{"id":808650,"date":"2026-10-20T13:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808650\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T13:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T13:48:14","slug":"astrophotographer-tricks-camera-into-tracking-stars-with-neat-handheld-mode-hack-creating-amazing-milky-way-shot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/808650\/","title":{"rendered":"Astrophotographer \u201ctricks\u201d camera into tracking stars with neat handheld mode hack, creating amazing Milky Way shot"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Reddit user has shared how they \u201ctricked\u201d their camera into essentially becoming a star tracker, too, with the resulting image of the Milky Way turning out surprisingly well.<\/p>\n

Reddit user<\/a> Prestigious-Ad-5238 was shooting with an OM System OM-5<\/a> Micro Four Thirds (MFT) camera using the Handheld High-Res Shot (HHHR) mode. HHHR is a built-in OM-5 function that enables a user to shoot eight RAW or JPEG files, with the camera stitching them together automatically to create a single 50MP file.<\/p>\n

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As a handheld mode, the camera expects camera-body shake and, therefore, looks for contrast points in the frame \u2013 such as stars \u2013 to align all eight images across the sequence.<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromDigital Camera World<\/p>\n

However, as Prestigious-Ad-5238 was photographing the Milky Way using a 30-second shutter speed, they mounted the camera on a tripod, meaning there was no camera shake, creating a perfectly aligned image of the galaxy. \u201cIt basically tricks the camera into tracking the stars for you!\u201d said the astrophotographer.<\/p>\n

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\"Milky
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(Image credit: u\/Prestigious-Ad-5238)<\/p>\n

While the OM-5 also features a Tripod High Res Shot (THR) mode, this wouldn’t have created the same result. THR also captures eight frames and automatically stitches them together, albeit into an even higher-resolution 80MP final image.<\/p>\n

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But as the functionality expects the camera to be mounted on a tripod, it does not account for any camera shake and, therefore, does not anchor all images along a contrast point within the frame.<\/p>\n

This is problematic for astrophotographers wanting clean images without star trails, because the rotation of the Earth would turn stars into streaks of light when using THR mode and a slow shutter speed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe whole process takes about five minutes of camera work, so actually handholding it is impossible,\u201d said Prestigious-Ad-5238. \u201cThe trick is that you must use the Handheld Hi-Res mode while mounted on the tripod,\u201d they reiterated.<\/p>\n

OM SYSTEM OM-5: Insane 80MP High-Res Photos with HHHR Mode – YouTube
\n\"OM<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

Watch: astrophotographer explain how Handheld Hi-Res mode works on the OM-5<\/p>\n

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Here’s our astrophotography expert, James Carter’s, take on the best cameras for astrophotography<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reddit user has shared how they \u201ctricked\u201d their camera into essentially becoming a star tracker, too, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-808650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}