Are you a owner of Fujifilm Camera X-T4 and would you like to use it for Astrophotography ?
Yes ?
Yea It is a great camera, it has a good sensor for that and the filter do not block IR-Spektrum like other camera on the Market (i.e Canon or Nikon) so with a stock Fuji X-T3 or X-T4 (they have the same sensor) you can get nice result with object like Ha Nebulas.
Now you would like to used it connected to a PC, and may doing Guiding, diether, Plate Solving ? Yes ? ok, on the web you can find many software that can do that. One of the most famous through Astrophotografy is APT or (Astrophotography Tool), but..yes there is a but, APT and Fuji X-T4 are not compatible. Fujifilm Co, do not provide communication library of the camera (USB).
So what? We cannot use it ? The answer is found on Indi (https://www.indilib.org) and Kstars and Ekos (https://edu.kde.org/kstars).
To use the Fuji X-T4 or even X-T3 or may other Fuji camera you nee to install Indi, Kstars and Ekos.
In my set up I usse a Raspberry PI4 with installed Astroberry, I use the Ekos tool of Kstar and gor Guiding I use PHD2.
Not a jeek in informatics/Linux ? do not worrie astro berry is pretty already build/pre installed, just create a an image to the PI uSD card, and its prtty done... (https://www.astroberry.io).
The tricky part is the final setup and setting in Indi and Ekos... let go through on them:
Hardware setup:
- Laptop Windows with Kstars-Ekos, wifi connected to the PI4
- PI4 with Astroberry + a 256GB USB stick to store the taken photos
- Main Camera X-T4 connected directly on the PI4 USB-3 (Blue Port) File is Native (.raf)
- Guide camera QHY5II & - EQ 3 Synscan Mount connected through a Powered USB Hub on USB 2 of the PI4 (Black port)
- Astroberry drivers:
- Fuji X-T4 Driver -> GPhoto Fuji (libgphoto2 2.5.25 or newer)
- QHY Driver -> GPhoto QHY
- EQ3 Synscan Mount -> EQ Mount
- Settings in the Fuji X-T4 Camera:
- Manual Focus.
- Mechanic Shutter (MS).
- "B" setting on exposure dial (Bulb mode) .
- PC Connection Mode set to "USB tether shooting auto"
- USB power supply setting, set to OFF
- Shoot without lens = ON.
- Image stabilization -> OFF.
- Indi / Ekos Setting:
- Indi Control Panel – Options screen “Force Bulb” must be OFF
- Ekos Capture Module to “Save = Remotely” in this mode the image files are saved in the Pi, I use a USB stick of 256 GB.
- In the Indi Control Panel – Options is set to “Upload = Local” choose the corret path of your PI.
- SD Card "Save or Delete" seems to not work, in my set up no photos are stored into the SD card in either setting.
Notes:
In my setup the Liveview it is not working.
Supported Fuji Camera from GPhoto Lib: (http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote)
| Camera Name | Libgphoto2 capture support | Controllable aspects | Liveview / Webcam | Megapixel | Notes |
|---|
| Fuji GFX 100 | Yes | All | Yes | 102 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.24 or newer |
| Fuji GFX 50R | Yes | All | Yes | 51 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.23 or newer |
| Fuji GFX 50S | Yes | All | Yes | 50 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.19 or newer |
| Fuji X-A series | No | None | No | ? | Apparently remote control not supported by camera. |
| Fuji X-E series | No | None | No | ? | Apparently remote control not supported by camera. |
| Fuji X-H1 | Yes | All | Yes | 24 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.19 or newer |
| Fuji X-Pro2 | Yes | All | Yes | 24 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.19 or newer |
| Fuji X-T1 | Yes | All | Yes | 16 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.19 or newer |
| Fuji X-T10 | No | None | No | 16 | The lower end Fuji cameras X-Tx0 do not support remote control apparently. |
| Fuji X-T2 | Yes | All | Yes | 24 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.19 or newer |
| Fuji X-T20 | No | None | No | 24 | The lower end Fuji cameras X-Tx0 do not support remote control apparently. |
| Fuji X-T3 | Yes | All | Yes | 26 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.20 or newer |
| Fuji X-T30 | No | None | No | 26 | The lower end Fuji cameras X-Tx0 do not support remote control apparently. |
| Fuji X-T4 | Yes | All | Yes | 26 | Use libgphoto2 2.5.25 or newer |
Hope this ould help, if not the forum on Indi is full of very good people, which help a lot. (https://www.indilib.org/forum)
For X-T3 users -> https://www.indilib.org/forum/ccds-dslrs/8729-fuji-x-t3-observations-what-i-ve-learned-so-far.html
Please let me know if you have troubles in setting you equipment, if possible I can help you.
Cheers Timopro