Moon and autofocus?

[tigerotor77w]

I apologize if this has been covered before... I did a brief search, but "AF moon," "autofocus moon," and "auto focus moon" came up with nothing.

When I had my old S3 IS, sometimes AF would find the moon (all exposed correctly, btw), but other times it would not. With the XSi and 70-200 (no TC), I've found better results by MF... is it a reasonable expectation to have the AF focus on the moon? Or is there not enough contrast "on the moon" for it to find focus?

[EL_PIC]

You know the moon is 1/4 million miles away and somewhat still.
If you AF does not moon focus correctly, setting it to infinity,
then it tells you how un reliable AF can be.

AF is like that on various settings, sensors, modes, differ cameras and lenes.
Sure it also depends on contrast but there is usually enuff there.
Use single shot center for most reliable AF focus w good light and contrast on all subjects all cameras/lenes. This is most reliable - no matter what manufacturer tries to sell you.
When you vary significantly from the above it is may be better to use manual.
Artifical Intelligence will never be better or cheaper than Human Intelligence ...

[tigerotor77w]

I was more curious, though, if today's AF was good enough to nail focus on the moon (or if that's an unrealistic expectation). I can, of course, use MF to do it, and MF has been more accurate on my XSi, but I was curious whether AF is reliable enough to expect that it'd work for moon shots.

[Nighthound]

I personally don't use autofocus on anything above 200mm with my lenses. However I don't use my lenses to shoot Lunar images. If I did I would not rely on AF. Manual is the way to go. The higher your focal length, the more shooting MF becomes your friend. Also keep in mind that atmospheric conditions will have a great influence on clarity. Waiting for the Moon to climb above 40 degrees will work in your favor, but on unsteady nights even higher won't make a significant difference.

[Acropora]

A question - is the moon close enough to infinity that you can just turn off AF and twist the focus ring to infinity?

[DonR]

A question - is the moon close enough to infinity that you can just turn off AF and twist the focus ring to infinity?

The moon is at infinity for photographic purposes, but the stop on the focus ring isn't. Twisting the focus ring all the way to the stop will go past infinity, paradoxically.

If you set the focus for the moon, the planets and stars will be in focus too, but doing it manually is the only reliable method.

Unless my memory deceives me, years ago in the pre-autofocus days most camera lenses would focus at infinity when you turned the focus ring all the way to the stop. This isn't true anymore, though.

Don

[aVisage]

http://img502.imageshack.us/i/dscf0654.jpg/

My mediocre attempt at the moon using autofocus on a Fujifilm S1500, taken shortly after moon rise. The focal length in the exif data is wrong since it's a superzoom, no idea what the equiv is.

Hoping to pick up a DSLR soon (no manual focus is lame) and this forums made me really interested in a whole other section of photography i hadn't realised 'average' cameras were capable of.

[Bernoulli]

I've never had any trouble with autofocus on the Moon. I use a D50 and a variety of lenses with just the center focus point active. It nails the focus every time.

Having said that, I never use it since I always shoot through a telescope. I always focus manually using LiveView at 10X magnification.

[Celestron]

I've never had any trouble with autofocus on the Moon. I use a D50 and a variety of lenses with just the center focus point active. It nails the focus every time.




I second that , never had a problem except when dew was present and when that happens i forget imaging for the night .