manual focus & the night sky with the SP 550

[phobetor]

I have had my 550 for ~ 6 weeks and am having trouble taking pictures of the moon and planets. I'm not using anything but the camera(meaning I'm not putting it on a telescope) and can't seem to focus on planets especially. Jupiter appears as a point of light to the naked eye but the moons can be seen with even the smallest pair of binoculars. To me, that should mean the 550 would have no trouble photgraphing them. When the manual focus is run up to infinity, the point of light(that is Jupiter) will not come into focus. In fact, it seems to focus better(still not great) just short of infinity. I've had some similar prolems with the moon.

If anyone has tried this, I would love to here from you. It may be just me, but the manual focus seems to require much patience and pratice before I will be able to get it right.

[Saralonde]

Wish I could help you more with this, but I'm not too familar with your camera and have not tried much astrophotography myself. Would any of these threads be of help?
Moon
Lunar Eclipse Photography

There is also this website by Canon that has good info.

[wrpowell2002]

In astrophotography you will virtually always have to use manual focusing to get quality images. And trial and error is the simplest method, i.e., take an image, review it, adjust focus, try again... It is frustrating, but high quality images take patience. Use your LCD magnification to immediately check for focus. That helps.
Don't trust the infinity setting on your lens. It is not as accurate as you might think. Also it will shift slightly as the lens cools down and warms up during your photo session.
One of the best books I have seen that addresses astrophotography is Digital SLR Astrophotography by Michael Covington, ISBN: 978-0-521-70081-8. Focusing specifics are addressed in a lot of detail. Cheers.//Bill

[gjtoth]

... this link. I believe this is what you'll need.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/re...hread=26412770

Henry has done some astounding things with the SP-550UZ that, according to some reviews, shouldn't be able to be done.

Let me know how you fare.

[riverfolk]

Okay, I gotta learn to do that with MY Olympus SP 550UZ!!

Thanks for the link

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