6400 for some faint objects or when long exposures are not appropriate. The quality of the very high ISO values should make imaging easier of these types of objects. The free Nikon Wireless Mobile Utility provides some useful but limited capabilities for astrophotography, but you will still want a remote shutter release for best results.

If you have the Nikon D7100 DSLR, upgrading to the D7200 might be a difficult decision as there are not a lot of new capabilities compared to the D7100. But even with the annoyances mentioned on the first page of this review, if you have the D7000 or an even older Nikon DSLR and use it for astrophotography, upgrading might be an easy decision, especially if you can get a good trade-in deal on your old camera.

Notes: As was previously mentioned, images used in this review were all shot using JPEG Fine Large (6000x4000 pixels) as the D7200 Raw converter had not yet been released for Apple Aperture (or Adobe Lightroom). As Aperture is now a discontinued product I plan to switch to Adobe Lightroom soon for digital photo editing and will eventually use it for astrophotography posted on my Cassiopeia Observatory reports and Photo Albums.

Capturing a stunning shot of the northern lights (or southern lights) dancing across the sky surely must be on the bucket list of many photographers out there. On a recent trip into the Arctic Circle, I was lucky enough to see the aurora borealis on several nights. What follows are some tips and recommendations on how to photograph the northern lights and come back with some stunning pictures.

My trip took me to Yllas in Lapland, a large national park in the north west of Finland near the border with Sweden. We stayed in a small log cabin in the village of Akaslompolo, which has a permanent population of about 350. The small size of the village means that light pollution levels are quite low, and this is helped by the lights on the cross country ski trails being turned off at 10:30pm each night. As a side note, I can thoroughly recommend visiting Lapland, as even during the day it presents amazing photo opportunities, such as these reindeer crossing the road.

Next, I would suggest trying to book a tour or activity which takes you into the wilderness. This means that light pollution will be very low, plus your guide will likely know the best spots for seeing the lights. We opted for snowmobiling and drove about 15km from the village into the dark sky region of the national park. Although we saw the aurora from the driveway of our cabin on other nights, the lack of light pollution here meant that the snowmobiling was definitely worth it.

A side note on clothing: while I was in Lapland, the daytime temperatures hovered around -25 Celsius with night temperatures dropping to below -30. As such, it is vital to have the correct clothing; no photograph is worth frostbite. There are many websites which will advise on general clothing, but seeing as this is a photography guide I will suggest some hand wear. Changing camera settings in the field can be very tricky with thick gloves, so I would recommend wearing a thin pair of silk liner gloves under heavy mittens. The mittens will keep your hands warm, but when you need to use your camera you can quickly take them off and still have the protection of your liner gloves.

Now, the important part: camera settings. The first piece of advice is to set up your camera as much as possible before heading out. This will limit the amount of time you spend fumbling in the cold and dark trying to get your settings correct. As far as cameras/lenses go, you can take aurora photos with any camera or even phone capable of taking long exposures. Just make sure you have a tripod or some other method of keeping your camera steady. As for DSLRs, I would recommend:

The aurora borealis moves fast and varies speed quite significantly depending on the conditions. So, the settings above are only meant to be a starting point. Once you arrive at the location, take a test shot and adjust your settings as appropriate. For example, if the northern lights are moving quickly, you may want a shutter speed faster than 15 seconds to capture as much detail as possible, which might require a higher ISO. If possible, do not use a shutter speed over 15 seconds, as this will cause the auroras to become a blurry mess.

As a side note, remember not to touch metal camera or tripod parts with your bare hands. I say thus after accidentally picking up my tripod on a -30 Celsius night, with results that were rather unpleasant.

Excellent article, tips and advice: specially for me, who will land in Reykavik in the very beginning of November for a Photography Expedition up there. Every advice and comment are mostly welcome. And once I am a Nikonian, this article was just made for me. Tks a lot! Best regards, Ney

Guess time to write longer and more ellaborative article on my own for this site. Not that its bad info here, its just that i feel here is not enough info in this article in my opinion, especially about moon, what can happen during stronger solar storm, weather conditions etc. Good info for novice aurora shooter but not good enough for advanced aurora photographer. Ylls is good place but i would recomment Kilpisjrvi much more. Statistically there are more aurora during season than in any other europiean lapland parts (dont know about Russian lapland). And its just 10km north or west you can get to Norway and Sweden respectively. Enjoy your trip and anyone must visit colder polar regions during cold season at least once in a life time, its much much more wonderful and amazing than lying on a beach in some warmer areas.

Another point, appropo filters (as mentioned in a comment above) is that the reason to remove filters in long low light exposures is the potential for amplifying reflections between front lens element and filter causing artifacts. These ruined a few of my ice cave photos until I discovered the artifacts, seen later on computer screen though not on camera LCD when shooting.

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