Ron,
I plan to be in the Cleveland area for the eclipse. Would you mind if we touch base so I can decide my exact location. I will be scouting the area shortly.
Look forward to getting to know you.
Shailendrra Guptaa
sgphotos.net
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Amherst Ohio. 1.2 Miles off the center line.
Stan
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That is not too far to be my backup location in case clouds show up. Would like to have a chat just so we can exchange ideas and thoughts.
I think i’m just gonna shoot the eclipse from my backyard, it’s gonna be a madhouse in Cleveland, a lot of hotels are already booked up and lots of Eclipse events are planned, NASA is teaming up with the Science Center for a big event downtown. I’m sure they’ll jack up the parking prices on April 8th. There’s also a big event at Edgewater Park, a good place to shoot the Eclipse would be from Upper Edgewater Park, you have great views of Cleveland from there, while the Eclipse will be in the Southwest Skies and not over the City. I was thinking of getting shots of the changing light on the city during the phases of the eclipse and photos of the crowd shooting the Eclipse, that being said Edgewater will be packed with people and they’ll close off the park once they parking lots fill up. Also I’d have a plan B cause Cleveland is pretty Cloudy in April and while Cleveland is really close to the center line, cities to the west of Cleveland like Avon are right on the center line.
Going too Buffalo Harbour State Park apparently a few feet off centre. Niagara Falls On & NY going to be extremely busy Planning on arriving early with a cooler full of food & drink & hopefully no lake affect snow!!
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Frio Country Resort close to Canon Texas is where we are heading. I am using 5 cameras. D850, D810, Z7II, ZF and DJI action 4 for video. D850 with 600mm for the detail 9 steps bracket shots for diamond ring and totality. ZF and Z7II both with 400mm for detail 9 steps bracket shots for diamond ring and totality each cover a slightly different range of exposure with 9 steps bracket shots. D810 with 50mm cover 2 hrs interval shooting with totality in the middle. during totality and diamond ring, will run interval shooting with 9 level brackets. Hope to get the Venus during totality. DJI action 4 on a turn table will capture totality 360 view in video. Mostly automate all my cameras with interval shooting with or without bracketing shots. Running bracketing shots for too long and too fast creates 3 problems for me. 1. it runs out of battery. 2. The memory cards get over heat. 3. fill up my 128 GB cards before it’s time. I got 256 gig cards now.
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Sodus Shores in NY. East of Rochester on the shore of Lake Ontario. Sony A7IV with 200-600. Still debating whether to use the 1.4X tele. I really like the higher resolution of the disk but may have to zoom out for prominences. I plan to use an old GoPro looking across the lake to capture the light moving across the horizon/clouds. The Sony has 3 Mem registers so I will set them as M1: partial with filter; M2: transition with no filter; M3: TOTAL. Quick and easy to change modes.
Attached are my planned settings. Using a Baader filter, home-made mount to easily/quickly slip in/out of the lens hood of the 200-600. Oh, and also using a SWSA GTi so I don’t have to tweak a tripod head.
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I’m starting to feel jealous of these Sony memory registers!
Is f/11 the widest aperture with the TC fitted?
F/9 on the Sony 200-600 with 1.4TC. F/11 would help with vignetting, though
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Correct. Sometimes you just feel more comfortable with certain settings. Given that I am not concerned with ISO or speed f/11 feels right. The lens is f/5.6-6.3, and f/8-9 with the 1.4x. I am challenged to see the difference in quality with or without the 1.4x so will probably just run with it for 840mm for all but totality. Then back out a bit when I change to the M3 bracket setting.
Yes, Stephen, the memory registers are life savers especially as cameras get more complex and I get older. Sony only makes 3 available in camera memory. To use more you have to store them to the SD card. Just not practical. I feel pretty confident about the settings and sequence. 1-2-3-2-1 done. But always open to suggestions from folks that have done more eclipses than I have.
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For reference here is one of my test shots from several days ago. Shot with daylight setting (5500K) at 1/320 f/11 ISO100 on Sony a7iv with the 200-600 plus 1.4x tele in full 840mm zoom. No cropping or processing - just export to JPG q60. I am using the Baader AstroSolar (OD 5.0) filter film in a holder made from matte board.
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Where have all the focus aids (sunspots) gone??
Fortunately my a7 auto-focuses on the edge very well. Being a glasses wearer, and now age 68, I need all the focusing help I can get.
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