Royce Bair
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We talked with the "father of nightscape photography"
🕑 Added 2025-05-09 15:03:28 +0000 UTCThe late Alyn Wallace once called me the "founding father of landscape astrophotography." A local TV station picked up on that quote and used it as the title for a 3-minute live interview they did on me earlier this week.
If you're interested, here's a LINK to the story and a video clip of the interview.
Full-frame 35mm Cameras vs. Smartphone Cameras for Milky Way Photography: In the above television interview, the host asked, "Where do beginners [like herself] start when it comes to taking Milky Way photos?"
I told her that 10 years ago I was often asked by TV interviewers if their iPhones could take photos of the Milky Way like the ones I was showing from my first eBook edition, and I told them that the tiny sensors in smartphone cameras could NOT record the night stars! However, that has changed in the past few years, with some of these little cameras doing a pretty amazing job due to onboard stacking techniques employed by our smartphone cameras.
Samsung Galaxy S23 vs. Sony a7S III: I told the TV host that some of the Samsung Galaxy S series smartphones, like the S23 do a better job recording the Milky Way than my iPhone — in fact, they are comparable in some applications to a $3,500 full-frame professional camera, like the Sony a7S III.
Although I didn't mention it in this live interview, I was referring to this video timelapse comparison by Sadegh Hayati. While the results from the S23 may not acceptable for astrophotographers, it shows that almost anyone can now capture a beautiful scene with a simple handheld device — producing results that will amaze their friends and preserve wonderful memories of their night experience.
