Lunar Eclipse Tonight!

[soydios]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Well I got it to work, but the weird thing is, my camera makes a bizarre noise, then the picture turns out all black

probably the cold froze your shutter. grinding noise might be the recocking motor. eh, it was 35F where I was. cold, but still above freezing.

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: soydios

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
Well I got it to work, but the weird thing is, my camera makes a bizarre noise, then the picture turns out all black

probably the cold froze your shutter. grinding noise might be the recocking motor. eh, it was 35F where I was. cold, but still above freezing.

Cold? Psh! It was around -14F when I was shooting with at least -30F windchill! My photos are pretty decent, but I didn't take too many.

 

[pennylane]

It was cloudy here in Berkeley!! I missed all of totality. So sad

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
WTF! My camera didn't save any pictures from the last 20 minutes. The only change I made during that time was to turn mirror lockup on.

What I also don't understand is, I switched to AV for the heck of it, and focused the centerpoint right on the moon. The viewfinder would tell me that it was going to be a 6 or 10 second exposure and it would seem like the shutter was open for 30 seconds.

I wonder if the cold was part of the problem... its 14 degrees here right now...

I put the camera back in the bag and sealed it as soon as I got inside to prevent condensation, but any ideas why the camera would stop taking photos like that?

Have you used mirror lock up before? You actually have to press the shutter button TWICE.

1. You compose and get your settings all figured out.
2. First shutter press lifts up and LOCKS UP the mirror. You should hear the mirror slapping up.
3. Wait for the mirror slap vibration to dissipate.
4. Second shutter press actually takes the picture.
5. If you set it on something like 10 seconds, 10 seconds after you press the shutter a second time you should hear the mirror slapping back down.

Sometimes when you're cold and not paying attention you can lose track of the shutter presses. You think you've pressed it a second time but you're actually still on the first press... which would explain why it would seem like it's been open for 30 seconds.

Don't use any of the automatic modes like aperture or shutter priority because the moon (or rather, the darkness around the moon) fools the camera's metering all the time. Always use manual mode. A 6-10 second exposure wouldn't have worked anyway. The moon is a very bright object in relation to this shutter speed and if the picture had come out it would have just been a solid white overexposed object.

Naw, the cold wouldn't really do anything. Once you start going into the negatives the operation of the menu commands can get a bit sluggish though.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: fanerman91
It was cloudy here in Berkeley!! I missed all of totality. So sad

It's ok. I was sleeping

Got back from career fair, tired, passed out at 9PM, woke up at midnight, looked on ATOT and saw a thread about the eclipse, checked weather.com and found out that skies were clear.

F@CK

 

[OdiN]

If it was on spot metering it might have been okay if the center was on the moon.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: OdiN
If it was on spot metering it might have been okay if the center was on the moon.

Ehhhhh.... 6 to 10 seconds? Doesn't seem like a right reading to me. All of my moon shots have always been well under a second. I don't think an eclipse would have dimmed the moon THAT much to require such a slow shutter speed.

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: OdiN
If it was on spot metering it might have been okay if the center was on the moon.

Ehhhhh.... 6 to 10 seconds? Doesn't seem like a right reading to me. All of my moon shots have always been well under a second. I don't think an eclipse would have dimmed the moon THAT much to require such a slow shutter speed.

Not saying his exposure was correct - just that spot metering would probably meter it okay

6-10 seconds...possible but shouldn't set the exposure to take that long since the moon really does moove pretty quickly, just can't tell until you try keeping it centered in a viewfinder at high zoom

 

[The Stigenator]

my pictures seem all noisy and crappy.. i have to download them.. i shot jpg + raw on the 40D. Funny enough the damn aperture change wasnt working on M mode. I couldnt figure it out and the manual wasnt with me. My camera was making a strange noise while shooting long exposures, a whirring, grinding noise... The wind was really fucking up the thing. I had IS on and it still was causing blur..

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
my pictures seem all noisy and crappy.. i have to download them.. i shot jpg + raw on the 40D. Funny enough the damn aperture change wasnt working on M mode. I couldnt figure it out and the manual wasnt with me. My camera was making a strange noise while shooting long exposures, a whirring, grinding noise... The wind was really fucking up the thing. I had IS on and it still was causing blur..

Wind was pretty bad here, too. I can shoot a pretty cool moon on a nice night, but WOW, mother nature was against us!

