The Moon through a Pentax Q

IGADIZ

IGADIZ

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Ivan
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Moon picture taken with my Pentax Q and Canon EF 300mm + 2x extender (via adapter).
Image is full frame with no cropping at all.

The combo has an equivalent focal length of 3300mm. This gives you a very narrow field of view so, finding the moon was not an easy task + manually getting critical focus with no 10x live view was, to put it mildly, "difficult".

Colour suffers from a bit of posterization in the shadows, which indicates the tiny pixels don't react well to moderate post processing. Still, this was my first attempt with the rig and I am sure with practice I'll get better images.

Moon_PQ_300X2_FF.jpg


For comparison this is the full frame I get with the same rig attached to a 1D MKIV

Moon_1D4_300X2_FF.jpg


Below the actual rig minus the 2x extender.

pentaxQ_300mm.jpg
 
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Excellent, and as you say, things will only get better?

Am I being thick, but how do you get an equivalent focal length of 3300mm?
 
This Pentax has a very small sensor (1/2.3" - 6.17 x 4.55 mm) which yields a crop factor of 5.5x. This works the same on all cameras with sensors smaller than 36 x 24 mm (full frame). For instance, a canon 7D has an APS-C (28.7 x 19 mm) sensor with a crop factor of 1.6x. To get the effective focal length, you multiply the lens FL (focal length) times CF (crop factor). In this case, 300 mm times 2x extender = 600 mm times 5.5 crop factor = 3300 mm.
 
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Ivan, that's a nice result.
 
Very nice Ivan, I know how tricky it is to get this shot pin sharp (along with air turbulence distorting it!) so you did well

Nice to see the sky blue as well, rather than black

drew
 
Thank you Guys. :)
Drew, yeah not easy with this rig but, I am loving it so far.

Luckily with all the rain we been having in London, air turbulence was at a minimum. Still, the Pentax Q LCD is not very good (400K pixels) and it only gives you a 4X focusing aid So, getting critical focus was a bit of a pain (not to mention finding the moon with a defocused 3300mm f/5.6 lens).

Also against it the 12Mpixels packed in to its tiny sensor don't like too much PP work done on them.

Still, I am fairly happy with this first attempt. things can only get better with a bit of practice ;)
 
IGADIZ said:
Thank you Guys. :)
Drew, yeah not easy with this rig but, I am loving it so far.

Luckily with all the rain we been having in London, air turbulence was at a minimum. Still, the Pentax Q LCD is not very good (400K pixels) and it only gives you a 4X focusing aid So, getting critical focus was a bit of a pain (not to mention finding the moon with a defocused 3300mm f/5.6 lens).

Also against it the 12Mpixels packed in to its tiny sensor don't like too much PP work done on them.

Still, I am fairly happy with this first attempt. things can only get better with a bit of practice ;)
Click to expand...

yeh great job - need to give this a go again, but think next time i'll do it setup with laptop and remote focus it so vibrations
 
I can't do remote Focus with this rig. Only manual focus with EF lenses on the Pentax Q :(
 
1st shots great, if only a little processing then that's all it needs.
 
Thank you guys. The force is strong with this setup...LOL
 
cracking shot. Keep meaning to try astro photography
 
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