Eclipse lens

[(*steve*)]

Arrived yesterday!

Here is the first photo I took:

It's a streetlight at the end of the street. Looked almost the size of the moon. Handheld (sorry for blur)

And kust a few moments ago...

High in the sky (sets at 11:30). Again, hand held and probably poorly focussed. This is a full frame.

It's an 800mm f/8 with a 1.4x teleconverter on a sensor with a 1.4x factor, so equivalent of a 1600mm f/11

 

[CocaCola]

Very cool... I remember my mom's boyfriend several years back testing the ability of his camera to adjust and compensate for the light balance, he was taking pictures of the filaments in light bulbs while they were on... Some cool tricks you can do with photos today...

 

[davenn]

woo hooo
great stuff Steve
looking forward to meeting up next week in Cairns

my new lens arrived at work last week whilst i was up in Brisbane doing training
150 - 500mm Signa Zoom telephoto

For the second time now I have used an photographic outlet over here ( Sydney (Also in Melbourne)) called Digital Camera Warehouse Got my Pentax K5 there and now this big lens, their prices cannot be beaten by the usual shopping outlets like Paxtons

Dave

 

[davenn]

Ohhh side thought

what are you using for a filter ?
cant remember if you told me on the phone call ?

D

 

[(*steve*)]

Ohhh side thought

what are you using for a filter ?

I have a solar filter for a telescope. It has a 100mm aperture and an overall outer diameter of 150mm. The lens takes a roughly 105mm filter, but the front element is closer to 100mm.

It's labelled SWSUN120. I also have another smaller one (SWSUN-M102) with a paper mache adapter for my 70-200 lens.

You will see the marvels of paper mache adapters when I see you. (Perhaps I'll take a photo just for the amusement of others here)

 

[(*steve*)]

With a little tweaking of my eyes (adding focus to them) I have these from this morning.

First one was with the 1.4x teleconverter, second was without

 

[(*steve*)]

And with the 2x teleconverter, the moon and the sun are full frame

Focussing is a bitch though -- especially on the sun

Obviously I won't be using the 2x for the actual eclipse.

 

[(*steve*)]

OK, happy with the detail (if not the actual exposure) of the images

 

[(*steve*)]

Here are some pictures of my camera, lens, solar filter, and paper mache adapter!

I didn't spend three years in kindergarten for nothing.

These pictures show the 1.4x teleconverter mounted behind the lens as well.

I've just completed a hot-shoe mounted paper mache pinhole camera to allow me to find the sun more easily.

Remarkably tough stuff this paper and PVA glue.

 

[davenn]

excellent, Steve

that solar pic is brilliant the spots are showing nicely they are a couple of new groups that have just come around the limb of the sun over the last few days

D

 

[(*steve*)]

that solar pic is brilliant

Not bad for a beginner

 

[davenn]

I have been doing a lot of street view google earthing up Cairns way, figuring out some possibilities
Have 3 places to check out. There are areas of road closures etc and none of these fall into that list.
There's one hilltop site N of Cairns that Im hoping is accessable. The street view ends near the main road at the bottom of the hill and I cannot see if the road up the hill has a locked gate or not. will have to go check it out. another spot on the kuranda range road NW of Cairns and an area by the beach just N of the Cairns airport

Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

Wow! Cairns has true north 7.1° west of magnetic north!

 

[(*steve*)]

Looks like it will pay to start out *very* early on the 14th.

What are you planning to do to time when to put the filters back on before the third contact?

It's obviously not good to keep them off too long.

 

[(*steve*)]

Just for amusement, here is the hot-shoe mounted pinhole spotting scope.

And that's the mirror lens with only half of the paper mache adapter in place. No teleconverter is fitted.

A second picture shows the magnificent lens on the spotting scope.

 

[davenn]

Looks like it will pay to start out *very* early on the 14th.

What are you planning to do to time when to put the filters back on before the third contact?