I started shooting with the 30D, but it froze up after about 5 minutes of being outside. I got a CF ERR on the LCD so I exchanged it with my Mark III. I didn't have anymore problems for the entire time I was outside and the camera performed flawlessly. However, the files I shot with the 30D were unreadable and the card was corrupt when I got upstairs. Luckily I didn't shoot TOO many pictures, but they were of when the eclipse was just starting! Ugh!

I didn't notice it until I was inside the entryway of my apartment trying to warm up, but I got this huge welt on my left hand, possibly from the tripod. It was as white as the walls and swollen pretty big. (think of Tyler Durden kissing Edward Norton's hand in 'Fight Club' swollen) I was pretty worried at first, but it went down when I got inside. Area is still swollen a little and very red.

Crappy part is that I'm just getting over some frostbite I experienced a few weeks ago when walking about a block when it was around -50F from the windchill. My thumbs are finally starting to heal after some peeling!

Remind me why I live up in North Dakota again?

~Travis

 

[OdiN]

Originally posted by: TheGoodGuy
my pictures seem all noisy and crappy.. i have to download them.. i shot jpg + raw on the 40D. Funny enough the damn aperture change wasnt working on M mode. I couldnt figure it out and the manual wasnt with me. My camera was making a strange noise while shooting long exposures, a whirring, grinding noise... The wind was really fucking up the thing. I had IS on and it still was causing blur..

What lens?

Some IS when on while on a tripod will actually introduce movement. And it needs to be in the right mode if it does support being on a tripod.

The whirring could have been the IS.

Did you make sure that when you turned the camera on that you moved the switch all the way? One click turns on camera, but leaves the thumb wheel disabled so you don't accidentally change the aperture without realizing it (if you're out in the dark...yeah that can happen). Two clicks and it enables the wheel.

 

[GoingUp]

Originally posted by: fuzzybabybunny

Originally posted by: Gobadgrs
WTF! My camera didn't save any pictures from the last 20 minutes. The only change I made during that time was to turn mirror lockup on.

What I also don't understand is, I switched to AV for the heck of it, and focused the centerpoint right on the moon. The viewfinder would tell me that it was going to be a 6 or 10 second exposure and it would seem like the shutter was open for 30 seconds.

I wonder if the cold was part of the problem... its 14 degrees here right now...

I put the camera back in the bag and sealed it as soon as I got inside to prevent condensation, but any ideas why the camera would stop taking photos like that?

Have you used mirror lock up before? You actually have to press the shutter button TWICE.

1. You compose and get your settings all figured out.
2. First shutter press lifts up and LOCKS UP the mirror. You should hear the mirror slapping up.
3. Wait for the mirror slap vibration to dissipate.
4. Second shutter press actually takes the picture.
5. If you set it on something like 10 seconds, 10 seconds after you press the shutter a second time you should hear the mirror slapping back down.

Sometimes when you're cold and not paying attention you can lose track of the shutter presses. You think you've pressed it a second time but you're actually still on the first press... which would explain why it would seem like it's been open for 30 seconds.

Don't use any of the automatic modes like aperture or shutter priority because the moon (or rather, the darkness around the moon) fools the camera's metering all the time. Always use manual mode. A 6-10 second exposure wouldn't have worked anyway. The moon is a very bright object in relation to this shutter speed and if the picture had come out it would have just been a solid white overexposed object.

Naw, the cold wouldn't really do anything. Once you start going into the negatives the operation of the menu commands can get a bit sluggish though.

Thats why they didnt take! :| I never pressed the button twice. It was just the mirror going up, instead of the second press to take the photo. Well at least I know my camera isn't messed up. Whew!

 

[OdiN]

One of those slap forehead moments. We all have em.

Read that manual all the way through, then do it again! You'll remember stuff as you use it more and more.

 

[soydios]

future tip: you do not want to touch the camera when taking long-exposure images at extremely long focal lengths. use the timer or remote shutter release, combined with mirror lockup and shutter delay, if that feature is available. the image will bounce all over the place if you touch it less than ten seconds before the shutter releases, in my experience.

 

[jpeyton]

I just put my camera on a 20 second timer, enabled the shutter delay mode (not exactly mirror-lock-up, but as close as you can get with my D80), and let the camera do its thing.

Pictures weren't too blurry, but lacked detail. I've gotten much more lunar surface detail on other nights when it isn't full.

