Need advice about photographing the Moon!
 

Well, by the topic title, sound kind of weird,but it's not. First of all, I post here this question because the people in the photography forum that I am in, are not very supportive and here, I see that the user's tend to be very helpfull.

Now, back to the quention, any of you is a photographer (amateur or not) and use film? I want to know what is the best ISO film to take pic's of the Moon and moonlight, during the moonset. Also, since from my beedroom I can see the ocean,and many times are ships caming in and out the harbour, all light up, I also want to try to take night pics of the city and etc.

So, a film of iso 1600? or 3200?

Not necessarily. I am no pro, but half a life ago I did photography as a hobby. I did a series of shots at the full moon with a 600 mm "mirror tele objective" (don't remember the English word). I used 400 and 800 ISO. the moon became nicely modelled and not too bright (loosing details of the bsurface), while the treeline separated from the dark sky enough to make it visible. Three of these shots I magnified to 30x20, and they were sharp and not blurred. I am just not sure about the timing. The tele had a fixed aperture (?) of 8.0, and the time was probbaly 2-4 seconds. But honestly - I do not remember that to well anymore. It is roughly 20 years ago.

With films of 20 years ago, you lost colour, sharpness and contrast with high ISO values and print films, that's why you would have wished to avoid high ISO material, if possible. Although for not too exotic motives and light conditions, Kodak had one or two good high ISO films that were surprisingly sharp. don't know about films of the present, though.

:hmm: Don't forget to use a tripod :p

:lol:

Best thing is to get several films of limited shot length, and test them with the same settings on your camera. that's what I would do.

Fast film is good. I am certainly spoiled with digital and cannot imagine the patience to figure out the settings for a night scene with film. For your ship idea, you will not be able to use a very slow shutter I assume, because the ships will be moving in the harbour at a speed prohibitive for longer captures. Therefore you must make up for that with the fastest lens and film you can get. A tripod and cable release will be a must I suspect.

If you have no cable (don't know how you are equipped), use short time delay.

Certainly Skybird is right about the moon shot; if you are doing night shots of stationary subjects like the moon it's best to use slower film to preserve details and instead use a slower shutter.

ask NASA they have some very good fake shots that fooled a world

No, I do not use tripod, it tends to ruin my style, I prefer using the camera on top of my head:p little joke. Thanks. Yes, I have a tripod, cable and a tele-lens. Material is no problem, just wanted to know about films.
About the ships, yes, if they are in movement, but many times they are stop, waiting for the order to enter I supose, so many times they spend all night, till morning .:up:

This is quite a good site for moon photography information:

http://www.dpfwiw.com/moon.htm

It's tartgetted towards digital photography but I'm sure there's plenty of information which is applicable to film cameras.

Thank You!

By the way, Skybird, can you get me a Leica M3 for a fair price,like 100/200€??? ehehhe;) :p