Shooting the moon with two cameras

[misterjones]

Tonight we had really clear skies so I decided to try my hand at taking shots of the moon. I brought out two of my cameras for this one to see how they did side-by-side (I have not cropped these pics at all)


First up my Canon Eos Rebel XSi. I used my Canon EF 75-300 lens with it as it's the longest one I have. Shot this with an aperture of 1/60, f/11, and iso 100 using manual focus and shot as RAW (which the camera forced on me)

The next one I used my Fujitu FinePix S4500 bridge camera. Lens was all the way out at it's 720mm equivalent, aperture at 1/60, f/8, iso 100. There's no option for manual focus on this thing.

The first thing you notice is the color: The Canon shot it with a blueish tint, the Finepix is grayish. Compared to what I saw in the sky, the Finepix has more accurate color, but why? That's what I'm trying to figure out here. Why did the Rebel give it a blueish hue? That's not at all what I saw in the viewfinder. I will say that even though the Canon lens doesn't get out as far, I think it was much sharper, possibly due to being able to focus it manually.

Any tips would be welcome here.

 

[Hardus Nameous]

What are the white balance settings between the two cameras?

 

[misterjones]

What are the white balance settings between the two cameras?

just took a look: 3200K on the Canon and The Fuji was set to Auto.

 

[D7K]

First thing that jumped to mind for me was the WB, check the file details from Fuji and see what it selected.

 

[Hardus Nameous]

I could be wrong but I think a WB of 3200 would cause the camera to add blue. For some reason I have it in my head most cameras try to adjust to 5000K, but I could be totally wrong on that.

 

[misterjones]

I could be wrong but I think a WB of 3200 would cause the camera to add blue. For some reason I have it in my head most cameras try to adjust to 5000K, but I could be totally wrong on that.

I'll try it again tonight but I'll change white balance to Auto and see what it does

 

[Original katomi]

Having done quite a lot of moon shots.
Shoot in B&W the grain can be lost where as coloured specks are harder to loose
Focus in M mode not auto Canon will hunt in low light. Have a lens cloth at the ready at all times to clean the front element
When done for the evening place camera kit in a cool room and allow back up to temp slowly otherwise you can get condensation in the class and camera body.

 

[misterjones]

So I went out last night and set the WB to Auto and this is what I got.

Manual focus, just like the other day, but I couldn't quite focus as well. Ultimately I need a lens that goes out to 400mm or 500mm lens to get more detail without resorting to a telescope.

 

[Scott Whaley]

Think about shooting the moon as if it were a day time shot. The shutter speed should be much higher say around 300-400 with a low ISO. The aperture can be set to your taste. The moon is reflecting the sunlight so, a low shutter speed is not necessary.