I don’t know about you, but my night-time photography sucks.
I see a beautiful moon, take out my phone and snap it, thinking that my picture will blow minds.
I upload the photo to Google Photos with great anticipation, only to be greeted by this:
There’s been a growing disgust among professional photographers over the last few years and I suspect it’s fueled by guys like me, although none of my pro-photography friends would say it to my face.
“No, your night photos are, um, amazing. Wow, just look at that… What exactly were you trying?”
The dysphoria from the upper echelon of photography is understandable.
True photography is an art, and no matter how many people shout, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” an ugly photo, like the one above, is still just that.
But there’s a new kid on the block. One that should cause even more anxiety among professional photographers, especially those who fork out big bucks for their gear.
It’s the TINY1 astrophotography camera.
The “Tiny” in the name is no mistake.
It’s a Lilliputian camera, considering what it offers the user.
It packs a punch.
Let’s see what makes the TINY1 astrophotography camera stand out from the crowd.
Size
At 4,44in x 2.71in x 0.86in (113mm x 69mm x 22mm), the TINY1 is roughly the size of a modern smart phone.
At the back, the part you’ll be staring at a lot, is a 4.3 inch multi-capacitive touch IPS panel that takes up most of the space.
As you can see, there is no viewfinder, only a humongous screen reminiscent of a smartphone’s. That should make any tech-savvy user (and even less tech-savvy users) comfortable with the TINY1.
Material
The TINY1’s brains are inside an aerospace grade aluminium mono-body. Everything is enclosed inside a one-piece frame, which means your TINY1 won’t spill its guts or get bent out of shape.
Capabilities
Take a look at some of these pics and tell me they’re not beautiful. I dare you.
Only 4 MP? This thing sucks…
Hold on there, cowboy.
You’ve been scammed by marketing.
Actually, you’ve allowed yourself to be scammed by marketers, if you believe that the mighty megapixel is the only thing that matters.
Megapixel count refers to the size you can blow up a photo before it pixelates.
If you have a smartphone with a 5 bajillion MP camera, and your pics blow up to the size of the moon, I’m happy for you, but if the picture is all noise, this means you have a huge photo, but it still sucks.
In others words, the sensible way to look at it is to be content with a LOWER MP count, if it means your photo will be more crisp.
The TINY1 camera gives you crisp photos. You can’t blow them up to the size of a tennis court, but your photos are clearer than when you use a phone, because a phone is not optimized to shoot at night.
Besides, give it time.
I’m sure they’ll start using higher resolution once the product is selling well. Remember the first generation GoPro, and how you thought it was awesome?
It shoots RAW
The TINY1 shoots raw images. The camera currently supports .DNG and .RAW formats, but the developers aim to add support for the .FITS format in future.
It shoots video
The TINY1 shoots video too. Here’s the lowdown:
- 2688 x 1520 60FPS/30FPS
- 1280 x 720 (binned) 180FPS/120FPS/60FPS/30FPS
- H.264 MPEG/AVI
It takes any lens
The TINY1 comes with a standard CS mount. You can attach any lens, including DSLR or mirrorless, to the TINY1. It even takes telescopes.
Of course, you’d need the correct adapters to make it work. It doesn’t simple click to any lens automagically.
But no camera automagically snaps to a wide variety of lenses, so this is not a bad thing.
It shows what you’re shooting
It’s great to take pics of the stars, but it’s even better to know what you’re taking pictures of. It makes you look like more of a pro.
The TINY1 has a built-in real-time star map, like Sky Map or Star Chart for mobile devices. You can download a demo of the app from the Google Play store.
Affordable and easy to manage
To call yourself an amateur astrophotographer, you need the following equipment:
- A digital SLR or Interchangeable Lens camera body (starting at $650)
- A wide-angle lens (starting at $250)
- A tripod (starting at $49)
- A headlamp (to shed light on what you’re doing; starting at $32)
That’s the BARE minimum. And they’re bulky items to lug around. Once you start adding larger lenses, it becomes even more difficult to manage.
(Thanks to Lonely Spec for the breakdown.)
With the TINY1 setup, you need the following:
- A TINY1 camera (starting at below $500, as per their website, and early bird backers receive significant discount)
- A tripod (starting at $49)
- A headlamp (to shed light on what you’re doing; starting at $32)
The TINY1 is a much more affordable option and a lot less hassle than a standard DSLR.
How to use
Because the interface is like a smartphone’s, it should be a breeze to learn how to operate this camera, even for the most stubborn of technophobes. Also, it’s a touch screen and the OS offers you large buttons.
If the demo app is anything to go by, this camera should be a joy to use. Much better than some of the cameras I’ve tried to use.
Links with your smart phone
The TINY1 camera pairs with your phone. This means that your phone and your camera can have a whale of a time and discuss all sorts of things without you breaking a sweat over whether the relationship will work or not.
Send pics you take with the TINY1 to your favorite social network, almost immediately.
A match made in heaven.
This is one time your Cupid ain’t stupid.
Daytime use
With the flip of a switch you can activate the IR cut filter and use the TINY1 like you would use your normal camera or your smartphone camera.
Perfect for selfies, if that’s your thing.
Operational temperatures
The camera is designed to work between the -10 to 55 degree Celsius range. Anything colder and it’ll probably get frostbite. Anything warmer and it’ll probably get skin cancer.
Astrophotography tips
Look, no matter how good the camera, if you don’t know what you’re doing (like me, most of the time) your photos will suck.
If you want to be known as the Annie Leibovitz of astrophotography, you’ll need some guidance.
And there’s no better place to learn the basics of astrophotography than PhotographyTalk. They wrote a post tackling the basics of astrophotography. This gives you a great intro into the dark world of shooting stars.
Final thoughts
The TINY1 will be making anything but a tiny impact on Instagram, Facebook and other social platforms.
You should witness a rise in quality of photos posted to these and other social media platforms, if the TINY1 takes off.
Find out more about the TINY1 at the TinyMOS website.