Moon

JCN · Jun 22, 2004

There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor 4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

Adam Skillings · Jun 22, 2004

Looks nice, i have that lens and cant get moon shots like that, i think the moon is closer to everyone then it is to me

did you manually release the shutter? manually focus? could have been the wind

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

--
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jkamphof · Jun 22, 2004

As it's a long exposure, your release of the shutter bill create a very small amount of movement.

As you are zoomed in full and then going for a crop later on the computer I would do everything to remove the chance of needing to touch the camera. If no remote use the timer (2-10 seconds) in order to remove the need to press the button.

Joel

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

Macca4269 · Jun 23, 2004

I'm by no means an expert... But it might be mirror slap that is causing the camera to shake. The exposure time of 1/30 second is about right for this to make a difference. To get around this, stop down and take a longer exposure.

MAC

ps. I currently have a huge hangover... on a work day I know. So please forgive me if I'm talking out of my posterior

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

Chris101 · Jun 23, 2004

movement of some sort is blurring this photograph. Consider increasing the iso to get a faster shutter speed, up to 1/60 or more. Yes, if your tripod is light, even a slow breeze can move a large lens. The twisting movement is not easily overcome by weighting the tripod. Consider weighting the lens, or sheilding your site from the wind. Like Macca sez, you've got mirror slap to consider. Does the D70 have any way to delay the shutter's opening? If so, use it. Finally, 300mm is not really a lot of magnification for something the size of the moon. Use a 2X telextender or maybe even and a 1.4X stacked. With the moon and other astronomical targets, magnification is the game. The best scopes for the moon and planets are f/15 or slower, so crank up the iso, use noise reduction, then sharpen.

This is the best I've been able to do so far:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101365/categories/photos/2004/01/04.html#a979

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

--
http://radio.weblogs.com/0101365/categories/photos/

Daves602 · Jun 23, 2004

Chris, that is one awsome moon shot.

I took a few that came out half decent, but in the beginning I tried using a light weight tripod and my sigma 50-500 started rocking around, even 30 seconds after it was touched. I overcame this by parking my truck and using it to lean the camera on, made a huge difference having a couple of tonne under the camera as a tripod!
Dave
--
My spelling may not be great, but my enthusiasm is!
D70, 50-500 mm sigma, nikon 50 f1.4 D, nikon 85mm f1.8 D,
nikon 18-70mm
Fuji s7000 as backup
T-CON-17, fuji TX9

Petra B. · Jun 23, 2004

Hello,

Adam Skillings said:
Looks nice, i have that lens and cant get moon shots like that, i
think the moon is closer to everyone then it is to me

Yes, you probably need to purchase a taller tripod to get a bit closer to the moon... ;o)

Seriously, there are many factors to consider besides lenses but I would recommend using a shorter exposure. Since the D70 doesn't have a mirror lockup function, the mirror slap can easily cause a slight blur like this with 1/30 sec exposures.

Here's my best moon shot so far (alas not with the D70 but the CoolPix 5700 + TC-E15ED adapter). The D70 + 70-300ED lens should easily be able to achieve this image quality or better.

Regards
Thomas

chrissyboy · Jun 23, 2004

Rule of thumb: handheld pics need to have a shutter speed greater than the lens length. So at 300mm you need 1/300 to take a sharp photo handheld. VR will help but not that much! The high magnification amplifies any slight shakes your hand might make.

Tripod and delayed shutter release will get you the shot you're after.

Seeyou - Chris

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

--
http://homepage.mac.com/chrissyboy
Nikon 401x, 5700, D70

chrissyboy · Jun 23, 2004

Sorry! Re-read your msg, didn't notice that you were already using a tripod. The delayed shutter release still applies though.

C

chrissyboy said:
Tripod and delayed shutter release will get you the shot you're after.

Seeyou - Chris

JCN said:

There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

Click to expand...

