the moon problems

I'm full of questions, it's the only way to learn, so please bear with me

A full moon will be coming round again next week, around thursday.

The best lens i have for moon photography is the 70-210mm lens. The last time I tried, the shutter speed display showed UNDER and it was exposed for a long time. That was with the f stop at 4, the smallest it goes.

Do you have any ideas what i can do with this equipment or should i not bother

What camera is the lens used with? Can you set the ISO rating?

Pentax MG the film i have in at the minute is 200, but I can cahnge the exposure compensation if that helps

ISO 200 should be OK if the sky is clear enough, however 400 would be better, but you definately need a longer lens, I've tried moonshots with a 50-500 which gives me an effective 750mm allowing for the crop factor on a digital body, and I found even that only filled a quarter of the frame.

If your desperate to have a go I would suggest you look for a cheap 2x teleconverter, but dont expect frame filling shots

Edit! cheap teleconveter? that should be the best you can afford

The camera thinks it's underexposed because most of the frame is dark.

However, the moon is extremely bright, so that part of the frame is likely to be overexposed. You'll just get a white disc with no detail that way.

You don't need high ISO, and you don't need long exposures to photograph the moon. In fact exposures much more than 1/10s, depending on focal length, will be long enough for the tracking of the moon across the sky to itself cause blur.

What you need is accurate focusing, the longest focal length lens you can lay your hands on (210 is very much on the short side, given you're using 35mm film) and spot metering on the moon itself.

And a tripod.

I took this, for example, with a 400mm lens (you'd need 600mm to get the same angle of view), ISO 100, 1/80s and F11, on the K10D.

It was heavily cropped, though - that's nowhere near the whole frame, which is a touch inconvenient with film, of course.

Note also that the detail is clearer a day or two before full moon - the shadows arising from the illumination not being quite direct make for a more contrasty picture.

Here's a full moon for comparison. Much less exposure (F16, 1/125s, and still too much, really), since the full moon is much, much brighter than a slightly not-full moon.

Moon shots are not as easy as you think (apart from Apollo) I'm still trying and will again with the next one

I'd avoid shooting a full moon. I'd wait for 3/4.
The full moon looks flat, but once it starts to wane you'll get shadows which bring the detail out a bit more.

When I tried with my 35mm I always shot multiple images at various shutter speeds, starting quite fast and getting longer.

One thing I learnt quickly looking up through a telescope is just how fast the earth spins. As Chris says, much more than 1/10 will cause motion blur from the apparent movement of the moon across the sky.

The moon is a sun-lit landscape and a camera exposure should be set for a sunny scene.

If you use the 'sunny 16' rule you'll not be far off of a correct exposure.

I'm not trying to be pedantic but surely focussing at infinity would be fine, or am I missing something?

Just had a look at the moon now, came up in the west Jaffa cake size half moon,
will wait a few more days and have a go with the Bigma,

Yes.
Infinity focus on most lenses is set by a simple screw creating a mechanical stop. The setting of that stop can often be less than accurate and some lenses may not reach infinity focus whereas others will go beyond it. To assume that your lens is focussed at infinity because it's on it's stop is an unsafe assumption.

Anyway, the moon is only about 250,000 miles away, a long way short of infinity.

Yes I agree Peter, the last shots I tried with the Bigma were all out of focus so this time I will only use manual focus, although it could have been haze, anyway I am determined to get a good shot this time,
Jack.

Aim to get the focusing ring in the middle of the (very small) range over which you get the focus confirmation hexagon displayed.

Take lots of exposures, and re-focus after each one. Don't assume that because you haven't touched anything, nothing's moved and it's still right. Even so, you'll probably still get lots of duds for no apparent reason.

Use one of the mirror-up delay modes (preferably the 3s remote one) to minimise shake.

You want the moon as high in the sky as possible.

You might want to practise a bit before the day you want the best results.