The moon with an M3 + 1600 mm

[liquidstone]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Aside from the free 1.095x TC, the M3 makes moonshooting much more convenient. A remote shooting app on my Android phablet with an 8-inch IPS screen allows me to execute contrast detect AF and trip the shutter remotely, thus eliminating camera shake. As a bonus, I can also change the settings of the camera and review the shots on the big screen my Android device.

(Please click "original size" to see the 3600 x 2400 version)

Capture info - Rosario, La Union, Philippines, November 23, 2016, EOS M3 + EF-EOS M adapter + EF 400 2.8 L IS + EF 2x TC II + EF 2x TC III,1600 mm, f/14, ISO 100, 1/40 sec, 475B/516 support, single frame capture, remote shooting via Android device, uncropped full frame resized to 3600 x 2400 pixels (down-sized to 60%).

How the white lens cap.... er... M3 looks like at the back of a 1600 mm f/11 combo.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

 

[nobuchika]

Strong work, love that half moon shot.

 

[frazzel]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Aside from the free 1.095x TC, the M3 makes moonshooting much more convenient. A remote shooting app on my Android phablet with an 8-inch IPS screen allows me to execute contrast detect AF and trip the shutter remotely, thus eliminating camera shake. As a bonus, I can also change the settings of the camera and review the shots on the big screen my Android device.

(Please click "original size" to see the 3600 x 2400 version)

Capture info - Rosario, La Union, Philippines, November 23, 2016, EOS M3 + EF-EOS M adapter + EF 400 2.8 L IS + EF 2x TC II + EF 2x TC III,1600 mm, f/14, ISO 100, 1/40 sec, 475B/516 support, single frame capture, remote shooting via Android device, uncropped full frame resized to 3600 x 2400 pixels (down-sized to 60%).

How the white lens cap.... er... M3 looks like at the back of a 1600 mm f/11 combo.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

Fantastic shot!! Amazed at what you can do with such a small camera!

 

[Hinder]

WOW! That's awesome.

 

[HaroldC3]

I have thought you post some of the best moon shots on the net, hands down and have been appreciating your work since you had the Sigmonster several years ago.

 

[Markintosh]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Aside from the free 1.095x TC, the M3 makes moonshooting much more convenient. A remote shooting app on my Android phablet with an 8-inch IPS screen allows me to execute contrast detect AF and trip the shutter remotely, thus eliminating camera shake. As a bonus, I can also change the settings of the camera and review the shots on the big screen my Android device.

(Please click "original size" to see the 3600 x 2400 version)

Capture info - Rosario, La Union, Philippines, November 23, 2016, EOS M3 + EF-EOS M adapter + EF 400 2.8 L IS + EF 2x TC II + EF 2x TC III,1600 mm, f/14, ISO 100, 1/40 sec, 475B/516 support, single frame capture, remote shooting via Android device, uncropped full frame resized to 3600 x 2400 pixels (down-sized to 60%).

How the white lens cap.... er... M3 looks like at the back of a 1600 mm f/11 combo.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

Amazing!

--
Thanks,
Markintosh.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/30584464@N03/

 

[Najinsky]

First off, in terms of quality of the details, that's right up with the very best I've seen posted on DPR. Great job. There is so much depth to the details it feels almost like being there. Very enjoyable to explore, thanks for sharing.

Im just wondering about the impact of diffraction and your processing.

It looks like the lens cap doesn't record the effect of stacked adapters, with the EXIF showing F7.1 @ 800mm.

So I assume you shot the lens at F3.5 to give an effective F14 @ 1600mm.

With a 24mp APS-C , F14 is going to suffer very slightly with diffraction softening and so the image may benefit from being processed in DPP with diffraction compensation. Did you use this, and if so, does the EXIF showing F7.1 @ 800mm cause any problems with getting the correct diffraction compensation?

 

[liquidstone]

First off, in terms of quality of the details, that's right up with the very best I've seen posted on DPR. Great job. There is so much depth to the details it feels almost like being there. Very enjoyable to explore, thanks for sharing.

Im just wondering about the impact of diffraction and your processing.

It looks like the lens cap doesn't record the effect of stacked adapters, with the EXIF showing F7.1 @ 800mm.

So I assume you shot the lens at F3.5 to give an effective F14 @ 1600mm.

With a 24mp APS-C , F14 is going to suffer very slightly with diffraction softening and so the image may benefit from being processed in DPP with diffraction compensation. Did you use this, and if so, does the EXIF showing F7.1 @ 800mm cause any problems with getting the correct diffraction compensation?

Thanks Andy, and everyone for the kind comments.

I converted the RAW in ACR and processed using an older version of PS (CS6).

Yes, the lens had a native aperture of f/3.5 for this shot. The M3 was able to recognize only one of the stacked doublers, and reported a focal length of 800 mm and an Av of f/7.1. The actual focal length was of course 1,600 mm and Av = f/14.

For this moonshooting session, I shot at wide open (f/11), f/13, f/14 and f/16, with dozens of frames per setting, with each frame individually auto focused. This was a breeze to execute with the remote shooting app. I was hoping that I'd get lucky and some shots would "get through" when the atmosphere was least distorted. Culling the huge number of shots is very easy - given the same Av, Tv, ISO and black background surrounding the subject, the sharpest shot per setting should have the largest RAW file size.

Comparing the sharpest shots at each Av, the one taken at f/14 is the most detailed of all, sharper than the best of f/11 (WO), f/13 and f/16.

