February Moon Series

[DurtGurl]

I am fascinated with the moon. Here are my best attempts to capture the moon over Phoenix this month. All shots were taken with a Canon 5D3 and a Rokinon 500mm f6.3 manual lens, with and without the 2x extender. I'd appreciate critique on any or all! Thx for looking.

[armando_m]

wow !! love the last two!

Images look a touch blurry , I'm not sure if is the lens , or camera blurr
is this one of the mirror lenses ? can the aperture be closed a bit more ?

When I shoot the moon I use my 70-300mm zoom @f/8, lock the mirror up, and use a remote to trigger the shutter
then I need to crop at 100% to get a decent size image, the quality can be quite good

I also have a 2x teleconverter but the IQ is disappointing and I really gain nothing even if the moon is bigger in the sensor

[DurtGurl]

Thanks for the reply! I am doing all I can to reduce camera shake... mirror lock-up (actually, just live view which essentially is mirror lock-up), a remote, and weighting of the tripod to keep all steady. The blur comes from the cheap lens. It's a mirror lens with only one f-stop and manual focus. Focus is super touchy - I use the live view magnification to set. Until I get a big-bucks L tele prime, I am having a blast pushing this $150 lens to its limits. What you see above is probably about the best the lens can produce!! Images 2 and 4 are cropped, the others are not. All received some tweeking in LR4.

[mattb]

Very nice. I'm also a big fan of the moon and your shots capture it nicely considering the lens used. I think I was out shooting it for some of the same phases I see you captured. It's always fun to think of that Disney cliche when looking at it - "Who else is looking at it right now too?". I also have one of those 2x converters (mine is a Vivitar that allows for close focus too). I try to use it sparingly but sometimes the reach is worth the compromise. Having a quality lens mounted to it also helps a lot. I really don't like the results with my cheap 55-300 zoom on that TC but with my vintage A*300/4 (also manual focus) it can be acceptable if everything else is just about perfect.
I was actually about to post my moonrise shot from last night here too!