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liammclennan
07-14-2009, 05:29 AM
Has anyone else tried photographing the moon? This was taken at 250mm which is not nearly enough. That is why it looks a little soft.

I used manual focusing and found that the focus was extremely sensitive. A tiny turn either way would throw it way out of focus. I don't know if that is just because of my cheap lenses. :cry-an:
Greg_Nuspel
07-14-2009, 07:53 AM
Atmospheric conditions also will cause soft focus of the moon. Wait till it's a clear winter night -40c works well:evil2:
nomad358
07-14-2009, 08:19 AM
Still quite good for 250mm! Nice one!
liammclennan
07-15-2009, 05:36 AM
I could be waiting a while for -40C. I think even if I had a longer telephoto, like 400mm, it would make a huge difference. The image I posted is 1:1, that's how much I cropped it.
AntZ
07-15-2009, 06:12 AM
Certainly great moon shots are more difficult than one would think. At that sort of crop even with a good lens will struggle. The great news is the moon is somewhat available for a reshoot.:D So there is lots of time to practise.
Mad Aussie
07-19-2009, 03:20 AM
It's not a bad effort at all Liam. As others said ... moon is a hard subject. For a start it's moving ... and the further you zoom in, the more the movement is an issue. Settings that allow the use of a short shutter speed are essential.
Also, use Mirror Lockup and tripod if you have them.
liammclennan
07-19-2009, 05:23 AM
The movement of the moon is not something I had considered. Through the live view I certainly could not notice any movement. I think I could do much better with a very long, very fast lens.

I did use mirror lockup and a tripod.
Mad Aussie
07-19-2009, 02:52 PM
Well it sounds like you did all you could unless you could have upped the ISO a bit and sped up the shutter speed.
liammclennan
07-21-2009, 04:38 AM
More detail: http://www.google.com/moon/
Iguanasan
07-21-2009, 07:12 AM
Something that is counter-intuitive about "shooting the moon" is that it is reflected sunlight. You actually want to expose for almost daylight conditions otherwise you'll overexpose and make it blurry. Note that your settings here seem pretty good.

What you need to do is check out the astronomy sites in your part of the world for something like this site (http://cleardarksky.com/csk/) which shows you the best time for clarity.