I would like to know whether it is possible to photograph moon without any flaws with a canon EOS 550d..
Also to get an image of the moon as close as the following image, what kind of equipment(lens,etc) is need to be used with the 550d Body
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You can certainly take such an image with a 550D, but to get it that size without cropping will take a lens of about 600mm or so. The moon occupies about one degree of arc, and a 600mm lens on the 550D's sensor will yield a (short-side) field of view of just under one and a half degrees, which is just a little bit tighter than the framing here. A 400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter will yield almost exactly the same framing as this picture; a 300mm with a 2x teleconverter will be just a bit tighter. If the image is for screen display or a small print, don't be afraid to shoot at 300mm and crop; you'll still wind up with an image that's about 1730x2600 pixels, which is bigger than most monitors and will print a reasonable-quality 8x10 or 8x12 (or a superb 6x9). |
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You found the image at Mansurov's How to Photograph the Moon, so I think that's a good place to look for answers. Since he suggests using a 300mm lens and 1.4x or 2x teleconverter, I would bet those were used. Additionally, he also mentions that regardless of focal length, you are likely going to want to crop to get a tight photo. |
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See my answer over here... I explain in detail how to get this kind of shot. Basically a good quality long lens (NOT cheap nasty 75-300 type thing), with it in manual focus mode and Manual mode on the camera too.... Read the post for information. |
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Ideally, if you want to get as close as possible with minimum noise, you should rent out a high-quality 600mm lens like the Canon 600mm f/4L IS, the kind wildlife photographers use (typical 2012 rate: $400 for 5 days). The moon occupies a very small angular range and the less cropping you have to do the better. However if you're willing to raise ISO a little bit you can use a 300mm with a 2x teleconverter, and this is cheaper. Also remember that there's more to shooting the moon than filling the frame - you have to choose your time carefully to get good shadows, and meter correctly to get good exposure. |
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A correction: the Moon subtends 0.5 degrees, not "about 1". I have taken good Moon shots using my Celestron C8 telescope OTA in conjunction with a focal reducer - equivalent to 1000mm / f/6.3 - using my Pentax K100D at prime focus. The image closely fills the 2/3 sensor, maximizing the use of the available pixels. Which is only 6M for the Pentax, but still a pleasing result. see reduced resolution for web at: http://davidwarman.net/Pictures/Astronomy/slides/Snow-Moon-hi.html Ask me for the full-resolution (3000x2000 with full EXIF info) version if you want to analyze the original. |
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