I think we should leave out 20 X on compact cameras, and stick to discussing only the best of lens that generally detach from both mirrorless and DSLR cameras. I am not aware of anyone who says the compact cameras are as good as the mirrorless and DSLR cameras.

Maybe I need to get up to date. I was taught by a Jr college photography instructor that the limits of a zoom lens are about 3 to 1, that is about 18 to 3x18 or about 18 - 55mm, or 100 to 300. Now 18 to 300 is a range of 16.7 times, and that is way more than 3x. Have optical designers learned to stretch this range out?

Verryl
Call me dumb. I'm used to it.

This is probably the most common misunderstanding in astrophotography.

The moon is a DAYLIGHT OBJECT!!!

Just think about that. You may be standing in the dark, but the moon is in full sunshine. So expose accordingly. 1/125 or 1/250 second at f/4 or f/8 are good starting points.

A full moon is a little brighter than partial phases--realize that the "side" of a ball from your earth location is side lite, so compensate accordingly.

As to the white ball results; they are overexposed, because you fooled yourself that it was a night photograph, so you overexpose. And the camera responds with an overexposed image. Remember the only things in the dark are you and the camera. The subject (the moon) is in full, bright sunlight.

I give up. Who's George Straight?

Verryl

I have a Lumix G9, and it is terrific! I got Helicon to make focus stacked photos of my very large 25 x 50ft HO model RR Layout from Nikon D80 and Nikon D7000 images. When we started putting scenery on the layout, all of a sudden, the depth of field problem of 50 to 65 foot long benches was obvious. With just the stark wooden benches with no scenery or model buildings in place, I never noticed that only a bit of the photo was in focus--the depth of field problem we all know about. But with scenery, most of the long scene was out of focus.

So I sent two or three of my first Helicon focus stacked photos, which took 2-3 hours to set up and take, including use of a tripod, the electronic shutter control on the D7000 to eliminate camera jiggle upon exposure, and careful focus on parts of the long bench that were about 8 feet apart--I needed several tries to get an acceptable procedure. The hardest problem was to get the multiple focused shots--the adjustments of my zoom lens were tiny--a turn of only about 1/8 to 3/16 inch on the rim of the lens was required for a stack of 6 or 8 photos to cover the 60 foot long bench, that is, focusing every 8 feet. This was difficult and time consuming to take even 2 or 3 images, now with track and scenery (grass, rock outcrops, some cattle, and now model structures all along the way).

And then I had to assemble the 6 or 8 images with different focus points spread out along the 65 foot bench, and set up Helicon to accept them to turn them into a single "exposure," image (??), which took me another afternoon to learn.

I was so proud of these initial shots, that I e-mailed them to a friend. He immediately shot back a picture of a Long Beach, California shore front businesses and a 15 - 20 foot long pedestrian ramp leading down to the ocean in the foreground only a few feet away. Then across the waterway in the same shot there were buildings and details 1 or more miles away. And the whole scene (from a few feet to 1+ miles) was in focus. His note was cryptic: "Hand held, in-camera focus stacked image from approximately 30 exposures of a 1 second motion picture (video)."

So I bought a Lumix G9. Now I shoot focus stacked photos almost exclusively, but certainly nothing but Lumix focus stacked shots, for the model RR. Lumix calls the process "Post Focus," if you are researching the camera.

Using the Lumix "Post Focus" setting, it is only necessary to hold the camera very steady for about 1 second while it takes a 1 second video or about 30 exposures at the full range of focus points from near to far (or far to near--who cares?). I am able to do this if I am standing comfortably with the camera held steady while I hold it to my eye--I use the electronic view finder, not the rear screen to frame and take a shot. This hand held steadiness is possible because the camera and lens have 5 axis (?you tell me) stabilization. But if i have to stand in front of a bench and reach over it and twist to shoot down that bench, I can't do it. In that case I set up a tripod--I have a miniature tripod that I use, and two hand made mounts that will set on the bench with pointed feet that will not flatten the scenic "grass."

I have retired my Nikons.

Here are two hand held shots over a distance of 50 to 65 feet from only about 10 feet and 5 feet from the nearest objects in the exposures. I usually crop away the overhead viewing mezzanine or building details above, but I have left them in to illustrate the focus stacking quality.

