I took some pictures of the moon tonight–I think some of them will turn out. Just did it in my backyard. I was frustrated by how little light comes through my viewfinder on my 35mm camera. It will definitely require more experimentation to photograph other objects.
I took this shot using Fuji Velvia 100F. The colors in the slide look wonderful. I don’t know how I didn’t start shooting with slide film sooner. I scanned it in, and it needed only a little color adjustment. Here’s a link to it on deviantart.com, or enjoy the flickr link below.
I just got back from a trip to Brazil where I shot a whole lot of pictures. I think the grand tally came to 21+ rolls of film. In an effort to save money, I sent the bulk of the slide film to Fuji for development using prepaid mailers. It’s an exercise in patience for me, as it takes a few weeks time to get them back.
I also shot a couple rolls of Kodachrome (which I’ve never used before), and since there’s only one lab in the world that processes K-14 (the development process for Kodachrome), you have to use mailers. I look forward to seeing those slides too. I’ll post links here when I get them back and scanned.
Before the trip I also bought a used Minolta SRT-101, and I’ve been pretty happy with it. It’s more work to shoot with than my XG1, but it is fully mechanical (one of the last that Minolta made). That’s important because as manual as my XG1 is, it will not function without the battery. The SRT-101, however, only needs to battery for the internal light meter to function. This will come in handy for long exposures (such as is required for astrophotography), as I won’t have to worry about the battery running low and the shutter closing (the XG1 needs battery power to keep the shutter open).
Perhaps more useful for astrophotography is the mirror lock up feature. When doing astrophotography, vibration is a concern as it can make long exposure shots blurry. The mirror lockup allows the photographer to prepare the shot, lock up the mirror, wait for vibrations to settle, and then trip the shutter.
Though for me, all this is speculation because I haven’t yet done any astrophotography with my telescope–where vibration would be most noticeable. I still need a t-adapter for my Meade ETX-90.
So much to do.