Figured I'd shoot the moon

[DaveL59]

Gave the old Fuji S100FS a try tonight, full zoom (400mm equiv) and letting the camera AF and select aperture while I cranked the shutter speed down to get a capture. Mounted on the Giottos monopod and a night sky filter fitted, snippy tool screen grabs after zooming the image a little. Could to with a bit sharper focus and stability perhaps but not bad for a couple mins point and click  

At 1/200th sec

and 1/250th sec

[CraigT82]

Not bad at all for a point and click. All the main features visible and identifiable 

[DaveL59]

thanks Craig, Realised later that I was set at 100ASA which likely limited things a bit too, but fancied a change esp with the cold and wind and tired fingers after a day sanding down the OTA that I'm refurbishing. Figured a quick play with the camera would suffice before clouds took over. Need to spend a bit more time to get reacquainted with it really as its not been used much in a while, have gotten a bit rusty finding my way around the settings etc in the dark. 

[DaveL59]

so having said elsewhere it was nice and clear and the moon was looking lovely again, thought I'd see if I could do a little better. Set the monopod up in tripod mode, camera on the ball-grip and took aim. Remembered to reset the ISO to 400 this time as the previous shots were at ASA100, oops.

This time round I tried to get a bit better focus, switching that to manual. Not easy when the live-view screen is small and only zooms a little. Might have to play with a video capture USB dongle and hook the AV out up to a lappy to see if that's workable one day, tho the ones I currently have are powered which is a bit limiting for this.

So managed a couple shots then that nice clear sky filled with cloud and ended the session very quickly, always the way!

1/160th sec

 

1/200th sec

 

1/250th sec

All in all, pretty pleased with that tho  

 

Edited May 1, 2020 by DaveL59

[DaveL59]

sent my daughter the last pics and she showed them to little grandaughter who's 3. She said to mummy "wow did grandad get that close to it, next time can he take me too" 🤣

[DaveL59]

another quick shot this eve, ISO400 F8 1/320th AF 

thought I'd give Venus a go too, same settings

hand-held so quite pleased with those  

[DaveL59]

so I've been thinking around how to improve the focus to see if I can get a better/sharper image via this S100FS bridge camera. It doesn't have live access via USB but it does have an AV socket. Managed to locate the original AV cable (was with my old Minolta 9000 film camera for some reason) and I do have a couple USB connected AV capture boxes, a Hauppage WinTv one and also a Honestech VHS-DVD, this latter being USB only, no power connection required.

Did a test hookup camera AV --> Honestech AV in and into the MCE PC displaying to the TV. Bingo! you get live viewfinder view on the big screen  

Play with manual focus and yep its so much easier to see on the big screen. So a possible solution then. Currently updating my laptop as its sat in the safe for months now, then I can install the software for this AV capture box and depending on how things go I might have another play if the white/grey fluffy things stay away. Hope the app doesn't need the serial key tho as I can't find the box with the details now, its up in the loft somewhere.

While finding this cable, was a bit dismayed on pulling out my old Minolta, the handgrip rubber was a crusty white, as were the grips on the minolta lenses, yet the vivitar and sigma ones were just fine. Wiped them clean before storing away but I just know it'll be the same again next time it sees daylight  

[DaveL59]

So having managed to get the laptop updated and the HT software installed, all hooked up to test. Camera - av cable - HT vidbox NW6 - PC

and we get a live view of what the camera is seeing

sadly its fuzzy, even tho all are set to PAL. Oh well, this won't really add much for trying to get better focus I expect.

And a couple test shots seem not so good tonight, started off much the same ISO400 f8 250th

 

Thought I'd try a faster shutter, so 320th

 

And then, hmmm close the aperture a little to improve the DoF? So F11 1/250th

yeah, NO, actually very blotchy if zoomed any further. Would need to be an even smaller aperture anyways and unlikely to succeed. Probably trying to push this camera and sensor beyond its ability, given this is a 2008 vintage bridge camera, still was a fun play about with it and actually better results than I'd expected really in many ways.

Took a shot at Venus again too, tho hazy cloud that way which gave a different pic than yesterday