 

[soydios]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
I just put my camera on a 20 second timer, enabled the shutter delay mode (not exactly mirror-lock-up, but as close as you can get with my D80), and let the camera do its thing.

Pictures weren't too blurry, but lacked detail. I've gotten much more lunar surface detail on other nights when it isn't full.

aye, it's nice to have the light hitting it at an angle to get some shadows on the surface.

 

[QuixoticOne]

Beautiful eclipse! Though I didn't get any pictures.

My usual problem with doing astrophotography with digital cameras is that it can be hard to focus correctly "at infinity" with them.

Many DSLRS (and just about every P&S) have basically unusable manual focus modes for dim/small/low-contrast subjects mainly due to a lack of viewfinder magnification and a lack of anything good like a split ring focusing prism and good ground focus screen to focus on.

Though even with those things its hard to properly focus on something more dim / diffused than the moon, e.g. night time moonlit clouds, star fields, et. al.

I'm surprised there's no common way to set a mechanical stop adjustment in a lens so that its maximum rotation really DOES focus precisely at infinity as opposed to "somewhere between 300 meters and +110% infinity" which is uselessly far off for just shooting blindly and hoping things are in focus.

So lacking an operational autofocus (if your lens isn't AF or if the subject is lacking the contrast / brightness for good AF such as star fields, clouds, et. al.), and lacking good manual viewfinder focus, one must resort to trial and error iteration of the focus ring position as one clicks away, reviews the picture on a laptop, and tries again until the focus is good.

Lack of good manual / auto focusing, lack of mirror-lock-up, lack of long exposure capability (i.e. more than 15-60 seconds), and lack of streaming "live" repetitive capture capability over USB have turned out to be some primary disappointments of mine with many of the low to midrange DSLRs.
Oh and lack of waterproofness too since dew / humidity certainly is a common issue with those late night cold weather stargazing sessions!

 

[jamesbond007]

QuixoticOne, many of the features you've mentioned will likely never be found in entry-level SLR bodies. It's the plethora of the 'small things' as well as the bigger features that make paying the premium for a professional body worth it. If you have trouble focusing on your current camera, never look through a 1D-series viewfinder. It will be a b*tch going back to anything smaller!

I've used my Mark III and 30D to shoot the moon on several occassions and have never had problems using either camera's auto-focusing mechanism. I've hooked my cameras to a friend's telescope a few times and have come out very successful with the results. We just used a Canon-mount adapter for his telescope and I used my remote shutter release to expose the sky as we waited for various exposure times.

Which body do you have that you do not like so much?

 

[QuixoticOne]

Yeah the moon isn't usually so bad of an AF target as long as you have a 200mm or better AF telephoto.
It gets more dicey near eclipse totality when the light level and contrast really goes away.

Though for manual focus with a telescope adapter it can still be a problem at high magnification to get really crisp shots at an awkward physical angle for looking into a small viewfinder etc.

Remote release is definitely handy, as well as having a laptop connected for a full-size immediate image review.

I've been using the D50 mainly for the DSLR and older P&S cameras like the S50.

The D50 seems OK for AF and kind of useless for non AF even in the daylight though I'm sure it depends on how high your F-stop can be...shooting at F16-F32+ makes the focusing easier, but you run out of light quickly!

I'm sure the more pro. cameras occasionally have features that are much more well suited to astrophotography. As you say, though, so many of the details are just "small things" like mirror lockup that would be basically "free" features to add to any DSLR so I'm surprised they're not more ubiquitous.

I'm positively mystified why more "outdoor use" consumer electronics from cell phones to cameras aren't at least "mostly" waterproof. It's not like people actually live and use their devices ....where it rains... or anything.

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
QuixoticOne, many of the features you've mentioned will likely never be found in entry-level SLR bodies. It's the plethora of the 'small things' as well as the bigger features that make paying the premium for a professional body worth it. If you have trouble focusing on your current camera, never look through a 1D-series viewfinder. It will be a b*tch going back to anything smaller!

I've used my Mark III and 30D to shoot the moon on several occassions and have never had problems using either camera's auto-focusing mechanism. I've hooked my cameras to a friend's telescope a few times and have come out very successful with the results. We just used a Canon-mount adapter for his telescope and I used my remote shutter release to expose the sky as we waited for various exposure times.

Which body do you have that you do not like so much?

 

[jamesbond007]

My friend's telescope has a rather large viewfinder. I know he did several upgrades and got some nice glass for us to look through. He's pretty good at it, so I'm sure his experience helped too.

