Star trails

[donnnnnny]

Im heading out to the Simpson desert in late june for a 2 week trip.
I plan to use my 617 panoramic camera for some star trail shots.
Would i be best with 120 slide film such as vevia asa 400 or B+W asa 400.
Im planing on some 4 hour exposures or would anyone have some advice on this type of shot.
I know to shoot south, but interested in exposure times on full circle r trails
cheers don

[TOM]

black and white would be a great option, but if you do want colour, i'd personally steer clear of chrome. negative colour film will have far greater latitude and therefore will be more foregiving. my recommendation for film would be:

B&W - ilford pan 50 or ilford delta 100 or rollie pan 25 or fuji neapon acros 100

Colour - Kodak Ektar 100 or Fuji Reala 100

Good luck.

[donnnnnny]

Will the asa 100+50 be fast enough for star trails?? i tried with asa 100 postive and got very poor results ?
black and white would be a great option, but if you do want colour, i'd personally steer clear of chrome. negative colour film will have far greater latitude and therefore will be more foregiving. my recommendation for film would be:

B&W - ilford pan 50 or ilford delta 100 or rollie pan 25 or fuji neapon acros 100

Colour - Kodak Ektar 100 or Fuji Reala 100

Good luck.

[fabian628]

For a full circle you would need 24h :) but most stars will cover other tracks. I got a good looking picture with a 1 hour exposure but the longer the better I guess. Settings I used were f/8 iso 100. Can't see why this wouldnt work as well with film.

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af352/Natural_Defence_Plant2/IMG_86921-1.jpg

[donnnnnny]

Thanks for the reply, I want to use a Gaorsie 617 panorama camera with Schneider super angulon F8 lens.
MY play is to shoot in portrait mode for some tall pannos.
I still am not sure on the film i will buy, guess i better head down to vision image at waterloo for a chat

[ameerat42]

You won't need iso400 for such long shots. Though, what is the focal length of that lens? As long as you have at least 1 inch of clear aperture iso100 or 160 would be heaps.
4 hours would tend to give some reciprocity failure. Check out how much by looking up the film specs. Also, 4 hours will star trail give arcs of 60 degrees, or 1/6 of a circle.
Other than that, sounds like fun with a super wide angulon.
Am.
OK, just looked it up. There are three I found, all f/8
f=65mm, widest aperture 8mm
f=90mm, w a 11mm
f=120mm, w a 15mm
There's approx a stop difference between each consecutive lens. I might revise what I said earlier about iso400, though I still think it might be a bit too fast and give some washing out of nebular features, eg Milky Way.
Could give it a local try.

[doigal]

Reciprocity will be the factor. forget ISO400 stuff, go for the proven long exposure: Kodak E100/E200, Fuji reala 100 and T64.