--
http://homepage.mac.com/chrissyboy
Nikon 401x, 5700, D70

--
http://homepage.mac.com/chrissyboy
Nikon 401x, 5700, D70

matt k · Jun 23, 2004

Hi JNC!

I know I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think you'll find that the correct exposure for the moon is fairly close to the f/16 sunny rule. At 200 ISO then 1/25oth of a second at about f/8 should be spot on. Better still might be 1/500th at f/5.6...to arrest any movement of the moon.

The reason your moon is blurry is because at 1/30th of a second the moon has already moved a fair distance.
Give it a try
Regards
Matt. K

JCN said:
--
D70

--
Matt K

ruth_w131273 · Jun 23, 2004

My moon shots are on slides but that is the same exposure rule I was taught in photography school. [1/250] the light from the moon should provide enough light for the shot.

me
take a look at my favorite Pixel:

http://morningstar-photogra.smugmug.com/
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http://www.pbase.com/ruth_w/morningstar_photography

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matt k said:
matt k said:

--
D70

Click to expand...

--
Matt K

agf1997 · Jun 23, 2004

You have to remember the moon is really really really moving fast across the sky.

It might seem like it's just hanging there, but pay close attention sometime. It only takes a second for it to move a noticable distance.
Use a faster shutter speed then 1/30 of a second.

As discussed in another thread the exposure should be aprox. 1/ISO @ f/16 due to the fact the moon is in full daylight. Most people find f/8 works well because of atmosphereic conditions.

So, at ISO 200 try 1/500 @ f5.6 with your 70-200 VR ... no need to worry about DOF. Any your lens should be sharp enough by F5.6

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

agf1997 · Jun 23, 2004

You're exactly right Matt.

matt k said:
matt k said:

--
D70

Click to expand...

--
Matt K

agf1997 · Jun 23, 2004

Check that .. mis-read on the lens there...

Everything still holds true, but if you want to stop down from f5.6 jump up to ISO 400.

agf1997 said:
So, at ISO 200 try 1/500 @ f5.6 with your 70-200 VR ... no need to
worry about DOF. Any your lens should be sharp enough by F5.6

JCN said:

There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

Click to expand...

lawnmower · Jun 23, 2004

Very nice.

JCN said:
There was a nice moon out tonight...so i loaded the 70-300 nikkor
4:5.6 D ED lens and took a few....question....why is the moon not
in better focus? (this is a 100% crop and unedited) was the slight
breeze really effecting the 1/30 second speed on a tripod? or am I
doing somehting wrong here?

--
D70

JCN · Jun 23, 2004

Thanks for the replies....I forgot to mention that I did use the timer for the shot...i'll try some of the advice tonight if the moon is out
--
D70

JMathews · Jun 24, 2004

I took this last night. I was trying to get whatever planet that is in the shot also. It took about 15 shots until I was happy. I used the 70-300 ED lens on a tripod using the ML-L3 remote shutter release.

http://www.pbase.com/image/30538691

Focal Length - 250mm
Exposure Mode - Manual
Metering - Center Weighted
1/100 f/9
ISO 1600

It was sharpened and cropped and a little noise reduction added in NCE but that's about it.

Jeff
http://www.pbase.com/jmathews/nikon_d70

JCN said:
Thanks for the replies....I forgot to mention that I did use the
timer for the shot...i'll try some of the advice tonight if the
moon is out
--
D70

--
Jeff
http://www.pbase.com/jmathews/nikon_d70

Kat225461 · Jun 24, 2004

Kat
--
'Total absence of humor renders life impossible.'
(Colette)

Petra B. · Jun 24, 2004

Hello,

Hey, that's a pretty nice shot with that lens!

Regards
Thomas

Kat225461 · Jun 24, 2004

Thanks, Thomas .. I was pretty proud of that one myself!

Kat

Mimoid said:
Hello,

Hey, that's a pretty nice shot with that lens!

Regards
Thomas

--
'Total absence of humor renders life impossible.'
(Colette)

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