For the lunar eclipse, my remote release cable was frozen, so I am not sure how well it helped me. It was like having a big stick duct taped to the body of my camera. I was going to setup the timer, but I didn't want to fish through the menus at the time. Needless to say, it was quite cold!

Are you shooting the stars with F16 or higher? I don't think I've actually shot my camera at anything higher than f/9. Ever! I think much past that point and it becomes pretty moot. Of course, I don't do landscape photography or anything either.

My first time doing astrophotography was with my 300D Rebel and the hacked firmware. It gave me mirror lockup, so I guess that's a feature I've always had for the last 7 years. I figured it's a pretty common one, but I am guessing it's not on the D50?

Waterproofing electronics is expensive. I'm sure there's a lot of technology that goes into figure out how water will drain and and out of the camera surfaces to keep the inside dry at all times. As often as people drop their cell phones in the toilet, would you really want to use it again after that? Of course, there's the business man in Washington that could use a nice waterproof cell phone. However, not everyone is willing to pay such a premium and I am pretty sure that'd be a niche market to serve considering most people get the $50 or freebie phones with their plan.

 

[Alyx]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
Are you shooting the stars with F16 or higher? I don't think I've actually shot my camera at anything higher than f/9. Ever! I think much past that point and it becomes pretty moot. Of course, I don't do landscape photography or anything either.

I thought I'd chime in at this point. Not sure if you've heard this before but I wish I'd known this earlier on, I messed up quite a few shots because I wanted tons of DoF and all my shots would come back soft.

Higher Fstop numbers give larger Depth of field but also increase diffraction. Diffraction will work against DoF, after a certain point the DoF gain from smaller appreture is offset by the loss of sharpness caused by diffraction. For the 1.6x crop factor cameras this happens at F/11.

Here's an article that will tell you all about it and also has a cool little chart to see what Fstop you should stop at for your camera.

Diffraction Limited Photography

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: Alyx

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
Are you shooting the stars with F16 or higher? I don't think I've actually shot my camera at anything higher than f/9. Ever! I think much past that point and it becomes pretty moot. Of course, I don't do landscape photography or anything either.

I thought I'd chime in at this point. Not sure if you've heard this before but I wish I'd known this earlier on, I messed up quite a few shots because I wanted tons of DoF and all my shots would come back soft.

Higher Fstop numbers give larger Depth of field but also increase diffraction. Diffraction will work against DoF, after a certain point the DoF gain from smaller appreture is offset by the loss of sharpness caused by diffraction. For the 1.6x crop factor cameras this happens at F/11.

Here's an article that will tell you all about it and also has a cool little chart to see what Fstop you should stop at for your camera.

Diffraction Limited Photography

Hey, good to know! I'm sure this will be plenty useful for the landscape photographer or even modeling. I hang around the Fred Miranda forums a lot and I'd say most of the photographers there who use strobes for modeling are in the area of f/5.6-f/11. Although, many of them are pros, so they knew that they should stay in this range.

Thanks a bunch,
~Travis

 

[Alyx]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: Alyx

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
Are you shooting the stars with F16 or higher? I don't think I've actually shot my camera at anything higher than f/9. Ever! I think much past that point and it becomes pretty moot. Of course, I don't do landscape photography or anything either.

I thought I'd chime in at this point. Not sure if you've heard this before but I wish I'd known this earlier on, I messed up quite a few shots because I wanted tons of DoF and all my shots would come back soft.

Higher Fstop numbers give larger Depth of field but also increase diffraction. Diffraction will work against DoF, after a certain point the DoF gain from smaller appreture is offset by the loss of sharpness caused by diffraction. For the 1.6x crop factor cameras this happens at F/11.

Here's an article that will tell you all about it and also has a cool little chart to see what Fstop you should stop at for your camera.

Diffraction Limited Photography

Hey, good to know! I'm sure this will be plenty useful for the landscape photographer or even modeling. I hang around the Fred Miranda forums a lot and I'd say most of the photographers there who use strobes for modeling are in the area of f/5.6-f/11. Although, many of them are pros, so they knew that they should stay in this range.

Thanks a bunch,
~Travis

Yeah, I'm usually around the Fred Miranda forums too. Most of what I know I learned from the guys there. I imagine most pros don't need to worry though, since they don't use Canon Rebels!