[MikesChevelle]

Using what I have in my sig.

I know I dont want to shoot for longer than 10-15 seconds, so do I use my 500mm F8 at a higher ISO or will I yeild better IQ from my 50mm at F2 just blown up in Gimp, or is the best bet with one of my two zooms?

[Nass]

Moon shots are typically 1/50 - 1/100 of a sec with 500 f8 - any longer and the moon's momement causes blurriness. A good tripod, shake reduction off, and try some bracketing somewhere around those speeds.

50mm and you'll see very little detail - 500mm and you'll see lots... if you have one of those cool astro movement gyroscope thingies even better.

[JeffJS]

Using what I have in my sig.

I know I dont want to shoot for longer than 10-15 seconds, so do I use my 500mm F8 at a higher ISO or will I yeild better IQ from my 50mm at F2 just blown up in Gimp, or is the best bet with one of my two zooms?

Use your 500mm and spot meter a mid range spot on the moon. You are taking a picture of DAYLIGHT. That is, the sunlight bouncing off of the moon. Your exposure should be no more than about 1/2 second if that. The moon moves and the earth rotates. You'll never get a clean picture, even at 1 second, unless you have some sort of tracking device. Certainly not at 10 seconds.

If you really want to have some fun with it though, get one of those 600-2000mm zoom lenses (or whatever they are)..



Here's the full sized version (ISO400, 1/400sec, K20d, f9)

[bdery]

None of these lenses are stellar, so none will give amazing results. Your best bet is of course to use a tele lens, not to crop an image via software. Use a tripod, set your lens at around f13-f16, use the self-timer, disable SR, and take many shots. Also make sure to shoot outside of any city, with minimal air pollution, wind, turbulences, light pollution, vibrations, etc. In winter, on the top of a hill, is the best.

Your 500 mm could be an obvious good choice because of its reach, however I've never heard anything amazing about those lsnses. But you know your glass better than me. Try all of your lenses if you can, and select the best picture.

[PentaxPoke]

Woohoo! Another moon thread!

I agree with what Jeff said. My recommendations:

-Shoot the 500mm on a tripod. That lens is good enough to get some excellent pics. At 500mm, even the slightest amount of shake will result in poor sharpness.
-Spot meter off of the moon surface. Unless it is a thin crescent moon which can be difficult. Don't worry as much about aperture. Use a faster shutter speed to avoid any motion blur.
-Oddly enough this recommendation is quite important for sharp moon photos: Don't take pictures of the moon at a full moon. This is counter-intuitive, but it is true, and many people are quite disappointed because of this. At full moon the light is reflected right at you and there is very little contrast. Even looking through a telescope a full moon looks lifeless and boring. (Just like direct flash ) When the moon is side-lit the craters start to "pop"

This is a pic taken with my k10d and the 18-250 at 250mm. Handheld, 1/180, f/6.3, ISO 100.



Note that this is an older camera, a "superzoom" lens (that many mistakenly think is not sharp), handheld, and a crop. Even so, it is reasonably sharp, and doesn't look artificial IMO. I think you might be able to do better with your 500mm, (although I am not familiar with that particular lens).

Also, one request: When you do take a picture of the moon, please try to refrain from cranking the sharpness setting up to "11" in order to make it sharp. There are so many people that do that and it makes for a very artificial-looking picture.

Have fun!


Edit: Here is what I mean about a full moon looking dull. This is a picture taken on the k20d using an 8in SC telescope (2000mm equivalent). Click on the picture for a larger image. No extra artificial sharpening applied. Notice if you look at the center of the moon, it looks dull and maybe even out of focus. It is not. Take a look at the edge of the moon, where the sun is at an angle, and see how sharp and detailed it is.

[Marc Sabatella]

Another thing - be careful abotu focus. Don't assume you can simply turn the focus ring to infinity - chances are it will be a bit blurry. Trust your eyes and/or the focus indicator in the viewfinder.

With the camera held steadily enough and a short enough exposure to avoid the movement of the moon tself (OK, rotation of the earth) creating blur, the Samyang-made 500/8 (which is what the Hoenix is) might not be the sharpest lens on the block, but should still beat a crop from most shorter lenses. Certainly it will beat a crop from any 50mm by a mile, because 50mm just isn't nearly long enough. I find my 500/8 on my (10MP) K200D beats cropping my DA50-200 and Tamron 70-300. I can't be certain it would beat the DA55-300, but I suspect it would, if only barely. That also might depend on the resolution of your camera - more pixels to work with might help the 55-300's chances.

[MikesChevelle]

Awesome, didnt realize I can use such a short shutter speed, but then again, it makes sense

[PentaxPoke]

Awesome, didnt realize I can use such a short shutter speed, but then again, it makes sense

Yup, you are taking a picture of daylight as jeff said. The EV is about 13, so at f/8 and ISO 100 you could use a shutter speed of about 1/125. You will definitely need a tripod for that since you are shooting 500mm. You might even want to use a 2s delay so that the shake on the tripod from you pressing the button has time to damp out. You could also go to iso 200 and shoot 1/250.

[MikesChevelle]

Im gonna play around with my 2x teleconverter too, see if I cant find that man in the moon

[Ben_Edict]

Using what I have in my sig.

I know I dont want to shoot for longer than 10-15 seconds, so do I use my 500mm F8 at a higher ISO or will I yeild better IQ from my 50mm at F2 just blown up in Gimp, or is the best bet with one of my two zooms?

For imaging the moon a short expsoure time is paramount to minimize the motion blurr, induced by the its movement across the sky and to reduce the image degradation by atmospheric "seeing" effects.

If you want to really bring out interesting details, there is no way, you can do that with a 50mm lens. The moon disc will be 0.5mm across, which is tiny and no "blow up" will safe any significant details. The moon's diameter at 100mm focal length is 1mm and will increase with any additional 100mm focal length by 1mm. You can fill your sensor with a lens of app. 1,600mm focal length.

Ok, there have been several threads about photographing the moon during the last months. Here are some of the more interesting ones:

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/general-photography-techniques-styles/626...elevation.html
– read through all the pages, there is some info distributed among them and some nice example shots) -

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/63514-pentax-k...-55-300mm.html
--page 1 is particularily interesting, talking about exposure times.

https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-slr-lens-discussion/59437-tou-five...0mm-f-8-a.html
-- also some example shots and discussion of cheap lenses

Ben

[Ex Finn.]

Bracket your exposures and bracket your focusing, also shoot a lot of images to maximize your chance of catching a good moment of seeing. My best shots are from around 4 or 5 am with very still air.
Forget anything shorter than 500 mm in focal length.

Cheers, Mike.

[Oggy]

One of mine with the 150-500 -




Another reason for using the 2 second delay is that it locks the mirror up when the button is pressed so less vibration again.

[schitzengiggles]

All your moon shots are the wrong way up! Everyone knows the Southern hemisphere is the place to be, as demonstrated by this moon shot!
Picasa Web Albums - schitzengiggles.net

[Raybo]

Jpeg right out of my K100DS using an MTO 1000mm, no crop or PP.