oval moon - pentacon 300mm f/4

[dave_t]

Rushed to set this one up and unfortunately didn't get focus right on (or possibly the wind played a factor), so not quite as sharp as I would've liked. Shot at f/8 with the Pentacon, right after the moon came up. 5 more minutes would've been nice.



I'm wondering if anybody might have some tips for a tripod. I'm currently using the Manfrotto 055XPROb with Manfrotto 410 head. My 2 heaviest lenses are the Pentacon 300 and Pentacon 500 and I primarily shoot at exposures between 0.5 seconds and 1 second. This setup seems to be fairly inconsistent for me if there is any wind and a tripod seems like the most legitimate next investment (unless I want to buy lighter lenses!). Does anybody have some recommendations?

[Mal1905]

[wilson.c]

Some tripods have a hook at the bottom of the vertical height adjusting tube. What you do is to tie some para-cord to the hook and on the other end, bottled water or some kind of weight. Yes, that means more setup time.

One of my photography mentors taught me that. He used to shoot a lot with his Hassy 500mm and got a few of these lenses off his friends for 'cheap' because they could not get any sharp photos from it. Turns out it was the tripod that was not stable

[martinsmith99]

Good shot!

[dave_t]

Thanks for the comments, thinking about it more closely, I realized where the problem was. I extended the center shaft of the tripod, which I basically never do when using the heavier lenses, but was necessary this time because of the situation. I usually try to keep it as low to the ground as possible, but this time it just wasn't possible. I was also disappointed with the sharpness of the moon, but also realized that when it's this close to the horizon, atmospheric distortion is hard to avoid (hence the ovalness of the moon as well).

[Sven]

Excellent shot with quite an atmosphere
I don't think the sharpness is a problem.

[Himself]

I agree, sharpness is not a problem.
Excellent composition.
The moon looks like it falls onto the city.