It's obviously not good to keep them off too long.

yes it will be a really early out of bed on the 14th
need time to get to the site and make sure its still accessable ... not full of other people or closed off at the last minute, so we still have tme to move elsewhere.

the second "diamond ring" effect is the sign of the end of totality and time for the filters to go back on

http://www.mreclipse.com/SEphoto/TSE1999/TSE1999galleryB.html

Am really hoping there are some nice prominences on the sun's limb on the day too. there's a huge one there at the moment....
http://http://umbra.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/latest_aia_304.gif

cheers
Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

Oh I wish I had a hydrogen line filter. *sigh*

Triple checking my exposures right now.

Here's the result of what I call a "good" exposure.

That's a full frame with 2.8x converters on 800mm lens with 1.6 mag factor. So equivalent of 3.5 metre focal length on 35mm And it's only f/22.

*And* I'm getting better at focussing the damn thing.

A little concerned that with the sun so low I'm going to have to adjust exposure significantly. I'm going to bracket for maybe 3 more stops of exposure in 1 stop increments.

I also "calibrated" my spotting scope I can find the sun with the longest lens in pretty short order.

I'm so glad I attended kindergarten!

 

[davenn]

Oh I wish I had a hydrogen line filter. *sigh*

Triple checking my exposures right now.

Here's the result of what I call a "good" exposure.

That's a full frame with 2.8x converters on 800mm lens with 1.6 mag factor. So equivalent of 3.5 metre focal length on 35mm And it's only f/22.
*And* I'm getting better at focussing the damn thing.
A little concerned that with the sun so low I'm going to have to adjust exposure significantly. I'm going to bracket for maybe 3 more stops of exposure in 1 stop increments.
I also "calibrated" my spotting scope I can find the sun with the longest lens in pretty short order.
I'm so glad I attended kindergarten!

Yeah I would like to buy one too. My mate from out in Penrith, western Sydney, said I can borrow his one some time for a play. He's also flying up to the eclipse

here's a pic 500mm with 2x converter (so 1000mm f/l) F-stop am unsure as the teleconverter doesnt alow that reading to be taken, but assume ~ f12.6 ( yeah it has to be, lens is 6.3 at 500mm so x2 = 12.6 ) 1/160 sec exp @ ISO 400

this reminded me that its better to overexpose a little, then sharpen and darken a little in post processing. it gives a much better looking image, not as noisy.
Have a try at doing that yourself .... what software do you use of working on your images ?
Tho I have good stuff like Lightroom and Helicon Filter, I mainly use them for doing RAW file processing when needed.
99% of my touchups on .jpg images, I do in Thumbs Plus, its quite a versatile program. Have been using it for over 15 years

Dave

 

[(*steve*)]

this reminded me that its better to overexpose a little, then sharpen and darken a little in post processing. it gives a much better looking image, not as noisy.

Yeah, those images were processed a bit. The original image looks like this:

ISO 200 2400mm f/22 1/60 sec

what software do you use of working on your images ?

I'm just using the software that comes with the camera. It's actually pretty good at doing "all over" adjustments and works with the raw files.

I do have an old copy of Photoshop 5.5, but that pre-dates raw files I think I can do some final stuff in that if I feel like it, but for getting an idea of the best exposure, this works fine.

1 stop more than this is too much, 1 stop less is OK. So I'm using the most exposure that works

Tho I have good stuff like Lightroom and Helicon Filter, I mainly use them for doing RAW file processing when needed.
99% of my touchups on .jpg images, I do in Thumbs Plus, its quite a versatile program. Have been using it for over 15 years

Maybe I should take a look at them...

 

[davenn]

yup that image looks much better
you havent lost all the sharpness around the limb

ohhh, I saw, some time after my earlier posts today, that you had phoned
Sunday mornings is church time for Cindy and I
we usualle get home ~ 1:30pm my local time

cheers
Dave

OHHH... do you have a cable release for your camera ? if so bring it, it will cut down on some of the camera shake