Those that took photos of the lunar eclipse last night...

[StacyWithFourRugrats]

How did you do it? We bought ourselves a Nikon D40x DSLR camera for Christmas. And while we have some manuals and books, we have not learned as much as maybe we would like (doesn't that always happen?). So I take the camera outside and try to take pictures but it was a no go!

 

I was unable to get enough light even with a flash. Did most of you use a tripod to get a steady picture? I was able to use my night time mode, but even then I was unable to get a good picture. I was using the 55/200 lens also.

 

On a side note, does anyone have the D40 or D40x and have trouble getting it to take pictures after a 3-5 minutes? I will be taking lots of pictures and then it just won't snap the picture. It will focus on the object or person but won't take the picture. I can then change the mode and it will take a few more pictures and then stop. I am wondering if it is something I am doing or there is something with the camera. Our memory card is a fast card, so while it could be that, I do not understand why with the faster card.:confused:

[~Tara~]

I've not messed with mine with night time shots much. A few 'city lights' shots is all I've done. My 55-200 worked fine for that.

So, I'm of no help for that part.

But, about the pause in picture taking...the first thing I thought of was..are you formatting the card after clearing pics?

If the card is not formatted after all pics have been deleted, it will act like that. Because those pics are still on there, just not visible...their info is still there...something like that. I can't remember well enough to explain. Just..something like that. Every time you clear the card of pics, you need to format the card.

 

It just 'gets itself together' so to speak and is able to take pics again after a delay. I don't know why that is either. I just know from experience.

 

If that's not the issue then I have no idea. I'm still new to this thing myself :p

[nancypants]

How did you do it? We bought ourselves a Nikon D40x DSLR camera for Christmas. And while we have some manuals and books, we have not learned as much as maybe we would like (doesn't that always happen?). So I take the camera outside and try to take pictures but it was a no go!

 

I was unable to get enough light even with a flash. Did most of you use a tripod to get a steady picture? I was able to use my night time mode, but even then I was unable to get a good picture. I was using the 55/200 lens also.

 

On a side note, does anyone have the D40 or D40x and have trouble getting it to take pictures after a 3-5 minutes? I will be taking lots of pictures and then it just won't snap the picture. It will focus on the object or person but won't take the picture. I can then change the mode and it will take a few more pictures and then stop. I am wondering if it is something I am doing or there is something with the camera. Our memory card is a fast card, so while it could be that, I do not understand why with the faster card.:confused:

 

 

I used my 70-300 lens with the camera on a tripod. I had it set to Manual Focus and Manual shutter & aperture (no flash). I also used a remote to shoot the pics so I didn't get camera shake at all. I had the aperture set to F5.6 and the shutter speed set to 13 (I know that's really 13 tenths or hundredths of a second or something like that but I'm just referring to the read out on the top of the camera)

 

I even got a cool picture of Saturn's rings!! That was an unexpected treat. Check out my blog to see that one!

 

I'm going to be editing my eclipse pictures today... We stopped watching/taking pictures when it was fully eclipsed. But a friend of mine started just at that point so between the two of us we have the whole thing recorded (took a picture every couple of minutes). I am hoping to make a flip book of the whole thing from start to finish! :)

[6packofun]

used a tripod and tried a few different setups with the zoom lens on our Canon Digital Rebel XTi.

 

We did OK, but still have a lot to learn about how best to take photos of celestial stuff! LOL

 

Lunar Eclipse 2008

 

Dh used the self-timer thing so that it would go off on its own without our touching it and our zoom is 75-300.

[BMC]

speed (film speed?) to the fastest I could. no flash. My digital SLR doesn't fit my DH's film SLR's tripod - and I didn't think of it anyway. I also have no clue how to use our over fancy telescope ... I allowed the camera to focus for me as my eyesight is so bad and I need a new prescription. I did use the car to steady me and the camera for some shots.

 

Surprisingly it was a clear night after a snow fall and we could see Saturn and Regulus (as well as several constellations) quite clearly. That is quite a rarity here because of the light pollution reflects off even the lightest cloud cover.

[OhM]

Dd10 got a surprisingly good pic just by shooting her Kodak EasyShare out the window on an automatic setting! I think she turned off the flash, but that was it. It's not fantastic, but recognizable.

[RegularMom]

I found a website that made some recommendations for f-stop settings and such, and recommended bracketing (changing aperture and shutter speed settings and taking multiple shots to get different possibilities) and took their advice.

 

I spent a good hour setting up the tripod and practicing changing those settings. I also made sure the flash was off. I prefer to never use a flash anyway.

 

This was the first time I tried night shots with my camera. I'm looking forward to summer when I can try more moon photography without being so cold. :)