Half Moon at 560mm (now with AF)

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

I temporarily taped the pins on my 1.4 TC to see if it can gets my 30D's AF working on 100-400. Well, it did

: (and I removed the tape to avoid AF grind).

Anyway - here is Half Moon Over SoCal, July 3, 2006.
I also went for some unnatural, but IMHO interesting angle.

Hope you guys like it! :wink

Cheers! :1drink

cwphotos · July 4, 2006

very nice Nik. I need some long glass ojne of these days.

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Thanks, Dean!

cwphotos wrote:

very nice Nik. I need some long glass one of these days.

Yeah, me too :-) One of them 600mm :-)

Cheers!

THE TOUCH · July 4, 2006

Great shot Nik!

saurora · July 4, 2006

You got me Nik! For a moment it threw me to see the same moon I saw last night cut in half horizontally!!! Great shot...my lenses aren't long enought...I just appreciated the view last night while watching fireworks from my balcony.

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Thanks, Kevin!

THE TOUCH wrote:

Great shot Nik!

I need to go with lower ISO, though, 1600 is a bit too noisy..

However, I tried it last night from the tripod (boorowed a collar:-) and found it insanely difficult to focus manually.

I got a rather clear, low-noise shot at ISO100, f/10 at /10th (tripod, MLU, remote shutter), but it was very soft... :cry
And the moon was already gone so I could not take another one.. Oh well, maybe tonight, after the fireworks :-)

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Thank you!

saurora wrote:

You got me Nik! For a moment it threw me to see the same moon I saw last night cut in half horizontally!!! Great shot...my lenses aren't long enought...I just appreciated the view last night while watching fireworks from my balcony.

You guys get fireworks on 3d, too? Nice

Oh well, I need to learn a better focusing in manual, I guess

Have a great 4th!

USAIR · July 4, 2006

Great shot Nik nice layout too.

We had fireworks on the 30th,1st,2nd,3rd, and now on the 4th
its raining cats and dogs now but i but I bet some hillbilly (I included myself) will figure a way to shoot a few more off today.

I love this holiday

Thanks
Fred

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Heyya Fred!

USAIR wrote:

Great shot Nik nice layout too.

We had fireworks on the 30th,1st,2nd,3rd, and now on the 4th
its raining cats and dogs now but i but I bet some hillbilly (I included myself) will figure a way to shoot a few more off today.

I love this holiday

Thanks
Fred

Thanks, glad you like it!

In our little place we only get them on 4th itself

However, it comes with the clear blue skies and low 90ies. It's this weather that you makes you very glad you paid all those $$$ to maintain your own swimming pool...

THE TOUCH · July 4, 2006

Nikolai wrote:

Thanks, glad you like it!

In our little place we only get them on 4th itself

However, it comes with the clear blue skies and low 90ies. It's this weather that you makes you very glad you paid all those $$$ to maintain your own swimming pool...

Must be nice!

I gotta get out of this desert!!!:cry (that's not tears...it's sweat!) HEHE.

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Dude, you don't say...

THE TOUCH wrote:

Must be nice! I gotta get out of this desert!!!:cry (that's not tears...it's sweat!) HEHE.

You and Kendall (he's in Mojave) must be getting 110+ these days..
I mean, I like warm weather, but not that warm

THE TOUCH · July 4, 2006

Nikolai wrote:

You and Kendall (he's in Mojave) must be getting 110+ these days..
I mean, I like warm weather, but not that warm

Agreed! I'm really looking at relocating - this is getting old very fast. I'm looking for a new position but I think we're stuck here another year until my wife finishes school.

Oh well.:cry :cry :cry

wxwax · July 4, 2006

Super job, Nik, the whole thing looks great.

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Thanks, Sid!

wxwax wrote:

Super job, Nik, the whole thing looks great.

I wish I could do better (and I hope I will), but this is but best result for now.

In fact, I think I will reattach the tape, but will focus manually. This way I will get the focus confirmation signal (beep/rect flash) and won't grind the AF gear to the gound...

Got any BBQ today?

Cheerio!

THE TOUCH · July 4, 2006

Nikolai wrote:

In fact, I think I will reattach the tape, but will focus manually. This way I will get the focus confirmation signal (beep/rect flash) and won't grind the AF gear to the gound...

That's a great idea! Of coarse, you knew that already!:D

Nikolai · July 4, 2006

Thanks, Kevin!

THE TOUCH wrote:

That's a great idea! Of coarse, you knew that already!:D

I wonder why I didn't think of this in the first place

Focusing manually at the object located at 200,000+ miles is not an easy task, and for some reason I could never focus hyperfocally with this lens (even though I made myself a very cool busines-card sized cheatsheet of hyperfocal distances for the most common focal f/stops and distances:

Anyway, glad you liked the idea (I mean tape + manual). And, seriously, putting the tape on second time was like hitting the spacebar - very easy, you can't miss it :-)

Cheers!

Nikolai · July 5, 2006

Another attempt
Now with the tripod (although very lame-entry-level tripod, I do need to get a better one :bash).

ISO100, f/11 at 1/5th. TC with taped pins, focused manually, used AF to confirm the focus.
Regardless of the MLU, the whole rig (30D + 100-400 + TC) is too heavy for the tripod, hence the image is way too soft. :cry
Although much less noisy/grainy than the previous version.:D

Anyways, for what it's worth...

Nikolai wrote:

Half Moon Over SoCal, July 3, 2006.

Half Moon at 560mm (now with AF)

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