The Moon Up close with the EX3.

[Steve Shovlar]

I was having a play about a couple of nights ago with the EX3 and a couple of Sigma lenses on the Adaptimax. I have owned the 170-500mm Sigma F5-6.3 APO for a couple of months and it's an OK pro-sumer lens. Nothing special but good for a cheap telephoto.

Over Christmas though I picked up a quite rare 1000mm Sigma F8 telephoto lens. These were made back in about 1993 and fetch quite a bit. I was lucky in that it was a week before Christmas and people seemed to be spending their money on their family rather than themselves. I was very pleased I had finished all my Christmas shopping in late November, and able to grab this lens for cheap off Ebay. The buyer was gutted it went cheaply. He should have put a bigger reserve on it!

So a couple of weeks ago I shot some footage of the moon with the 170-500mm Sigma. It came out pretty well. Then a few nights ago the moon had waxed enough for me to pull out the 1000mm Sigma and shoot it again. Now the Adaptimax gives a magnification factor of X5.4, in in reality, this lens became a 5400mm super telephoto lens!

Conditions need to be just right to use such a long lens and there was a bit of a breeze, as you can see from the footage. And to add to that I was close to a gas boiler flu, which gave off blasts of heat and probably caused the slight shimmer. A still calm night and I would have nailed it. I'll keep my eyes on the forecast! And yes, that is the moon moving through the sky as the camera is stationary.

But it shows that having a couple of cheap telephotos and an Adaptimax can open up whole new areas of film making for Ex3 owners.

Here's the footage.

The Moon shot with a 1000mm Sigma Nikon mount on a Sony PMW-EX3 on Vimeo

[Erik Phairas]

Nice one! You should put that on youtube in 1080p!

[Steve Shovlar]

Unfortunately I didn't shoot it in 1080P. Perhaps I will do it again in 1080P when we get a clear night.

Here's a couple of pics of the 1000mm Sigma mounted on my EX3.

[Ivan Gomez Villafane]

Amazing lenses!

Thanks for sharing the footage!

http://www.blogcdn.com/nintendo.joys...pyglass_sm.jpg

[Andy Wilkinson]

Great video and amazing pics of the set-up....but as you know you'll probably get arrested if you wander around with that in public! Back garden moon shooting should be fine as long as your neighbours are friendly/not the nervous type! ;-)

[Erik Phairas]

You should be able to make out the rings (shape) of saturn and the 4 main moons of jupiter. I can just barely make those out with my 16x binoculars so you should have no trouble.

[Robert Turchick]

WOW!.........WOW!
Amazing footage and amazing rig. Point it just slightly south and due west and see if you can see me waving here in Arizona! (damn...the Earth's curvature would be a problem HaHa!)
Can't wait to see more!

[Steve Shovlar]

Originally Posted by Andy Wilkinson

Great video and amazing pics of the set-up....but as you know you'll probably get arrested if you wander around with that in public! Back garden moon shooting should be fine as long as your neighbours are friendly/not the nervous type! ;-)

Hi Andy, if it's decent tomorrow I am going to take it down to Poole Quay to get some general footage. I would almost welcome the Police to come up and question me on it.

[Steve Shovlar]

Originally Posted by Erik Phairas

You should be able to make out the rings (shape) of saturn and the 4 main moons of jupiter. I can just barely make those out with my 16x binoculars so you should have no trouble.

Hi Erik, I will take a look at Saturn tonight if it remains clear. It doesn't rise here until 11.30 pm (so my PUniverse app on my Iphone tells me) but by then the fullish moon should have set an hour earlier. Downside is its very low in the sky so might not be a good target. Jupiter is visible in the south west after dark. I'll try for that. Be suprised I'll make out the moons of Jupiter though as even with 1080P its low res in the scheme of things and Jupiter will be no more than a spot of light.

[Erik Phairas]

I think you'll be surprised. I know I was the first time I looked at those two planets with the cheap 16x binocs. The moons could be mistaken for stars if you are not used to seeing them but they were quite easy for me to spot.

[Christofer Thelin]

Thats just an amazing shot! I would by your setup in a heartbeat.. but since you basicly got the only shot I think I would ever use the lens for I cant really muster myself to open up the wallet ;)

Still.. just an amazing shot!

[Steve Shovlar]

Hi Christofer there's loads of uses for this long lens. Wildlife, surveillance, Filming rioting and in war zones without getting to close, filming actors walking and talking in street scenes without every passer by gawping at the camera, the list is endless. You could film someone a good distance away who would fill the frame, but could look directly in your direction and wouldn't have a clue you were there. ( Not adviseable unless you are the police trying to follow some drug dealer!)

If I get the chance next week I will film some wildlife in the field next to my house with this setup. We often get wild deer close by.

[Alister Chapman]

I have canon mounts for most of my telescopes so I might just have to try your canon adapter. No practical use for it, but would be fun to try the 1000mm 6" scope on on the moon. Even with a 1000mm lens Saturn will be tiny, but you should be able to make out the rings.

Did you look at doing a Nikon or Canon adapter for 2/3" B4?

[Steve Shovlar]

Hi Alister,
Saturn only comes up over the horizon at around Midnight at the moment hee in the UK so it would be 2 am before it would be high enough to be filmed from here. I'll give it a go when I am up late one night. I tried a 2x teleconvertor I have but results were poor. The Nikon TC 200 gets poor reviews anyway so no suprise.

Last night was another clear night and I filmed Mars and Jupiter but the moon is pretty full at the moment and lighting up the night sky. Might be better in a weeks time..

For those with an Iphone 3G or 3Gs, there's a brilliant app called Pocket Universe, which costs next to nothing. It tells you exactly where each planet or star is and what its called. Just hold the Iphone up to the night sky and all the stars are named, or you can just do a search. Very highly recommended if you want to know more.

[Steve Shovlar]

OK have have had a chance to reshoot the moon with my 170-500mm and 1000mm Sigma in 1080P. One thing was evident and that was shimmering. Initially I put it down to a gas flu pipe giving off fumes but that was not the case. I can only assume it is the earth's atmosphere causing the effect. The moon is at a 45 degree angle rather than straight up, so the atmosphere is wider at an angle rather than going at 90 degrees to it. Unless someone else has another suggestion.

YouTube - 1000mm lens with an Adaptimax attached to Sony MW-EX3

Another point is uploading to Youtube in 1080P. I have never done this before so may have got all my settings wrong. I exported off the FCP timeline as a Quicktime conversion, H.264, Best, 1920x1080.

If there's a better method or bitrate I would like to know for future uploads.

Cheers
Steve