Camera Labs

Ok... i have tried at the last full mon with my D200 and now this oe with my D90 ..... i still cant get it....any suggestions?

I tried high Fstops (12-22) , low/fast shutter speeds, high/low ISO ......im lost.

The image in the viewfinder is crisp.... i set the timer and when i vew the image it is blurry.

here are two examples from last night:





Thanx for your help!

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Digital SLR Photographer as of Janurary 2008
NIKON D90 w/grip || D300 w/grip || D2x || NIKKOR 18-105 ED VR || NIKKOR 50mm 1.8 || NIKKOR 70-300 ED VR || NIKKOR 70-200 2.8 || SIGMA 28-70 2.8 || 2x Teleconverter || SB-900 Flash || SB-600 Flash || SLIK Tripod

Firstly, the moon is pretty bright. Try to lower the exposure if you want more detail of the surface of the moon. I tend to stick with lower ISOs, say up to 400.

Also I'd stick to bigger apertures. Try a couple steps down from widest but I wouldn't normally go much smaller than f/10 or so. This will give you as much light as possible while keeping in most lens' sweet spot. I don't think depth of field is much to worry about here and diffraction softening will take over if you try too small.

Shutter speeds, depends on various things but I have experimented around 1/50 to 1/200.

Finally, and this is what got me most, even if it looks stable in the viewfinder, there is still potentially a lot of air movement. If you have a zoomable live view mode, look at it using that.

I tend to set continuous mode and take bursts of 10 shots or so at a time. Flicking between them I can see the moon distort through the air. By taking many shots, you increase the chance of getting good ones.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

I usually use something like FL = 1120mm(in 35mm format), F-number = 12, ISO = 200/400 and Tv = 1/300. But what settings you needs naturally depends on the lens you use. If you use your NIKKOR 70-300 ED VR at 300 mm with the 2x Teleconverter then you should have a FL = (1,5*300*2) = 900mm (in 35mm format). That setup surely should give you better results … looking at the distribution of the picture diagram gives me the impression that you are using some strange camera settings. Try to see if your RAW files can “fix” the issue.

Hi TheHawk1973,

What are we looking at here, 100% crops? If so then you may not get much better sharpness, though reducing the exposure will help. If not 100% crops then try manual focus and take a sequence of shots, adjusting the focus by trial and error by checking fully magnified results on your camera's LCD screen after each shot.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Maybe there's also a little camera shake as you pressed the shutter. I always use the self timer or a cable release when shooting the moon.

I'd also suggest photographing the moon in a different phase as it shows more shadow detail. The full moon looks completely flat...

Well you can expand the dynamic range as I did in this shot:

Maybe it is possible to combine a lot of shot from different phases and get a better full moon shot?

Hmmm, I get the point but maybe it would sound better to say pail or washed out instead of … flat