At that small aperture and with the M3's tiny pixels, surely diffraction has started to impact IQ at the pixel level. However, there is some gain in IQ in stopping down 2/3 from wide open due to reduction of aberrations with all those layers of glass. The latter gain is much more than the loss in IQ due to diffraction, hence resulting into a net increase in captured detail. For this particular combo, f/14 appears to be the sweet spot.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

 

[crashpc]

I have not seen single image (especially not full res ones) which could be sharpened and DLOed to better output than what we can do with LR.

Too bad I can't see how good and detailed this image is - on the mobile phone screen. need to get to PC, and WOW it. ;-)

I had 1.4x kenko TC, which gave me awesome results. Now I found like new 2x version wondering if it is worth to get it. I'm still afraid that image quality drop is too high. but maybe it's not - with good and sharp lens...

 

[Lawrencew]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Great shot. I have been toying with the idea of trying a TC on my Sigma 150-600.

It would give me a nice long reach, but I fear I would be starting out from a much lower quality base than your 400 F2.8 (and much lower aperture).

Though I would be able to get to 1200mm @ F14 with a 2x convertor.

Have you tried any photo stacking to try and improve sharpness?

--
Regards
Lawrence
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/lozwilkes/

 

[crashpc]

Wow, that lens is awesome, and those teleconverters too!!!

 

[Lawrencew]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

remember with the Canon APS-C crop factor of 1.62 this is equivalent to 2592mm on FF.

If we think of 50mm being 1x, then this is a 52x magnification. (have I got that right?)

--
Regards
Lawrence
My Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/lozwilkes/

 

[liquidstone]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Great shot. I have been toying with the idea of trying a TC on my Sigma 150-600.

It would give me a nice long reach, but I fear I would be starting out from a much lower quality base than your 400 F2.8 (and much lower aperture).

Though I would be able to get to 1200mm @ F14 with a 2x convertor.

Have you tried any photo stacking to try and improve sharpness?

Thanks, Lawrence. IME, you can add TCs to a good base lens and get more moon detail until the combo is f/11 or so for a 20 - 24 MP APS-C sensor. With a 2x TC on your Sigma 150-600, you'd be at 1200 mm f/13.... I think that will still be quite good.

I don't stack my moon captures, though I sometimes merge two frames when the moon is full, as 1600 mm on APS-C results into some parts of the full moon going out of the frame.

This one of the recent supermoon was a composite of two frames:

NOVEMBER 14, 2016 SUPERMOON. Shooting info - Rosario, La Union, Philippines, November 15, 2016, EOS 7D MII + EF 400 2.8 IS + EF 2x TC II + EF 2x TC III, 1600 mm, f/16, ISO 100, 1/50 sec, manual exposure, 475B/516 support, two frames combined, resized to 60%.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

 

[ttbek]

I don't think the adapters count for diffraction, while you are getting less light the size of your aperture isn't changing, and that is the important part for diffraction.

 

[liquidstone]

I don't think the adapters count for diffraction, while you are getting less light the size of your aperture isn't changing, and that is the important part for diffraction.

The EF-EOS M adapter doesn't materially add any diffraction effect, although I believe there could be a very small light loss due to the extension tube effect.

But the teleconverters are another story - they do contribute to diffraction effects. The physical size of the front element (142.8 mm diameter) doesn't change with TCs, but the focal length does, hence the Av will change. Remember that Av is a function of focal length and the front element diameter. It doesn't matter if the focal length is native, or is a result of the addition of TCs.

Check out this link

 

[Yannis1976]

I just downloaded your photo to put it as a wallpaper!! Fantastic shot!!

 

[liquidstone]

I just downloaded your photo to put it as a wallpaper!! Fantastic shot!!

 

[liquidstone]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

remember with the Canon APS-C crop factor of 1.62 this is equivalent to 2592mm on FF.

If we think of 50mm being 1x, then this is a 52x magnification. (have I got that right?)

 

[RonRaymond]

I found some time a couple of days ago to try out a new moonshooting rig - an EOS M3 attached via an EF-EOS M adapter to a 1600 mm f/11 combo (EF 400 2.8 L IS + stacked EF 2x II and EF 2x III TCs). This camera's sensor (24 MP on APS-C) outresolves that of my 7D II (20 MP), resulting into a net gain of a virtual 1.095x TC on top of the stacked doublers.

Aside from the free 1.095x TC, the M3 makes moonshooting much more convenient. A remote shooting app on my Android phablet with an 8-inch IPS screen allows me to execute contrast detect AF and trip the shutter remotely, thus eliminating camera shake. As a bonus, I can also change the settings of the camera and review the shots on the big screen my Android device.

(Please click "original size" to see the 3600 x 2400 version)

Capture info - Rosario, La Union, Philippines, November 23, 2016, EOS M3 + EF-EOS M adapter + EF 400 2.8 L IS + EF 2x TC II + EF 2x TC III,1600 mm, f/14, ISO 100, 1/40 sec, 475B/516 support, single frame capture, remote shooting via Android device, uncropped full frame resized to 3600 x 2400 pixels (down-sized to 60%).

How the white lens cap.... er... M3 looks like at the back of a 1600 mm f/11 combo.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net

 

[liquidstone]

This is out of the G3 X hand held, Not as good but clean as well.

Nice detail, considering the reach.

--
Romy
PHILIPPINE WILD BIRDS (Over 280 species captured in habitat, and counting.)
www.romyocon.net