DSLR or DSLM

Oskari Nikkinen:
If youre talking about astrophotography then neither, instead a proper astronomy camera.

If you’re shooting nightscapes and star trails than you gotta use a DSLR or DSLM, plus astronomy cameras are complicated and expensive, at least for DSO astrophotography, I’m really talking from a beginner standpoint.

For me a mirrorless camera is the go, specifically the EOS Ra. I use it as my daylight camera and for DSO imaging, making it cost effective as the one camera does both jobs. Cannot use a dedicated astro cam for daylight imaging. The Ra is incredibly sensitive in Live View too, no matter where I point the scope, there are lots of stars to focus on, and the 30x zoom makes accurate focus easy. It's so sensitive that comets look brighter and more detailed in live view than visually with an eyepiece in the same scope.

I would love to get an Ra, but I don’t have the budget to, I wish more companies would release Astro dedicated DSLMs.

As a beginner I found the mirror flip sound annoying every 3 seconds during focusing or 3ppa so I got a tiny sensor osc.

Everything is this hobby is a tradeoff of some sort

For low budget applications, yes i agree a DSLR or mirrorless is the best option. But if we are looking at a say 500€+ budget then astronomy cameras are almost objectively a better choice. The 585 is a great camera, yes the sensor is smaller than an APS-C sized DSLR sensor, but this isn't really an issue because the sky is full of targets of all sizes to image. For a bit more you could get a 533, which is a bit bigger.

I would recommend to beginners that no serious money gets invested in a DSLR, because eventually, and often sooner rather than later, the road leads to purchasing an astronomy camera. And once you do, there is no going back and you wonder why you hesitated in the first place. Saying that as someone who went from a 550D to a cooled IMX571 camera, i feel like there could be a 3-4x speed increase with just this camera upgrade and that is not hyperbole at all.

As for the Canon Ra models, i think these make almost no sense. Way overpriced and you can get a top of the line cooled astronomy camera for less money than that. I dont really buy the ease of use argument either. For anything but the ultra beginner couple of first tries with astrophotography we are going to be autoguiding with the setup, which requires a computer of some kind. That takes the ease of use argument completely out of the picture, since you could just use that computer to run the camera as well so there is practically no added complexity.

My 2 cents, no-one asked and not really what the thread was about but there we go.

Oskari Nikkinen:
For low budget applications, yes i agree a DSLR or mirrorless is the best option. But if we are looking at a say 500€+ budget then astronomy cameras are almost objectively a better choice. The 585 is a great camera, yes the sensor is smaller than an APS-C sized DSLR sensor, but this isn't really an issue because the sky is full of targets of all sizes to image. For a bit more you could get a 533, which is a bit bigger.

I would recommend to beginners that no serious money gets invested in a DSLR, because eventually, and often sooner rather than later, the road leads to purchasing an astronomy camera. And once you do, there is no going back and you wonder why you hesitated in the first place. Saying that as someone who went from a 550D to a cooled IMX571 camera, i feel like there could be a 3-4x speed increase with just this camera upgrade and that is not hyperbole at all.

As for the Canon Ra models, i think these make almost no sense. Way overpriced and you can get a top of the line cooled astronomy camera for less money than that. I dont really buy the ease of use argument either. For anything but the ultra beginner couple of first tries with astrophotography we are going to be autoguiding with the setup, which requires a computer of some kind. That takes the ease of use argument completely out of the picture, since you could just use that computer to run the camera as well so there is practically no added complexity.

My 2 cents, no-one asked and not really what the thread was about but there we go.

Starting out with a DSLM and tripod, slowly upgrading until I get a full Astro setup

Can you pay about $415 for astro cooled camera?

Computers is needed because of digital anyway, whatever other methods anyone will use with DSLR/DSLM they have to end up with computers anyway, unless we are talking about mobiles, but nowadays the computers became like something important, maybe not a must to some, but those who are into photography and astrophotography and want to improve must get one, also using DSLR/DSLM for astrophotography without computers then no processing is like getting a driving license without a car or vehicle to drive.

With a static tripod and a camera (I'd prefer a DSLR being cheaper in the mean) a laptop is an encumbrance you don't want to deal with. The only trick is to have a preset focus mark on the lens and that might take a bit trial and error and quite possibly a computer too but that can be done before venturing in the field.