> From: "Amita Guha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I'm beginning to wonder if I should have used the meter > > because the moon was so bright.
Assuming that your camera was in automatic mode, my suspicion is that it saw all of that black sky and set the lens wide open and ended up with a shutter speed that was way too low. The voice of experience, here. :-) Even with a 400, the moon doesn't occupy much of the frame. The rule of thumb is 1mm on the 35mm negative for every 100mm of focal length. I put two doublers behind my 400 to get something that even approaches filling the frame. All that black space around the moon tends to throw meters off, and over expose badly. Try a shutter of 1/ASA with f/11 (the "Moony 11" rule). If your camera has spot meter mode, use it to meter the moon itself, exclusive of the black sky as much as focal length allows. TTYL, DougF KG4LMZ
