Moon Shot with a telephoto lens

R

RyanMKincaid

Well-known member
Hi all. I need a particular shot for some b-roll I want to shoot. It's of the moon done with a telephoto lens. I want the moon huge on screen. Something I think I can acheive with a 500-600mm lens. However being that this is a night shot, the F8 arpeture isn't that helpful. I tend to keep my ISO no higher than 320 for fear of grain. I thought of borrowing Canon 70-200mm 2.8 and using a 2x telephoto adapter to get better low light results. What are your thoughts?
 
600mm f8 is plenty bright to shoot the moon.
I currently have such a lens up for sale in the market place http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...-mount&p=1986162379&highlight=#post1986162379 This picture was shot with this lens well stopped down http://www.flickr.com/photos/52298454@N07/6798970414/ (and then cropped a bit).
With this lens on crop sensor camera and/or with a quality 2x teleconverter you can have the moon fill the screen.

If you need to get extremely close then look at this clip I did with a 1000mm f10 mirror lens https://vimeo.com/42490463
 
I just checked the charts, and if you're doing the shot in the next couple of days, the moon is at less than 25%, so you'll need even more focal length than usual, and it's also not in full sun.

On my T3i, I can fill the frame with the full-moon with a 400mm and in 3x mode. ISO was typically in the 100 range.
 
With the 600mm and the T3i's 3x mode I have to go way up to f/16 and f/22, as there is this glowing ball bigger than the frame. I was thinking on getting a small circular polarizer that slides into a filter bay in my Nikkor because the moon and bright days on the snow are too much for a 1/48 or 1/60th shutter speed at ISO 160.

This cam allows for some incredible things that just a year ago were simply not possible at nearly any price!

Cheers,
Pete
 
I'd get a stock photo and add some atmospheric shimmer, moving clouds, film grain/noise, whatever it needs to make it real. I've played with shooting moon footage on a t2i and D700 with a really nice 200mm 2.8, and I've tried it with a teleconverter. Just never looked that good.
 
Kin Lau said:
I just checked the charts, and if you're doing the shot in the next couple of days, the moon is at less than 25%, so you'll need even more focal length than usual, and it's also not in full sun.

On my T3i, I can fill the frame with the full-moon with a 400mm and in 3x mode. ISO was typically in the 100 range.
Click to expand...


Not having a full moon to shoot is not a bad thing. Actually, I like it better when it's not full: the craters have shadows and you can see a lot more terrain detail, with a much better sense of depth. A full moon is basically front-lit, while a 50% moon is side-lit.

Also, no need for drastic changes to focal length or aperture: it's basically just as big, and lit by the very same huge ball of atomic fire.
 
Michael Carter said:
I'd get a stock photo and add some atmospheric shimmer, moving clouds, film grain/noise, whatever it needs to make it real. I've played with shooting moon footage on a t2i and D700 with a really nice 200mm 2.8, and I've tried it with a teleconverter. Just never looked that good.
Click to expand...

That was an option but I didnt' want to cheat at it. I'm borrowing a friends Sigma 100-300mm lens and give it a shot tomorrow night. Also I'm shooting on a 7D so I don't have that 3x crop option (at least I don't believe so)
 
Samuel H said:
Not having a full moon to shoot is not a bad thing. Actually, I like it better when it's not full: the craters have shadows and you can see a lot more terrain detail, with a much better sense of depth. A full moon is basically front-lit, while a 50% moon is side-lit.

Also, no need for drastic changes to focal length or aperture: it's basically just as big, and lit by the very same huge ball of atomic fire.
Click to expand...

At under 25%, like it has been the last few nights, it's just a sliver, not 50%, less than 25%. That's a very large difference. When I first posted, it was actually only 8%, good luck getting any detail on craters and terrain.
 
RyanMKincaid said:
That was an option but I didnt' want to cheat at it. I'm borrowing a friends Sigma 100-300mm lens and give it a shot tomorrow night. Also I'm shooting on a 7D so I don't have that 3x crop option (at least I don't believe so)
Click to expand...

