Blur problem

Hello,
I own a Fuji S7000 camera, one of their top of the line. So I'm having this problem, and I know its got to be me: I am trying to take shots of the moon, but every shot comes out blurry. I can't get a really good focused shot at all. What I am supposed to do to get a good night shot? Should I keep messing with the shutter speed and manually focus? Any advise would be appreciated.

[JCW3]

Blurred photos??? Are you saying they are blurred from focus, camera movement, error???

The key with shooting the moon is haveing a tripod, that way all movement can be eleminated and its also nice to use the timer so you dont even have to worry about movement when the shutter is pushed.

To be honest moon shots can be done hand-held, but take my word for it, you will be much happier with a tripod shot.

The second key is exposure, with a moon shot, it will confuss your auto meter. So with this in mind you will have to over ride it and go to manual to achive good results. Or use spot meter and meter off the moon.

As for focus, good luck. Fuji has the worst design when it comes to infinity focus. There are a few tricks to make the camera convert to manual focus, but master the first few things then worry about focus...

Hope this helps if not let me know...

[raaf]

One addition to JWC3, the exposure time should be less that a couple of seconds (at least less then 8 seconds) simply because the moon moves as well. Longer exposures will result in blurred images.

[JCW3]

8 seconds :) Wow I hope your faster than that, I just took it for grant it the post was above that....

Your right, when in auto mode or simi-auto the camera will meter out long shutter speeds because its seeing all the black...

I will admit most of my moon photography is done between 1/125-1/400 of a second. Open up that f-stop nice and wide and get some light in there. But be careful, the key is good exposure of the moon, so dont allow it to blow the white of the moon.

You can go the long shutter speed route, but for starters I would recommend speeding it up. It also helps with alot of that noise issues that are common.