Direct me to the info....

Hi ya, could somebody send me in the right direction somewhere to help me understand my daughters camera or basic camera terms, this is why....We brought her an Olympus E-500 a while back, she and I tend to learn better by trial and error/playing with the settings (truth is, trying to understand camera terms tends to lose me), anyway, we just purchased a reasonably cheap 500mm telephoto lens as she was showing interest in taking photos of the moon and planets and got a couple of reasonable shots with her 150mm telephoto. Tonight we went down to the beach when dark and decided to try out the new telephoto, however it didn't matter what we tried, the lens would shake, even when we were not touching it (there was a slight breeze so i'm thinking it was disrupting the camera), it is braced onto the tripod by the lens itself not the camera, I need something really REALLY basic to help me understand the settings I need to make to get some decent night shots. If we put the 150mm telephoto on it seems to be fine, any ideas? this is the lens we picked up, nothing fantastic, just something she can play around with until she grasps the basics:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT& item=200213522490&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI

Was the Lens attached to the tripod or the Camera? Attaching the lens to the tripod would steady it better. But ultimatly what you propably need is a sturdier tripod, the lens/camera combination is likely too heavy for your current tripod/head configuration. While it may be ok for good light situations, when using long exposures in low light it will probably pick up even your foot steps.

ARRRRH NOOOOOOOOO its a brand new tripod, it has a hook underneath to weigh down the tripod, would this do? I tried attaching both the lens to the tripod and then the camera but made no difference, I noticed when I looked through the eye piece that the camera showed some shakyness, it was as if the camera itself wasn't stable enough on the tripod even though it was fastened tightly,kind of like it was unbalenced if that makes sence?. And the lights just didn't seem as close up in the photos as they did through the eyepiece. Thanks.

Weighing the tripod may help. You said the camera was attached to the tripod, I noticed looking at the Ebay page that the lens came with a tripod mount. Try mounting the lens to the tripod and then attach the camera to the lens this may give you a better centre of gravity and lessen the vibrations. I didn't notice off the web whether the E500 has mirror lock up, you might want to try that if it has it. Mirror lock up will elimate any vibrations from the mirror moving out of the way, that is the "Click" you hear on an SLR when you press the shutter release. You may also want to try using the self timer so you are not touching the camera at all when it is triggered to take the picture. That way you don't cause any of the vibrations.

In addition to Lee's very solid suggestions, you might consider using a large umbrella (like a golf umbrella) to shield the camera from the wind.

We used to do that in our college astronomy classes when our telescopes were being buffeted by wind and we were doing astrophotography. Or we'd used a vehicle to block the wind.

DKB,

Keep in mind that an f/8 lens is not going to offer much light-gathering power for astronomy or sports. The eBay ad said it's "perfect for sports and astronomy." I'd say they exaggerated a bit. Or a lot. Feasible? Maybe. Perfect? Hardly.

In my experience, an f/8 lens will be okay for sports in optimal lighting conditions, but poor lighting -- even a heavily overcast day -- might give you problems. And astronomy is even worse; it's the very definition of poor lighting.

But do please post some of the shots you and your daughter get from that 500mm f/8 lens. I'm very curious. I think you'll get some good lunar shots, but I'm guessing the planets will still be unresolveable with a 500mm. The ad claims the lens is the equivalent of a 10x binocular, but you need around 30x to resolve the most obvious details like Saturn's rings or the crescent phase of Venus. With 10x, you might be able to resolve Jupiter's four largest moons (known as the "Galilean" moons), though Jupiter will likely still be just a very bright point.

Hey DKB,
I was going to bring up all the point that everyone said already. Some of the Big problem ones Is the F8 you would need to have Full sun to get at good image or have your ISA pushed up high. I looked in to these lens at one time many Moons ago (hehe) They sell them under about 5 different names (Opteka and Phoenix is two of them) which for the price is very tempting ($65-$250)They also have a few zooms round 420mm-800mm. and a 650mm-1300mm then with a 2x you get 840mm-1600mm and 1300mm-2600mm Now don't forget the F-stop is Now F16-F32 Not good. With lens the more you zoom up the more shake will be seen. If the tripod that came with it is not strong you can use two tripods one for the lens and one for the camera. You need a lot of light and very low movement. Try the lens on a stop sign (stop sign don't move much) in the Hottest day of the year, you should get a good image. Note that most of these ads show an image of a sign in summer. Now don't get me wrong you can get people, birds etc... but you need light, a lot of light to work the best.

As for astronomy gos Many people think low light needs slow shutter speeds this can be true but not true. If you let your camera think you are taking a picture of the moon for an example it sees the bright moon and the dark space and thinks it needs slow shutter speed. Not true, you need to meter off the moon itself, you know it bright right. If you just let the camera do what it thinks it needs to do, you will get a very bright spot (blown out image of the moon) Also, even though you may feel that your tripod is not moving the Earth is and so is your tripod, yourself, the cup of coffee in your hand etc... Unless you have a tripod that has tracking (moves at the speed the Earth is moving) any slow shutter speed will blur the image. Kind of like a slow shutter speed in a moving car out the side window (the camera is not moving the car is but the camera is in the car). Get it?

If I ever get the time maybe I should write an article on Astronomy photography, it comes up a lot. Maybe some day.

I know I have posted this image before but here is an example of what can be done. I can't remember what all the info for the image was but It was maybe done at a 90th to 125th of a sec with a 1250mm lens at F4 (telescope) the end where the image comes in is 10 inches across (254mm across) It also has a tripod that tracks (moves with the Earth) So for dimmer subjects like Nebula's, other Galaxy's that need the slower shutter speed the tracking keeps the camera moving right on track as the Earth moves under the subject (or if you want to think of it as it moves with the subject across the sky)

As for basic camera terms:
I don't know how basic you want to know. Do you understand F-stop, Shutter speed, ISA and how they work together? let me know where to start in the basic and I will try to help.

Wow, thanks for the help, my husband brought us a Manfrotto tripod yesterday (that thing feels like it weighs a ton ) I used it last night to take some pics of the moon and stars, the photo below isn't perfect and i'm still not quite sure how I got it, however I noticed when a light cloud cover moved over I didn't get the blowout effect but it seems as soon as the cloud moved passed it blew out,does that sound about right, or maybe because I was trying different settings.
I also took a photo of this coloured thing (I cropped an auto fixed it in photoshop,otherwise it would look like a dot in the sky)star or planet?.
I tried the lens today, yes, the photos came out looking hazey.
I am determined to work hard at understanding photograpy terms such as aperture etc (these terms scare me because I cannot seem to grasp how and when to use them). So if anyone can explain or send me in the right direction as to where I can find really simplistic explanations (as in you were explaining it to a 10 year old), I would be very greatful, thankyou everyone for taking the time to help me out

Not sure if I've left you this link or not, but you can find lots of topics covered in my Tips and Tricks feature. I deal with lots of the basics like aperture dealing with depth of field and so on. http://journals.aol.com/radar446/tnt/