I just zoomed my way to the moon with a cheap camera.. wow

Testing the cheap digital camera Cannon Powershoot SX500 IS zoom capabilities

Okay I had my problems with this camera.. its almost impossible to take good pictures in low light conditions or in motion... so I desired to test its zoom instead on .. the moon

And the result was just mind blowing.. mind you, this is a cheap camera only $249.99
That extremely powerful 30x Optical Zoom is amazing

I wanted to ask other camera users on ATS if your cameras can manage this kind of zoom of the moon and handle the moons light reflection at the same time ? If you have the time.. take your tech and go out in the darkness and try and zoom all the way in on the moon and snap a few and let us see.

Have to wait a few hours where I am, but I'll try it later. I've got a Powershot A2300 HD and it takes Great pictures and video. For a $200 camera, you just can't beat it. Cell phone cameras are ok for a quick pic, but if you want good ones, without having to carry a giant camera, you need one of these. It's the size of the palm of your hand, 16 megapixel, so you get plenty of detail, without that grainy look if you blow them up, comes with plenty of memory and you can add a bigger SD card. Just stick it in a back pocket and go. Love'em.

Don't know what they changed, but mine takes excellent low light pics.

a reply to: Spacespider

That is pretty damned excellent for such a cheap camera, the advances in optics over price over the last 20 years has been silly, or at least it seems so to me.

Soon telescopes will be a thing of the past for amateur hobbyists, no big "tubes" to cart around.

Lol, just wait until the people start telling you that you are photoshopping your photos, or accusing you of being a NASA-paid shill, because they cant see the alien moonbases.... Or using your pics as evidence that nobody landed there because they cant see the flags...

But nice pics OP, now you can try your hand at taking pics of the milky way, and maybe try your hands at photographing the planets, or the sun (with a decent solar-filter).

Another think you can try is stacking your images of the moon to get much higher quality shots, juat google it, plenty of free software available for it.

I have an old PowerShot A40 that I took some really good moon pics a while back. I attached it to a good pair of binoculars and got some awesome shots comparable to yours. I put the camera's lens into one of the binocular lenses. The auto focus did the rest. You should try with binoculars and see what you get.

a reply to: TamtammyMacx

Never tried that, but I will tonight. I have an awesome set of binocs that I use instead of my telescope. They're just as powerful, if not more, and I mount them to a tripod.

I have a Cannon PowerShot SX60 HD myself. I have tons of pictures of the moon, some I have posted here. The first picture is three shots from the same night or same time frame so that you can see it is actually from my yard.



This shot is zoomed but not all the way, because as you will see with the one below it, I can zoom more, but cant keep it all in the frame.



Full zoom:



Decent shot of a half moon for you!



July 2016 Full moon:



Same night full zoom. I don't have a tripod so full zoom is hard to get clear shot without shaking. lol Close enough for you?



Like I said, I have a lot of shots. I keep taking them because you never know when you may accidently catch something right?

a reply to: Spacespider
Wait a minute... that's no moon... it's a space station!

Excellent Pics !!!
Here's the flags, photo shopped or not,Hehe.





Buck

I used a Canon 600D and Sigma DG lens at 300mm.





Saturation-enhanced shot to show the colours of the Moon:

: _D