Holy crap, I did it! Sony HX80 Moon Shot

Evenstar606 · Jun 30, 2017

I took this today with my Sony HX80. It was a challenge due to the high zoom required, since the scene starts moving all over the higher you zoom. But, I did it! I captured the detail of the craters! I wasn't sure what setting to use, so I used either Aperture Priority or Intelligent Auto for this. Any suggestions on how to take future shots like this are much appreciated (what I can do better, which settings, etc).

--
Courtney

tbcass · Jun 30, 2017

Are you saying it was hand held? If so your steadiness is remarkable. For further reference a general rule of thumb is f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso. Waiting until it's darker is also a good idea ;-)

bluzcity · Jun 30, 2017

That's really good Courtney. Thumbs up!

RicksAstro · Jun 30, 2017

tbcass said:
Are you saying it was hand held? If so your steadiness is remarkable. For further reference a general rule of thumb is f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso. Waiting until it's darker is also a good idea ;-)

I suppose that would give you a good exposure, but stopping down to f8, forcing a higher ISO, seems counterproductive especially for a small chip camera.

A general rule for steadiness is 1/Effective Focal Length for shutter speed but that's without any stabilization. I think 1/200 seems to be a good shutter for a stabilized moon shot. Then set the ISO to not blow out the moon. So I think this shot was about optimal, other than waiting for darker background. I'd probably drop the ISO down a stop as well since the highlights were a little blown out.

--
Rick Krejci
http://www.ricksastro.com

tbcass · Jun 30, 2017

RicksAstro said:
tbcass said:

Are you saying it was hand held? If so your steadiness is remarkable. For further reference a general rule of thumb is f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso. Waiting until it's darker is also a good idea ;-)

Click to expand...

I suppose that would give you a good exposure, but stopping down to f8, forcing a higher ISO, seems counterproductive especially for a small chip camera.

No because you should be using a tripod so f8 at iso100 it would be 1/100. I always get great results with the f8 1/iso rule.

RicksAstro said:
A general rule for steadiness is 1/Effective Focal Length for shutter speed but that's without any stabilization. I think 1/200 seems to be a good shutter for a stabilized moon shot. Then set the ISO to not blow out the moon. So I think this shot was about optimal, other than waiting for darker background. I'd probably drop the ISO down a stop as well since the highlights were a little blown out.

In your case you could use iso 200 at f8. BTW I did not make up the rule. It goes back to the film days.

--
Tom
Look at the picture, not the pixels

Evenstar606 · Jun 30, 2017

tbcass said:
Are you saying it was hand held? If so your steadiness is remarkable. For further reference a general rule of thumb is f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso. Waiting until it's darker is also a good idea ;-)

Evenstar606 · Jun 30, 2017

RicksAstro said:
tbcass said:

Are you saying it was hand held? If so your steadiness is remarkable. For further reference a general rule of thumb is f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso. Waiting until it's darker is also a good idea ;-)

Click to expand...

I suppose that would give you a good exposure, but stopping down to f8, forcing a higher ISO, seems counterproductive especially for a small chip camera.

A general rule for steadiness is 1/Effective Focal Length for shutter speed but that's without any stabilization. I think 1/200 seems to be a good shutter for a stabilized moon shot. Then set the ISO to not blow out the moon. So I think this shot was about optimal, other than waiting for darker background. I'd probably drop the ISO down a stop as well since the highlights were a little blown out.

Evenstar606 · Jun 30, 2017

bluzcity said:
That's really good Courtney. Thumbs up!

DixonLau · Jun 30, 2017

I'm not sure of HX80 as I only have one HX400V. You can have extra zoom by turning on ClearImage Zoom or switch to lower MegaPixel. Like my case I use 16:9 aspect ratio 7.5MP. Contrast +3, Saturation +3, Sharpness +3. WhiteBalance Cloudy for night moon shooting. Of course you will need high shutter speed too. The rest gonna depend on mother nature if she gonna give you a clear sky or not

taken in handheld as well.

Evenstar606 said:
I took this today with my Sony HX80. It was a challenge due to the high zoom required, since the scene starts moving all over the higher you zoom. But, I did it! I captured the detail of the craters! I wasn't sure what setting to use, so I used either Aperture Priority or Intelligent Auto for this. Any suggestions on how to take future shots like this are much appreciated (what I can do better, which settings, etc).

--
Courtney

Kharan · Jun 30, 2017

Good job! The only thing I'd have done is expose a bit lower (make a darker photo) - a lot of extra detail on the moon becomes apparent when it isn't so bright.

Also, I have to speak against Tom here - don't close the aperture to f/8! What you did is good, shoot wide open. Diffraction is already killing detail on your photo, and f/8 would only make it worse.

66GTO · Jun 30, 2017

Well done!

