Micro 4/3 Shooting the moon

Jock Elliott

Hall of Famer
Location
Troy, NY
There is a glorious partial moon floating outside my sunroom window as I write this.

I stepped outside to try to capture it with the FZ200.

At first all I got was a glowing white blob. Fussing around the settings, the best I could get was this kind-of blood moon effect:

FZ200_shooting_the_moon_005_Medium_.JPG
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Then I remembered that Graham Houghton has some tip sheets on his download page. One is for shooting the moon. I plugged in his recipe and got this:

FZ200_shooting_the_moon_009_Medium_.JPG
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Then I shot it again using the digital zoom:

FZ200_shooting_the_moon_010_Medium_.JPG
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These are straight-out-of-camera jpgs with no post-processing whatsoever.

Cheers, Jock
 
A quick shot from this evening - hopefully with the clear summer skies I should be able to get a few more interesting shots

not bad as the moon is 384,400 kms, (239,000 miles), from the earth ….. but I suppose that it is a "big lump" of rock

moon_2014.jpg
 
I must say I'm impressed with the detail Jock captured with the FZ200. While the FZ200 has a nice lens, most superzooms end up failing with critical detail at the long end of their zoom. And Bill, what camera were you using?

Hi Steve,

I'm really a committed DSLR guy these days

so it was taken with a D7100 + 300mm f2.8 + TC-20Elll

I am going to have a go with an FX camera, D700, which less pixels, (both number and density), as I reckon that this may produce a better image.

plus I will try the V1 + FT1 with the same lens combo ……. but it looks as though it may be cloudy this evening
 
I hear you, Bill. The last time I tried to photograph the moon I was using my Pentax K200D with the DA 55-300mm zoom. It was a handheld deal and it worked out nicely. I'm at work now but if I can find the photo when I get home I'll add it here.

IMGP0616.JPG
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Moon - with V1 - taken this evening - crop sensor factor is x 2.7

moon_v1.jpg



D700 - - taken this evening - crop sensor factor is x 1 - if you enlarge this further it has picked up all the stars surrounding the Moon - the other two did not

moon_d700.jpg



and the D7100 - - taken yesterday evening - different light this evening - crop sensor factor is x 1.5

not very scientific as PP is different in all as are crops etc., etc.

moon_2014.jpg
 
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