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Fullmoon with Tamron 500
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:03 pm    Post subject: Fullmoon with Tamron 500 Reply with quote
Hi!

Here are some quick snaps from some minutes ago. Testing the Tammy 500 a little. Wink

This is the full image shot with the Tamron SP 8/500 on the 40D.

And a crop of this frame:


And now the Tamron SP 8/500 used with a WEP-2x-Teleconverter on the 40D, full image:

And a crop of that frame:


Not bad, eh? Wink

I especially like No.3.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Not bad indeed, but I have no experience with mirror lenses. Do I see some movement blur? I would love to examine the EXIF to check your shutter speed but alas, there isn't any included with the pictures.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Spotmatic wrote:
Not bad indeed, but I have no experience with mirror lenses. Do I see some movement blur? I would love to examine the EXIF to check your shutter speed but alas, there isn't any included with the pictures.


Maybe. 'Blur' likely due to atmospheric seeing conditions.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Shutter speeds were between 1/320 and 1/400.
F-stop was 8 or 16 resp (TC).

As I said, quick snaps on a Bilora tripod.
If it's getting serious there is even more IQ possible, I guess.

Some clouds, but pretty clear in the gaps.

BTW, mirror lenses are generally not as sharp as regular ones.
But this Tamron is much better than my Beroflex 8/500 "Wundertüte".

And the really good lenses are extremely expensive, huge and heavy. That's why I like this mirror lens so much.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
LucisPictor wrote:
Shutter speeds were between 1/320 and 1/400.
F-stop was 8 or 16 resp (TC).

As I said, quick snaps on a Bilora tripod.
If it's getting serious there is even more IQ possible, I guess.

Some clouds, but pretty clear in the gaps.

BTW, mirror lenses are generally not as sharp as regular ones.
But this Tamron is much better than my Beroflex 8/500 "Wundertüte".

And the really good lenses are extremely expensive, huge and heavy. That's why I like this mirror lens so much.


Lucis, did you use Live View to check focus? If so, I suspect that this is probably close to the resolution limit of this lens. I used to own a Sigma 600/8 mirror, which I liked a lot, but I was never able to get a shot of the moon with it that was any sharper than what yours is.

Actually, really good lenses don't have to be extremely expensive. The Tamron 500/8 mirror typically goes for prices in the $300USD range and sometimes higher on eBay. For that, you can probably pick up one of my favorites, the old Century Tele-Athenar II 500mm f/5.6. Not very common, but they show up on eBay from time to time. Just for sake of comparison, here is a crop of an image I took of the moon with the Century 500mm early last month. ISO 100, 1/125 @ f/11. I used a stout tripod, Live View for focus confirmation and the self timer set to 10 seconds. No image sharpening in post processing, just a slight bit of contrast enhancement.



You know those 400mm and 500mm preset telephotos that the discount camera places used to sell back in the 1980s for $69 or so? Those lenses actually take really sharp photos, and probably work very well for photos of the moon.

Last edited by cooltouch on Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:07 pm; edited 2 times in total


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Fantastic shot, Michael!! Shocked

As I said, there is surely some more quality in the lens.
A better tripod and self-timer will help already.
Plus, in two or three days there will be a nicer shadow at the edge of the moon than tonight with the moon in full circle.

Anyway, I paid for this Tamron 8/500 only €110,-.
I have never seen a really good 500mm lens going for this money.

And "lens lenses" with a FL of 500mm are much huger and heavier. This is the downside of the greater sharpness.
My Tamron can be packed inside a normal photo bag.


PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2009 8:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
LucisPictor wrote:
And "lens lenses" with a FL of 500mm are much huger and heavier. This is the downside of the greater sharpness.
My Tamron can be packed inside a normal photo bag.


Portability is definitely an advantage with the mirror. But my Century 500 is "only" about 57cm long, with hood, and weighs about 2 kg or so. So, yeah, it's kinda long and weighs a bit, but it isn't extreme, the way a several thousand dollar 500mm f/4 would be.

I personally would be very interested in more moon shots from that Tamron with you using Live View and a self timer. I'll bet then the images might be quite good. I've owned several mirror telescopes over the years, and all of them showed incredible detail of the moon.


PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 8:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nice pictures Lucis, it is a bit hard to shoot the moon with this tamron.

Cooltouch, could you post the hi res picture, the lens seems to be very sharp !


PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 8:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Even when the sky is crystal clear I've noticed shots taken seconds apart vary considerably in sharpness; medium format tripod & head, mirror up, remote shutter.

focus is easy, because the eye-brain is fooled, as when looking at individual video frames, many frames are blurry, only a few sharp, but the video looks sharp to the eye, same when seeing moon through atmosphere with eye, looks sharp all the time but it is not.

sharpest photo of the moon is not easy because atmosphere is always moving.

solution? even with clear sky and cold calm weather, take many shots in a row, out of 30, maybe 1 or 2 will be much sharper than any of the others.


PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote
Nelson wrote:
Nice pictures Lucis, it is a bit hard to shoot the moon with this tamron.

Cooltouch, could you post the hi res picture, the lens seems to be very sharp !


Actually, the photo I posted above is almost a 100% crop of the original. Probably about 95% or so. My camera is "only" a 10mp, and the moon fills only about 30% of the frame with my 1.6x crop body and a 500mm lens. Here's a 100% crop -- as you can see, not much difference. Plus, I did not apply any contrast enhancement to this image.


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