Evenstar606 · Jul 1, 2017

Kharan said:
Good job! The only thing I'd have done is expose a bit lower (make a darker photo) - a lot of extra detail on the moon becomes apparent when it isn't so bright.

Also, I have to speak against Tom here - don't close the aperture to f/8! What you did is good, shoot wide open. Diffraction is already killing detail on your photo, and f/8 would only make it worse.

Evenstar606 · Jul 1, 2017

66GTO said:
Well done!

RicksAstro · Jul 1, 2017

Evenstar606 said:
Kharan said:

Good job! The only thing I'd have done is expose a bit lower (make a darker photo) - a lot of extra detail on the moon becomes apparent when it isn't so bright.

Also, I have to speak against Tom here - don't close the aperture to f/8! What you did is good, shoot wide open. Diffraction is already killing detail on your photo, and f/8 would only make it worse.

Click to expand...

tbcass · Jul 1, 2017

Kharan said:
Also, I have to speak against Tom here - don't close the aperture to f/8! What you did is good, shoot wide open. Diffraction is already killing detail on your photo, and f/8 would only make it worse.

That's a good point. I forgot that diffraction sets in pretty early with small sensor cameras. My example was from an APS sensor so f8 wasn't a problem and realistically a camera like the HX80 could never match the quality of the photo I posted.

Horacecoker · Jul 1, 2017

Evenstar606 said:
I took this today with my Sony HX80. It was a challenge due to the high zoom required, since the scene starts moving all over the higher you zoom. But, I did it! I captured the detail of the craters! I wasn't sure what setting to use, so I used either Aperture Priority or Intelligent Auto for this. Any suggestions on how to take future shots like this are much appreciated (what I can do better, which settings, etc).

--
Courtney

A very good attempt! My advice would be always expose for the subject which is the moon in this instance. Whether it be a day shot or night time just set the metering for 'spot' and place the small circle that will appear in the centre of your screen on the moon. If you are in any other mode other than manual or aperture priority your F stop will be F6.3 at full zoom. This is because F6.3 is your maximum aperture at this focal length, in fact it is your only aperture because you must stay away from F8 due to diffraction. F8 on the HX80 induces the same amount of diffraction as F48 on full frame. You won't even find such small apertures as F48 on full frame lenses, they usually stop at F22 for the very reason of severe diffraction at anything smaller. Which is why the ancient rule Tom mentions of f8 at a shutter speed of 1/iso shouldn't be used when using small sensor cameras. It was only ever meant for 35mm film cameras. It can be carried over to full frame digital however, as a full frame sensor is the same size as 35mm film (hence the name full frame).

Sony doesn't allow the use of F8 in any of the full auto modes or P mode and shutter priority on the HX80 simply because Sony know diffraction will be bad. So like I say if you shoot in P mode the aperture will be F6.3 and you only have to worry about ISO and shutter speed. You don't really have to 'worry' because the camera will take care of them for you. Obviously you can take control by using shutter priority but it's a juggling act as you want the lowest ISO you can get away with but you also need a fast (ish) shutter speed if you are hand holding.

I see you have managed to hand hold this shot at 1/200 so, as I think the moon is about a stop overexposed you could use 1/200 again and then your ISO should come down to 400 or less if you use spot metering just on the moon. Don't be tempted to use any exposure compensation when spot metering, the exposure on your subject should be correct, that's the whole point of spot metering. Of course it doesn't always work like that but I find with moon shots spot metering does a good job.

Here's a moon shot I did a few months ago with the RX10iii. This was taken hand held at F4 1/1000 and ISO 200. I notice I've also got exposure compensation set to - 1/3. This wasn't deliberate. I have it set on that most of the time and sometimes forget to alter it back to zero when spot metering. According to those values I could have used 1/500 second and the ISO would have been 100 for best image quality so there's room for improvement in my shot too.

David

Kharan · Jul 1, 2017

Evenstar606 said:
Kharan said:

Good job! The only thing I'd have done is expose a bit lower (make a darker photo) - a lot of extra detail on the moon becomes apparent when it isn't so bright.

Also, I have to speak against Tom here - don't close the aperture to f/8! What you did is good, shoot wide open. Diffraction is already killing detail on your photo, and f/8 would only make it worse.

Click to expand...

SC489 · Jul 4, 2017

I took the photo below last night with my HX80 on max standard zoom, spot metering, best quality jpg setting, Program mode and used a small tripod. Exposure was f6.4, 1/250 sec, ISO 125. It's not a stellar image but I'm over the moon about it in the circumstances! There seem to be some jpg artefacts in the Maria. I guess we are stuck with those on the HX80?

VoDo · Jul 4, 2017

HX90V

full optical zoom handheld

tbcass · Jul 4, 2017

Good job. To better that you need a camera with a better sensor.

Holy crap, I did it! Sony HX80 Moon Shot

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