The 7D, T2i, 60d, etc - they're all the same crop factor (unless you're referring to something like digital zoom?)

Sometimes "cheating" is the only way to get the shot you see in your mind though...
 
Michael Carter said:
The 7D, T2i, 60d, etc - they're all the same crop factor (unless you're referring to something like digital zoom?)

Sometimes "cheating" is the only way to get the shot you see in your mind though...
Click to expand...

Sorry I meant digital zoom. The T3i seems to have that option of zooming in 3x. 7D doesn't so my only option is buying a 2x telephoto ring. You're right about cheating being the only way around it, but I do like c3hammer's footage so I might just ask him for the uncompress files should I need them ;)
 
RyanMKincaid said:
Sorry I meant digital zoom. The T3i seems to have that option of zooming in 3x. 7D doesn't so my only option is buying a 2x telephoto ring. You're right about cheating being the only way around it, but I do like c3hammer's footage so I might just ask him for the uncompress files should I need them ;)
Click to expand...

You're aware that the "digital zoom" is kind of like enlarging and cropping in photoshop or an NLE, right? It's not something to do with a lens or optics, it's just enlarging pixels. It's really not a pretty sight...
 
Michael Carter said:
You're aware that the "digital zoom" is kind of like enlarging and cropping in photoshop or an NLE, right? It's not something to do with a lens or optics, it's just enlarging pixels. It's really not a pretty sight...
Click to expand...

I don't own a T3i so I'm a blank slate as far as the knowledge behind that camera. I figured that the 3x zoom was englarging and cropping, I just wasn't sure what the quality was like. I saw pixelization in the video by hammer but just assumed it was due to the file being compressed and uploaded to the web. Either way, I won't be doing that zoom option. I will be attempting my moon shot tonight with a sigma 70-300mm 4.0-5.6 lens. My previous attempt was with a petri 70-200mm lens.
 
If it's for stills, you may inded just crop in post. If you're shooting video, the digital zoom in the T3i will look A LOT better than enlarging the standard image (because by the time that standard image is recorded, most of the information captured by the sensor has been thrown away).

Yes, it crops the sensor, it's enlarging pixels, and it does indeed look soft when compared to similar footage shot with a longer lens. But if you don't have that longer lens, it's a very reasonable alternative.
 
It's video. I won't be croping the image. I will shot it with a longer lens then I previously used (200mm). I'm using a 300mm this time. worse case scenerio, I'll just rent a 500mm lens and a 2x converter from adorama. As long as I can get it lit well even at f8 then I'm good and looking at what c3hammer did, it doesn't seem that far off.
 
The 3x zoom on the T3i is not digital zoom. It simply uses something close to the center 1920x1080 pixels off the sensor with Canon processing added. Past 3x starts to digitally zoom, but at 3x it's damn close to a pixel to pixel render off the sensor of 1920x1080.

There are only three camera's that I know of that have ever had such a feature. The T3i, the Panasonic GH2 and the new Nikon D4. It's one of the coolest features ever implemented for wildlife video!

Cheers,
Pete
 
Here's a couple of screen captures from today. The first is the T3i and a 70-200 at 200mm and normal Canon video scaled up 3 times in Photoshop. It's pretty useless.
http://www.c3di.com/images/turkey-1x-scaledupto-3x.jpg

Here's the same image plus or minus a few feet at 200mm with the 3x crop function.
http://www.c3di.com/images/turkey-3x.jpg

No processing, just one is a scaled and the other the 3x zoom in cam. As you can see it's far from a digital zoom. By the way it is a hen turkey on the roost with a number of chicks under her wing.

It still amazes me that people are so clueless about what this cam can do. The better the lenses you use with the 3x the better the results. It simply blows away any other long range video device, spare possibly the GH2.

Ryan, give me a a shout and lets see if we can't get exactly what you need.

Cheers,
Pete
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top