Question regarding blur with a telephoto zoom lens...

[jhud81]

I bought a second hand Canon EF 75-300 IS lens yesterday and I've loved using it up till tonight. There's an awesome moon visible at present and I'm trying to get a few nice photos. It's the first time I've experimented with the lens during darkness.

Firstly, I'm finding is impossible to eliminate lens flare/a doubling image and secondly, shutter delay over say 3 of 4 seconds is giving me a blurry picture - and yes, this is with a tripod and shutter button release delay of 2 seconds. During the period where the shutter is open, I can hear the lens motor doing something. It definately should not be refocusing but I believe it is the motor which is causing a minor movement of lens elements and at a greater focal length is producing blur.

Is this lens behaving as it should. i.e., still making noises whilst taking a picture? I'm concerned that this second hand lens is faulty, although from the exterior appearance it looks in A1 condition. Thoughts?

[cphoniball]

On a lot of IS lenses you have to turn off the IS when you put in on a tripod. The IS system tries to detect movement, but there isn't any, so it ends up "creating" some of it's own. That's perfectly normal.

As for the lens flare, try taking off any filters you might have on the lens. I've had UV filters create nasty flare with night-time shots.

Hope it works out for ya.

[jhud81]

Thanks for the advice regarding the IS. I'll give it a try.

I had already removed my UV filter and that made no difference. But I've since been playing around with a combination of settings and I've eliminated the flare to some degree but I think the main issue is that the lens will have to be pointing directly at the (in this case) moon. It's very frustrating, I have to say.

Thank you once again!

[Quo Fan]

When I shoot the moon, my settings are: iso 100, f11, 1/125 shutter, manual focus. I don't use the in-camera metering, because of all the dark, the metering is thrown off. You have to remember that the moon is a very bright light in a very dark surrounding.

[OsmosisStudios]

Originally Posted by Quo Fan

When I shoot the moon, my settings are: iso 100, f11, 1/125 shutter, manual focus. I don't use the in-camera metering, because of all the dark, the metering is thrown off. You have to remember that the moon is a very bright light in a very dark surrounding.

Or use Spot metering on the moon