Night Sky/Moon pictures - advice sought

[Graham.J]

I was playing about with some of my manual settings on my camera tonight as there were some clouds in front of the moon and I thought it'd look nice.

I'm pleased with how the pictures came out but I'd really like more detail in the moon rather than a bright white blob.

Is there any way to get round this?






Any feedback on the pictures would be good so I can improve.

Thanks

Graham

[Graham.J]

That's the problem I'm finding, I don't have a particularly good camera (Fuji FinePix 2800Z) so can only adjust the white balance and EV with the settings it gives me.

Shutter speed is done by choosing whether I have flash (shortest shutter speed), anti-red eye (flash again), no flash (longest shutter speed) or some other setting which still has a flash.

With the flash I still get the white blob.

I'm thinking of upgrading to a better camera but am pretty hard up at the moment

[Graham.J]

I remember the moon thread actually, I'll have a search.

Found it - www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=71443&f=109&h=0

The problem with the metering is when I half press the shutter it focus's (no manual focus) so if I focus on a card in front of me then the moon and clouds will be out of focus.

>> Edited by Graham.J on Saturday 6th March 22:57

[Graham.J]

dcw@pr said:

Does your camera have a spot metering mode?

Nope

I really need a better camera

[Graham.J]

Talking of tripods I could do with a better one of those, mine is old and bits of it have been broken by neglect from it's previous keeper aka my father

Any ideas for a decent digital camera for under £500?

[Graham.J]

To be honest, I take LOTS of pictures (took 24 pictures to get those 2 remotely decent moon shots).

On one outing I took around 80 pictures, I couldn't do that with a film camera and the processing bills would be terrible, especially to get them all put onto CD's as well.

It would really have to be digital. With me being ill, a days photography knocks me back for a few days and I'd normally chill out and rest whilst scanning through the pictures instead of having to go into town to boots to get the films developed.

I have been looking at This Fuji S7000.

>> Edited by Graham.J on Sunday 7th March 23:58