# Moon at 600mm



## nineoneeighttony (Jul 31, 2012)




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## cgipson1 (Jul 31, 2012)

Where are you getting 600mm? a 200 with a 2x TC on a crop body? Not very sharp.. very poor detail.

You don't need to shoot the moon at F18.. it is so far away you could shoot it at f2.8 and still have plenty of DOF to get it sharp. 

All F18 did was add diffraction softness...  I am also thinking that the TC probably added a bit loss of IQ.

You can also get much more detail on the moon when it is not full...  with a partial moon, you get more sidelighting with stronger shadows on the detail.

I won't even mention how distracting that logo/watermark is....


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## prodigy2k7 (Jul 31, 2012)

Ya. Pretty sure my 70-200 gets more detail at 200 with no tc.


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## DorkSterr (Jul 31, 2012)

Ugh... I agree with the two post above, I hope you just rented this lens. Very soft moon.


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## nineoneeighttony (Jul 31, 2012)

cgipson1 said:


> Where are you getting 600mm? a 200 with a 2x TC on a crop body? Not very sharp.. very poor detail.
> 
> You don't need to shoot the moon at F18.. it is so far away you could shoot it at f2.8 and still have plenty of DOF to get it sharp.
> 
> ...


200 w/ a 2x doesn't add up to 600... it was some old lens I don't ever use 28-300 with a 2x


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## LizardKing (Aug 1, 2012)

Hello there!

Charlie already covered pretty much everything. But I have a 28-300 on a crop body myself and take moon pictures all the time. You can definitely get something sharper than this one, specially using a nice 2x TC I think, although I'm new to all this and never even used a TC myself haha 

Now, I'm not sure what was the problem here, but maybe it was in the focusing. Did you use manual? If so, where did you focused? I usually go all the way to infinity and then use Live View to come back just a little bit, until I see the craters or details in good focus. Infinity doesn't work quite well for the moon, and neither does automatic... or, at least, not for me 

Besides this, 1/15 is too low of a shutterspeed for the moon. Even if you don't see it, it's moving all the time and faster than you think. Get it -at least- up to 1/100th or more if possible. You should be able to get there if you lower your aperture. I agree f/2.8 should be enough, but it's probably better to take advantage of your lens' sweet spot. Try 'Googleing' it. If you're not going for the sweet spot, then keep it really wide to help get a faster shutterspeed.

From the EXIF data I see you've +100 Clarity, so I'm thinking this ought to look really soft w/o it. But nothing to feel bad about, it's not that easy to get the hand to photograph the moon. Takes several tries to do it good, and as someone said up there, try to avoid full moons like this. You'll get far better results when you have shadows there.

edit: oh and one more thing, try to take the pictures when the moon is really up in the sky and on really clear nights. If you could get out of the city, at least a few miles, that'll really help improve the clarity.


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## cgipson1 (Aug 1, 2012)

nineoneeighttony said:


> cgipson1 said:
> 
> 
> > Where are you getting 600mm? a 200 with a 2x TC on a crop body? Not very sharp.. very poor detail.
> ...



On a crop body, that would be the percieved image! 200 X 2 = 400! 400 x 1.5 crop = 600, right? Pretty basic math!  Wow.. I have a Nikon 28-300 that is sharp... I have some really good moon shots with it.


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 1, 2012)

cgipson1 said:


> nineoneeighttony said:
> 
> 
> > cgipson1 said:
> ...


 could I see them!?


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## LizardKing (Aug 1, 2012)

Charlie has the same 28-300 that I do, if I remember correctly... He probably has better images to show you, since mine were taken from the city with a 20 bucks tripod and by me xD
Anyway, if it helps you in any way, here you go:








BTW, maybe it's just me, but everybody here is only trying to help you and I sense something strange in your responses. If you've got problems with the responses you get, then I'd recommend not to upload any more pictures for review/critique. On the other hand, if I'm wrong and this is just my idea then I apologize for it.


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## cgipson1 (Aug 1, 2012)

sure.... 

Here are a couple... they have been cropped obviously!  Both shot at 300mm...     F8    ISO 100


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 1, 2012)

Thanks for sharing guy!!! I like all of them! I have never got a shot of the moon that sharp!


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 1, 2012)

Does using a TC affect images when shooting the moon?


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## cgipson1 (Aug 1, 2012)

nineoneeighttony said:


> Does using a TC affect images when shooting the moon?



Depends on the TC! 

A Nikon 1.4.. no real loss    A Nikon 1.7... a little    A Nikon 2x.. a little more

Sigma??? Would probably have a good bit more loss than the Nikon.

Your choice of F18 didn't help... bad diffraction softness...


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 1, 2012)

I went out and shot it again with the 70-200 @ f/2.8 again last night and it was not much better, any other suggestions for me to try. Besides getting away from the city, does weather have an effect? It was 112 here today.


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## LizardKing (Aug 1, 2012)

Yes, weather does affect. Think you're shooting through the whole atmosphere, so it's kind of a big deal the conditions you have. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with temperature, but definitely humidity plays an important role, for instance. Are you manually focusing? I had a couple awful attempts before realizing the problem was that focusing at infinity was a mistake.


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## 480sparky (Aug 1, 2012)

The weather certainly has an effect. Any air movement causes turbulence. This is known by astronomers as 'seeing'.

 High winds can cause a lot of dust in the air.... Forest fires can place a lot of particulate matter in the air... Even a volcanic eruption on the other side of the earth can affect your images of the moon.

 Another big factor is your altitude. The higher you are, the less atmosphere for you have to shoot through and the less particulate matter in the air to have to contend with. This is why professional observatories are built on top of mountains.

 Also, make sure you shoot when the moon is closest to the zenith. Shooting the moon near the horizon causes you to shoot through that much more atmosphere.


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 2, 2012)

Yes, I manually focus on LV zoomed all the way in, tripod and either remote trigger or delay.


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## LizardKing (Aug 2, 2012)

I'm out then 

Here's what I do: Wait until there's one of those really clear nights when you see the moon really up in the night sky. Set camera on tripod, manual focus using LiveView, set aperture to something aroudn f/8 - f/9 as I believe somewhere around there is the sweet spot for my lens... Set ISO to 100 or 200 at most, and then take a couple test shots until I get the proper Shutterspeed... Really don't do much more than that. So, maybe, in your case, it's the lens to blame.


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 2, 2012)

Thanks for the tips!


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## Ernicus (Aug 2, 2012)

My moon shots always sucked, although I have not tried that much.  Might try again.  but it's a full moon tonight I think, usually best at 3/4 I hear.  All I have is th 80-200 2.8 I borrowed.  I guess I can give that a whirl.


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 2, 2012)

I am going to go give it another shot with the sigma and see what happens


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## nineoneeighttony (Aug 2, 2012)

Ok, well, shot it with the Sigma 70-200 w/2x TC and nothing changed, tried everyones suggestions, I will try again with a less full moon... or when its gets cold out. Thanks everyone for the advise.


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