What setup will give the biggest, sharpest moon photos with my 6D/450D and 100-400mm lens?
Asked 8/6/2015
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2 answers
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I want to photograph the moon as large and sharp as possible, not as part of a landscape. My current gear is a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and either a Canon 6D or Canon 450D. The 6D gives cleaner, sharper files, but the moon appears smaller. The 450D makes the moon larger in the frame, but the results are less sharp and don’t tolerate much cropping.
I’m considering several options: using either body, adding a 1.4x teleconverter, applying sharpening in Lightroom, or stacking multiple images. I’m aware that teleconverters can reduce image quality, especially 2x models, so I’m mainly wondering whether a 1.4x would help enough to be worthwhile.
Given this gear, which approach is likely to produce the best moon-only image? And if there’s a better way to improve moon shots beyond these combinations, what is it?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
11y ago
2 Answers
5
I'm not a moon photographer, but your examples are just about as impressive as I've seen taken with a DSLR and standard camera lens. Some of the things you're looking at may help, but I think they're just going to be incremental. Additional sharpening is only going to get you so much, and the teleconverter is only giving you a less-than-50% increase in each dimension, and stacking can give you more detail but ultimately not something anyone will notice from across the room.
To really take things to the next level — which I think is where you want to go, especially since you mention that you just want moon images, not landscapes-with-moon — I think what you want is a telescope. Mount your camera to that with a "t-ring adapter". See How do I choose a telescope for space and planets photography? and How to shoot images from a home telescope using a digital SLR? for your next steps.
Originally by user1943. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user1943
11y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
With your current gear, any improvement from Lightroom sharpening, a 1.4x teleconverter, or image stacking is likely to be incremental rather than dramatic. Sharpening can only recover so much, a 1.4x teleconverter gives only a modest increase in image size, and stacking may add detail but usually not enough to transform the result.
Based on the answers, your samples are already very good for a DSLR with a standard telephoto zoom. If your goal is specifically a bigger, sharper moon—not a landscape with the moon in it—the more meaningful upgrade is not choosing among those combinations, but using more focal length via a telescope.
The recommended path is to mount your camera to a telescope using a T-ring adapter. That will do far more for moon size and detail than small processing tweaks or a mild teleconverter on the 100-400mm lens.
So: for the biggest improvement, use a telescope setup. With your existing lens/cameras, expect only modest gains from the options you listed.
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