Rant: My 8 year old DSLR beat my new phone on the Milky Way, and I feel silly for waiting so long
Two Fridays ago I drove out to a spot near Joshua Tree with both my phone and an old Canon T3i I got for $150 used. The phone gave me a bright purple mess with streaks, but the DSLR with a $30 kit lens on a cheap tripod pulled in actual dust lanes in the galaxy. I had been putting off real camera shots for almost 2 years because I thought phones had caught up. Turns out the mount and a 20 second exposure matter way more than I figured. What is your go to cheap setup for wide field shots like this?