Thursday, September 10, 2009

F70EXR -- Welcome to the Night Sky

Yes, that's an homage to the wonderful CD by Canadian band Wintersleep. If you have not heard the CD, you may be in for quite a treat. And if you have not seen them live, then you are surely in for a treat.

Anyway, back to the F70EXR ... turns out that this is a little telescope in a camera :-) I was able to get a fantastic image of the moon with it, I mean a really, really good shot when you consider that this is a cam that fits in your shirt pocket. By the way ... this is a 100% crop ... there is no downsizing for the web here. That's what is so remarkable ...


That was shot in manual mode at 100 ISO, 50mm (270mm effective), 1/60s and f5.6.

I was also able to get a nice image of Jupiter, master of the southern sky. I shot Jupiter in fireworks mode at 4 seconds. Curiously, the cam chose 100ISO and F11 ... I suppose it worked ok.


Edit: Some people have suggested that there are as many hot pixels in the above image as stars. That may be true, so I processed a version somewhat less aggressively, and I think it looks more realistic. Remember to click on it to see the 800px version, which shows the very small stars much better.


I shot an image of the southwestern sky, although there isn't much there and I don't know the star charts yet ... this image is a blend of 4 images at 800 ISO, f3.3 and 8 seconds. It is shot at 5mm (27mm effective.)


But then a jet came through and I grabbed a shot of it approaching me ...


And I immediately turned around and set up a long shot as it went over the horizon towards the airport ...


The two jet images had the same exposures as the southwest sky images. All in all, I am quite pleased with the performance of this little camera for night shots. It's not too shabby ...

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Really very very good Kim!
I shot the Moon with Oly e410 and the 70-300 and for the size and cost difference, the little F70exr does very very well.
In Fact it beats ANY moon shot I have tired with my S6000fd!

Unknown said...

Here is mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/colette_noir/3905481891/

Kim Letkeman said...

Thanks Lili, the cam continues to surprise me for the fun it delivers in a small package. Your moon shot looks pretty nice, it's fun to try to shoot it under different circumstances with different lenses. My gallery page for moon shots is here: http://letkeman.net/Photos/nightskies

Unknown said...

Very Nice Moon Shots indeed!
I did mine with the lens resting on a beanbag on my bedroom windowsill :)
I wonder if the is a fully compatible TC for my Oly's (I've 2, 410 and 510)?

Kim Letkeman said...

Olympus makes the EC14 and EC20 teleconverters for their SLRs, but they cost a fortune, almost 50% more than Nikon equivalents. And to add to the pain, Kenko's TCs are only available in Canon, Nikon and Sony mounts. Tamron also makes nice TCs, but only for Canon and Nikon. One reason I've not be enamored with Oly ... overall system is a bit limited. Anyway, good luck.

crazyfootballmom said...

And may I say the first shot of Jupiter looks a bit like Mars (a bit red) so yes, your 2nd image of Jupiter is much more realistic! As if I know anything about the subject ;-)

Unknown said...

Kim,
I just priced both OLy TC's
MEEP!
They cost as much as a e510 two lens kit.
I do hope their performance is worthy of such riches.
Actually none of the Oly lenses I have have been anything less than quite good....

Anyway the F70 does impress
Here is thebest small sensor moon shot I've managed
http://www.flickr.com/photos/colette_noir/3082927267/sizes/o/in/set-72157607366254703/
With my erstwhile Samsung L85
I am very pleased with my 'new' F200 as well

Kim Letkeman said...

Pretty good detail on that shot Lili. Nicely done.

Unknown said...

Thanks Kim, that little camera has a very good lens and, gasp, a live histogram and infinity focus settings!!!
I gave it to a good friend of ours who takes it with on motorcycle cross-country trips.

Unknown said...

Kim, Ihad quite forgotten this shot
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3487/3275829825_59e1998da0_b.jpg
This is from my S6000fd and is the best small sensor moor shot I've ever got.
Still looking for a deal on the oly TC's btw
:)

Kim Letkeman said...

That's a good moon shot for a small sensor. I must say that I would really like to get a small telescope and start shooting craters :-)

Unknown said...

Thanks Kim.
Yes a good scope with DSLR would simply rock.
Add a tracking mechanism....
Honestly until this shot I thought the lens on my copy of the S6000 was only really good at the shorter focal lengths...but this showed me it was my technique, or lack thereof, was at fault.