I went on a 3 week guided safari in 1988. We started in Tanzania (2 days or so) and from then on it was almost all in Kenya, until we returned to Nairobi to catch the plane home. We ere not allowed to leave the vehicles unless we were within the fenced hotel grounds or were at a rest stop. The fencing was made of barbed plant limbs. That stay in the vehicle rule may be relaxed now, because I see photos of folks walking around in locations we were not allowed to. And I recently got a DVD set from The Great Courses that gave a lot of info about many, many different African parks and areas to tour. Seems there is a great variety of flora and fauna to see as well as many different levels of accommodations from fancy hotels to sleeping in tents and a wide range of locations to visit to fit many different ranges of interests.

The vehicles we had were Toyota vans, not quite as large as a VW van. The tops were open with an accordion-like collapsing fabric panel that allowed us to stand up to take pictures, and it was not too crowded when it was open. I can't remember the seating, but I think there were only 3 people in the back with one riding shotgun, and a 5th had 4 + 1, and of course we had a native guide-driver. The van may have had 2 or 3 seats in a semicircle, because there was lots of room to jump up and point your camera. The little vans could have held more passengers, but they did not book more, and I imagine the fare was higher to cover the roominess. The roomy seating allowed us to easily stand and move around to take pictures, and so we all could take lots of photos, usually shooting only from one side then trading places for the next one to shoot.

I am unclear as to why you mentioned your phones. It is Africa--you know, lions, and water buffalo, and hippos, and leopards. You certainly will not want to get out of the car to take photos out in the bush or get closer to the animals than your guide will let you. As I said, at the time or place I went it was illegal to leave the car unless you were in an enclosed place.

I made an aluminum bracket to mount and lock my small 4 inch Meade Schmidt-Cassigrain 1,000MM focal length, f/10 astronomical scope on a Olympus body, so I was always close enough for anything I could see while out in the bush. Everyone else had standard ~x to 200 or x to 400 mm telephotos. I was the only one who got reasonable photos of eagles which were a few hundred yards away. The Olympus body was dedicated to the 1,000mm scope/lens. I also had a 50mm lens for my Minolta SR-T-102 body.that was handy for people, hotels, and grounds or for the commercial zoos where we could get up close to the enclosed animals. I also had a Vivitar F3.5 70-210 mm zoom lens, but it was to cumbersome to shift from one camera to the 1,000mm set up and back, so I just stuck to the very long lens/camera in the vehicle.

I shot aperture priority almost exclusively with Fuji Color 400 ASA slide film which is now rated as ISO film. The 400 ASA was fairly fine grained, and very useful for astrophotography. I have a 16" Newtonian F/5.5 (2,235mm focal length) and an 8" Schmidt Cassigrain and the 4" at f/10 in my observatory, so a fast film was most useful for short astro exposures of 10 to 30 minutes.

I hope you have a wonderful time in Africa. It was one of the two best trips I ever took. We were planning to go back, but the violence stifled those plans, and then Covid showed up. And now we each have health issues, so oh well.

Thanks, Gaylord.

What is "2D converted to 3D?" I thought 3D was a single exposure, or maybe a stack taken as a single shutter click. Does one start out as a regular 2D exposure and then process it to create a 3D effect?

Verryl

I was stopped at a traffic light across the street from a freeway exit. There was a guy there begging from each car that was stopped. When the light changed and the string of cars he had just begged from started up, an expensive car driven by an attractive girl slowed down as she passed him. She handed him a Styrofoam food box out the window. As she drove off, he took it and opened the lid to see what she had brought him for lunch.

Just another day at work.

Verryl

"For reasons unknown, a text showed that the picture had not been uploaded and on another try, it still said it had not been uploaded. So I started a new post and then found it had done the previous post."

Things like that used to happen to me when I drank Jack Daniels.

I have the same question. With respect to the post about car thieves removing a fender to get to car wiring to activate electric door locks, ignition, etc. to steal a car, how would a clutch thwart a thief?

Verryl

I was having a good day until I read this.

V

I am connected to Dropbox, and everytime I save anything it goes to Dropbox automatically and is saved there as well as on my home or office machines in use at the time.

Great photo. I've been an armature astronomer for 15 years or more, and I've never seen a star trail photo taken with the camera recording both N and S equatorial tracks.

Verryl Fosnight

They chased us away a few years ago. The seats got smaller, the leg room less, and suddenly extra fees, and (can't blame them for this) the long lines to be x-rayed barefooted.

Verryl