[FZ200] Infinity and the moon

[magicmerlin]

Ok, might be that its just a logical mistake i make, but normaly, i one sets manual to infinity, one uses the "hyperfocal" and everything thats the minimum distance away should be sharp. Thats e.g. what the automatic settings at "landscape" uses - at least they did so with my old cam.

So, when i set to infinity and make a shot of the moon, the result is a nicely blured something, perhaps a pancake *g* I have to focus manual a view steps back.

The question is: WHY

(it´s nothing i couldn´t handle, but i simply dont like mysteries *g*)

 

[sherman_levine]

From the camera's perspective, there's nothing special about being set at infinity. It's just the point where the distance from the lens to the sensor is equal to the lens focal length.

I suspect the camera designers add a bit of overshoot to accommodate variation among lenses.

Sherm

 

[kkardster]

sherman_levine wrote:

From the camera's perspective, there's nothing special about being set at infinity. It's just the point where the distance from the lens to the sensor is equal to the lens focal length.

I suspect the camera designers add a bit of overshoot to accommodate variation among lenses.

And possibly to allow AF to pass infinity as it dials in focus?

 

[chr1st1an]

I don't know why, but at least for me is one of the weakest points of the camera. I find very difficult to focus on objetcs with very low contrast like the sky at night.

Christian

 

[magicmerlin]

Thanks to both of you. Yes, that makes sense by the way the focus works.

Btw..any tip how to improve the manual focusing? Sometimes things look perfect sharp and zooming a little bit in at the pc (raw as well as jpg - no pixel peeping), it seems to be a tad unsharp. Well, at least under some more difficult circumstances like moon, extreme tele (max zoom+izoom+2,2teleconverter *g*)

 

[sherman_levine]

magicmerlin wrote:

Thanks to both of you. Yes, that makes sense by the way the focus works.

Btw..any tip how to improve the manual focusing? Sometimes things look perfect sharp and zooming a little bit in at the pc (raw as well as jpg - no pixel peeping), it seems to be a tad unsharp. Well, at least under some more difficult circumstances like moon, extreme tele (max zoom+izoom+2,2teleconverter *g*)

I hardly ever manual focus in MF mode. Instead, I tap the MF button (beneath the AFMacro/AF/macro switch) and the camera does a one-shot autofocus.

If you do use manual focus, the wheel will move focus one "step" at time, while the lever on the lens barrel keeps moving continuously.

You can also activate the MF assist, so when you move the focus wheel or lever the screen will display the central area at increased magnification

iZoom will of course turn anything sharp into trash when you view it at the pixel level, since it's turning one sensor pixel into 4 output files pixel.

Sherm

 

[morepix]

sherman_levine wrote:

iZoom will of course turn anything sharp into trash when you view it at the pixel level, since it's turning one sensor pixel into 4 output files pixel.

That's the worst case of course: JPG at max iZoom.

It's not that bad if you shoot raw and are satisfied to print at 8" x 10" or less or to view on a regular-size screen. And a 100% crop of a converted raw image would look quite the same as if that same scene had been shot wider without iZoom.

I guess you might say iZoom is more of an issue if you're a JPG shooter. I feel like defending iZoom a bit since I sometimes use it for shooting events with my LX7 where the client will reduce the final images to 1600 px anyway for on-screen use.

I don't know what people do with moon shots. I rather imagine most of them don't get beyond a computer screen, do they?

--
David
www.pbase.com/morepix

 

[sherman_levine]

morepix wrote:

sherman_levine wrote:

iZoom will of course turn anything sharp into trash when you view it at the pixel level, since it's turning one sensor pixel into 4 output files pixel.

That's the worst case of course: JPG at max iZoom.

It's not that bad if you shoot raw and are satisfied to print at 8" x 10" or less or to view on a regular-size screen. And a 100% crop of a converted raw image would look quite the same as if that same scene had been shot wider without iZoom.

I guess you might say iZoom is more of an issue if you're a JPG shooter. I feel like defending iZoom a bit since I sometimes use it for shooting events with my LX7 where the client will reduce the final images to 1600 px anyway for on-screen use.

I don't know what people do with moon shots. I rather imagine most of them don't get beyond a computer screen, do they?

--
David
www.pbase.com/morepix

Sure. My comment was mostly in the context of "why doesn't the moon look in focus...and I'm using iZoom and a 2.2x (probably Raynox) converter at (probably) 2.8."

Just not going to happen

Sherm

 

[Ronomy]

sherman_levine wrote:

iZoom will of course turn anything sharp into trash when you view it at the pixel level, since it's turning one sensor pixel into 4 output files pixel.

That's the worst case of course: JPG at max iZoom.

It's not that bad if you shoot raw and are satisfied to print at 8" x 10" or less or to view on a regular-size screen. And a 100% crop of a converted raw image would look quite the same as if that same scene had been shot wider without iZoom.

I guess you might say iZoom is more of an issue if you're a JPG shooter. I feel like defending iZoom a bit since I sometimes use it for shooting events with my LX7 where the client will reduce the final images to 1600 px anyway for on-screen use.

I don't know what people do with moon shots. I rather imagine most of them don't get beyond a computer screen, do they?

 

[magicmerlin]

The reason for that probably extreme setup with the izoom was cause i thought that the further it´s possible to zoom into the moon, the better one could control the sharpness. Seems not to be 100% true (for me) It´s been btw at F4.

Yes, mostly it´s for experimentation, 2 or 3 good ones for the pc/tv, one if i once get a "perfect" one..i´ll make a professional print in DinA4 (~20x30)

I´ll be now for the next two weeks on a mountain..perhaps a get a good Chance.



THANKS for the tip with the wheel vs slider in manual mode as i already looked for something like that!!!!