Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Full Moon at 1000mm

Bad Moon Rising
The moon has enthralled mankind since we were first able to look up at the night sky.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine loaned me his 500mm mirrored lens with 2x tele-converter. At 1000mm, plus the crop factor of the DX sensor, it is easy to literally fill the frame with the moon.

The downside to the technology used is that it is a fixed f/8 lens which means a slower shutter and high ISO to compensate. And at 1000mm the camera shake generated simply by the shutter actuation was shocking and frustrating, even on the most stable tripod Manfrotto makes. To prevent the shutter actuation from making the image blurry, getting my shutter to 1/1200 of a second, I had to ramp the ISO up to 3200 which means noise was awful.

I am still intrigued with getting one of these for myself. They are affordable at about $190 for the kit. I just wish they can make them at about f/4. But until they do, I will make do with what I have available and my friends who love to share their technology with someone eager to try new things.

To find out more feel free to visit, Amazon.