Pimpom Amazing amazing Pics. I saw them today. You said these were taken form Panasonic FZ30 and some other. Its unbelievable. I also had a Panasonic FZ28.(actually its not mine but i take care of it.)
Can I too take such pics with that camera.
Can SX110IS can also be used.
And how zoom is required ?
Yes, you can take good pictures of the moon with an FZ28 or an SX110. The lens of my FZ30 is somewhat better than these in terms of quality (not zoom range), but the lenses of those two cameras are also not bad at all.
To take photos of the moon, you will have to experiment a bit. I'll give you some hints as starting points.
1. Use manual focussing if possible. If you can't get the focus right with manual focus, set the camera to spot focus. This makes the lens try to focus on the center of the picture.
2. You have to use manual exposure settings. It's very difficult (though not impossible with some cameras) to get proper exposure in automatic exposure setting. This is because the moon is a small bright object in a vast black background. In auto setting, the camera tries to compensate for the dark background by increasing exposure. The result is that the moon is overexposed and comes out as a blurry bright white object.
Set the control dial to M (manual). Also set ISO to 100, not auto. Start by setting aperture to, say, around 5, and shutter speed to 1/250 sec. The required exposure depends on atmosperic conditions, so these values are only starting points.
Take a trial shot. If the moon comes out too bright, decrease exposure by increasing the shutter speed in steps - 1/320, 1/400, and so on. If it's too dim, increase exposure by changing the shutter speed to 1/200, 1/160, etc.
Keep on shooting and change the exposure until you can see details of the moon's surface clearly in the picture.
3. Use maximum zoom for either camera. This will give you the biggest picture in pixels. The SX110 has a somewhat shorter lens (360mm) than my FZ30 (420mm), so you'll get a slightly smaller image. The 9 MP sensor wil partly compensate for this as this is larger than my FZ30's 8 MP. So the resultant image will be only slightly smaller than my shot with the FZ30.
My earlier FZ20 was 5 MP with a 432 mm lens, so the SX110's image will be bigger than that of the FZ20.
The FZ28 has a higher MP and a longer lens (486mm) than the SX110, so you'll get a much bigger image. The lens quality is also better. (Panasonic has the best non-SLR lenses, even better than most SLR kit lenses, and rivals many expensive SLR lenses. Panasonic's weakness is a high level of noise).
4. To avoid camera shake and get a sharp photo, use a tripod whenever possible, and use the self-timer even if you're not going to be in the picture. Avoiding camera shake is particularly important at long zooms. Most cameras have a choice of 2 or 10 seconds delay. 2 secs is enough for the vibration to die down after you've press the button.
5. The moon shots I posted were somewhat enhanced with Irfanview and Photoshop, so don't be disappointed if your shots don't come out looking as clear as those. OTOH, don't rely too much on post-processing. Too much processing can result in an unnatural look.
Also remember that no photographer, including those much better than me, can get a perfect shot every time. Keep on shooting, learn from the results and enjoy the good shots.
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