More with the Fuji Finepix S7000

[Astroman]

Here are another 3 shots taken with the S7000.

M7 and M6 again, Lagoon and Triffid, and a wide field Milkyway.

The numbers in the file indicate how many captures in the image., so stars 024_stars 036_filtered_800x600.jpg has 13 images stacked.

All images 15 seconds at 800iso. All taken with a Fuji Finepix S7000.

[jase]

Nice work Andrew. I especially like the wide field trifid nebula shot you've taken. It provides a great sense of scale and distance.

:)

[jakob]

Nice shots, Andrew.
How do you manage to focus?
I made similar attempts with my Lumix FZ10 but could not find focus.

[Astroman]

Hi Jakob, not sure if this applies to that camera but this is the method I use, which is the same I use for Lightning photography.

Lightning Technique: For s7000

First Turn the camera on.


Select the zoom position / focal length that you will be using for your shots at infinity focus (this is important as zooming on the S7000 requires refocusing the lens system); Most of the time you will have wide angle (no Zoom). If you do need to zoom, do this now. If you need to change zoom, you will need to re-do the infinity focusing again (steps 1 to 5)

1. Put lens cap on;

2. Set Photography Dial to SP;

3. Select Landscape Mode; (Little Mountains)

4. Set the Focus Mode switch to MF; (should already be set there)

5. Press Quick Focus button;looks like >o< on the little switch that goes to MF.

The camera is now manually focused on "infinity". You can now take the lens cap off and change the Photography Dial to whatever setting you want to use for your photos.

The infinity focus will remain until you either exit manual focus, enter play mode or turn the camera off.

Okay now that you have infinite focusing, time to do the exposure settings, this will be done manually and takes a little experimenting. Some basics you need to know, leave the Apature setting on about F/5.6. Adjust the exposure time to suit the lighting conditions at the time.

Now to set it.

Setup 1:

Set the Photography Dial to M, this sets it to Manual adjustments.

Adjust the exposure time to suit the lighting, take a picture, if it's too bright, increase the shutter time (turn the dial anti-clockwise), if it's too dark set it to a lower time (turn the dial clockwise). If it's really dark you can set it to 15 second exposure. Delete your unused pictures.

Set the megapixle mode usually 6mp or 3mp, unless it's really spectacualer then you can bump it to 12mpF. Remember the higher the MP the less images you can take. (about 80pics on 6mp)

Now to get the pics....

Setup 2:

Set the Photography Dial to S, this sets it to Shutter Priority.

Turn the selection dial to adjust the exposure time (up to 3 seconds) (clockwise for longer, anticlockwise for shorter).

Test the images to see if the correct exposure has been met. This will change over time as the storm gets closer or further away.

Set the megapixle mode usually 6mp or 3mp, unless it's really spectacualer then you can bump it to 12mpF. Remember the higher the MP the less images you can take. (about 80pics on 6mp)

Remember pictures take longer to write to the card, the bigger they are.

Press and hold the little button above the Selection Dial (looks like three cameras on top of one another) Turn the selection dial anticlockwise until it goes to the second last picture. Depress the little button.

You can now take about 40 shots one after another, but once the lighting happens, let go of the shutter. The setting you have saves the LAST 5 images you took.

This takes a little time to write so you may miss a few bolts.

You can go back later and delete the ones you don't want.

[jakob]

Andrew,
Thanks for the advise. I will try as soon as the clouds clear!