Sony A7 III Moon Pictures

[XJamesKendrick12X]

I Understand this is more for sharing/showing off pictures taken with the Sony a7iii rather than asking questions. With that said, I do have a question. Here's two pictures I took of the moon using my 55-210mm lens. I bought this lens because I didn't have much time to decide before my vacation. It's designed for wildlife and impresses with wildlife. However, it also impressed me with the moon.
I'm just curious if anyone here has used a (give or take) 1000mm manual telephoto lens to take pictures of the moon with their Sony A7iii or any Sony E mount camera?
I'm aware that lighting plays a crucial role in pictures, but with the moon being so bright, I can't help but wonder if a $200 manual lens will blow mine out of the water. If anyone is curious what particular lens I'm considering, it's the Nex-3 Manual Focus High Power 1000mm Lens.
Anyone with pictures of the moon, regardless which lens you used, feel free to share.

• ILCE-7M3
• E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS
• 210.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/250 sec
• ISO 100

• ILCE-7M3
• E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3 OSS
• 210.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/30 sec
• ISO 100

 

[FowlersFreeTime]

Wait, isn't the 55-210 an E lens as opposed to an FE lens? So are you shooting in crop mode with this APSC lens?
My a6400 didn't come with that kit lens, I got the 18-135, so this is the best I could manage with mine:

• ILCE-6400
• E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS
• 131.0 mm
• ƒ/16
• 1/50 sec
• ISO 100

I really want to try with something like a 100-400mm lens to see if I can get a good moon-shot in a single exposure.

 

[XJamesKendrick12X]

Wait, isn't the 55-210 an E lens as opposed to an FE lens? So are you shooting in crop mode with this APSC lens?
My a6400 didn't come with that kit lens, I got the 18-135, so this is the best I could manage with mine:
View attachment 13456
I really want to try with something like a 100-400mm lens to see if I can get a good moon-shot in a single exposure.

Yes, it is an E lens. I bought my A7 iii kit but knew I wanted something to get me closer to wildlife and far away nature for vacation so I bought it. I don't regret it the least bit for around $300.
That's actually a good shot for the lens you were provided.
I'd love to see what you can do at 400mm! I'm still debating a cheap manual super telephoto lens. I've seen some for a few hundred and under but must research brands. While I'd like it for seeing far away scenery, it's primary use would be the moon and beyond!
Seeing how the moon has plenty of lighting, I'm eager to see what a 1,000mm + would do for me.

 

[Tim Mayo]

I Understand this is more for sharing/showing off pictures taken with the Sony a7iii rather than asking questions.

This forum is for both asking questions and sharing photos I don't think I have any moon shots taken with my a7III unfortunately, only my a7R IV. Focal distance and the sharpness of the lens both help to achieve detailed moonscape shots. The E 55-210 will struggle, especially on the a7III as it's an APS-C lens.

This is what the moon will look like when shot on a full-frame camera (a7R IV) + FE 200-600 lens + 1.4x teleconverter which gets you to 840mm. This is uncropped and unedited.

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS + 1.4X Teleconverter
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

If I then crop to 4000px you'll still retain a lot of detail.

• ILCE-7RM4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS + 1.4X Teleconverter
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

For a cheap telephoto I'd probably look at the Sigma 150-600 for Canon EF mount, you can get this used for a good price. Then just use an adapter like the Sigma MC-11 for E-mount. I'd only recommend this for manual focussing on subjects though, if autofocus is important then you are normally better of with native Sony E-mount lenses.

 

[Ralph]

Tim I have posts shots of the Moon with my Sigma 400mm lens.

 

[mgregg]

Here's a photo of the April 2021 SuperMoon - taken with a SONY a7III mounted to a 40+ year old manual focus Celestron C90 telescope mounted to a fixed tripod. I took this photo in my Denver area backyard (with lots of light pollution). It came out well - focus is really tricky, but I used the SONY camera's Focus Peaking feature. The C90 scope is equivalent to a 1000mm lens you asked about. f11, ISO 100, 1/125 sec

I'm pretty happy with the result.

 

[Alan Clark]

• E 150-500mm F5-6.7 A057
• 500.0 mm
• ƒ/6.6999998092651
• 1/500 sec
• ISO 400

Taken with the A7Riii and Vivitar 150-500.

 

[pointreyes]

Well, the moon is in these pictures. AFAIK, I should not post them here because it was done on a APSC Fujifilm X-Pro2 with the Nikkor 80-400 AF-D and a cheap Kenko 1.4 TC.

Eclipse - Hull Family

This gallery hosted by SmugMug; your photos look better here.

www.zhullfamily.net

I have one moon picture I took with a Sony camera (A7Riii with 100-400 GM) and it was that one picture that made me discover that lossy compressed raw is a despicable format to use for these type of shots. The moon was intentionality out of focus with the tree in focus but the posterization between the foggy night sky and the moon was utterly depressing. I remember researching if something was wrong with the gear only to find out that this is a situation that can occur with Sony lossy compressed raw files. https://stephenbayphotography.com/blog/sony-raw-compression-artifacts-real-examples/

• ILCE-7RM3
• FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM OSS
• 400.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/60 sec
• ISO 1600

 

[Blake81]

I shot this a few nights ago.

• ILCE-7RM5
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS + 1.4X Teleconverter
• 840.0 mm
• ƒ/9
• 1/400 sec
• ISO 100