The olympus 350 camera an interesting prospect

In the UK this camera can be bought for less money than a light pollution filter.It is pointless describing all of what it can do here as there is a 200 page manual for it.However here are some of the useful points.

8 megapixel low noise imaging chip

Time exposure dark subtraction

Up to 8 minutes time exposures at 400asa

Manual servo for focussing.

Time lapse photography

Automatic image stitching

The list is endless but can it be useful attached to a telescope.On bright objects it can autofocus.It can be manually focussed to infinity using the lens servo control.This is necessary as it is impractical to use it other than for eyepiece projection as removing the lens assembly would wreck the camera.Preliminary tests have shown it to do the following.

This is the camera on a custom made eyepiece projection assembly.....

The pictures show the spacer needed to cover the lens servo mechansim.This allows the camera lens to be set safely just behind the eyepiece lens where you normally put your eye.The rest of it holds the eyepiece itself .In this case it is made to insert into a two inch eyepiece holder on any telescope.The eyepiece is a standard Meade 20mm Plossl that you often get free with their scopes or something similar to this.Below is a test photograph using a takahashi FS102 on an object at 200 metres distance....Yes you can still use the camera zoom as well.....

At this point it is looking good for builders who need to change chimney pots..so lets point it at something easy that is bright....

The picture above was taken in milliseconds.With the camera on its own and just a tripod in fifteen seconds exposure you get...

Yes the white dots are stars but on a darker sky site there is some potential so lets try a time lapse registax combination for fun...

This a tracked time exposure of one minute my rose bushes come out very well...

It is very handy on the end of a solar telescope as well but you have to experiment a lot with exposures,contrast settings etc to get a good picture, hazy whizz bangs going on at the top of the picture...

Below is a time lapse composite of fifty one minute spaced exposures of 15 seconds in length.Registax assembles these into the type of image below.Remember no filters,using filters against the light pollution will render a much more star related visible image.

If you look at the picture carefully we live on a rotating ball.The array is very sensitive so I see no reason at the moment why it should not take astro pics.The olympus lens assembly on the camera is a wonder of modern computer fashioning of lens assemblies for ten cents cost.The time lapse function is useful to eliminate vibration and you can use it on a tracking telescope to take pictures all night on its own if necessary.If you wish to see a normal photograph of a very picturesque part of the city of Birmingham then there is a wide anglePlanet earth picture which is 200 metres from where I work in the center of the city of Birmingham UK.

I think this camera has potential and could be a bit of fun for 150 euros in cost.Forgetting astrophotography it is one of the highest quality,idiot proof hand cameras for general photography I have ever seen for the money.It bounces off concrete floors well without damage as I have accidentally given it the one metre drop test twice already.In the quality of the human interface to machine structure it is excellent and well thought out.The only faults that I can find with that is that you have to use old fashioned cable push rods for bulb exposures.For some reason nobody at Olympus has thought of using the USB interface for that.It is also a battery gobbler if you use off the shelf AA alkaline batteries.When you are taking even normal photographs you are ejecting them like shotgun shells in a clay pigeon shooting competition.The solution is NiMh 2.5 ampere hour re-chargeable batteries or a power supply as the usage current is up to half an amp at 3 volts DC.As these are a lower voltage you have to ignore the low battery warnings.As expected the large display at the back is useless in bright sunlight but makes a very good torch so that you can find that dropped eyepiece in the dark at night.