Having just opened my big mouth in a comment to
bonvogue, I thought I should take a shot at a particular project.
She'd taken a picture of the Moon. I said that perhaps a better tripod would help. That's obvious -- a better tripod always helps. :) Just ask Philip Greenspun.
Still, empiricist that I am, I thought I'd take a whack at it.
Lesson learned: La Luna, la Bella Luna is really small. The picture below is taken at max resolution for my digital camera (3 megapixel), and at max telephoto (6x, roughly the equivalent of a 300mm lens, half of which is electronic gimcrackery inside the camera, and not optical). Result: Yeah, still blurry.
Judge for yerself:

On the other hand, I'll tell you something I didn't expect -- that picture is fast. It's at f13 or so, and 1/125th of a second. La Luna is brighter than you think, too. :)
I'm sure real glass would get better results, but hey, then I couldn't show them to you nearly instantaneously.
She'd taken a picture of the Moon. I said that perhaps a better tripod would help. That's obvious -- a better tripod always helps. :) Just ask Philip Greenspun.
Still, empiricist that I am, I thought I'd take a whack at it.
Lesson learned: La Luna, la Bella Luna is really small. The picture below is taken at max resolution for my digital camera (3 megapixel), and at max telephoto (6x, roughly the equivalent of a 300mm lens, half of which is electronic gimcrackery inside the camera, and not optical). Result: Yeah, still blurry.
Judge for yerself:

On the other hand, I'll tell you something I didn't expect -- that picture is fast. It's at f13 or so, and 1/125th of a second. La Luna is brighter than you think, too. :)
I'm sure real glass would get better results, but hey, then I couldn't show them to you nearly instantaneously.
offhandedly
Date: 2003-05-12 08:22 am (UTC)I admire anybody who can take a successful picture of almost anything at night, since most people's turn out so poorly. I love to look at photos of fireworks and wonder how they were taken.
no subject
Date: 2003-05-12 09:23 am (UTC)Your shot is beautiful! My Camera also have a 3 mega pix res. It is a Kodak 4180 or something. I got it a few years ages tho. So at the time, it was top of the line. I am sure it is like so much cheaper now. There is a total lunar eclipse this Thursday night, I am going to really set out there to take some pictures. ;-)
later!