A100-Moving Ship Nightshot Settings Advice

[aster]

Hi everyone,

Could A100 users advise me with some settings/arrangements they use to shoot moving ships at night please? Suggestions of lenses would also be appreciated.

As you can see in the attachment, the proceeding ships appear as ghost ships behind the anchored historic yatcht in the front that is properly and naturally in focus. I tried ISO 800 and ISO 1600 with SAL 18-200mm zoom lens, this setting is faster but there's significant motion blur still. I'm not much concerned about the noise at the moment but wish to learn if I can actually catch these moving ships as still as the anchored yatcht.

Thanks
Yildiz

ps. The photo below was taken an hour ago and it's still a little hazey outside after the blazing winds and rain we had since yesterday.

[bossel]

That's a tough one. Check your aperture (I assume you use aperture mode?), if it's F4 or F5.6 or F8 or whatever. You might zoom out to shorter focal length to get a bigger aperture, the lower the number the better in this case. Don't use auto mode. If it's still blurred, you can underexpose and then brighten the image, but I guess it will result in lots of noise.

Lenses? Get a 50mm 1.7 or a KM28-75/2.8, both are good value for money for lowlight.

[aster]

Hi Thomas,

Thanks for the quick response!
While I was shooting the above photo I tried various settings; so many that I have 50+ photo samples of that shoot (everytime I waited for a moving vessel to come into the same frame as the yatcht). I tried everything you say I do: lowered to as low as F5+ISO 1600 and also underexposed. Noise level was elevated, yes, but couldn't freeze the moving ship to the yatcht's stillness, they never got caught in the same instance. SAL 18-200 is slow and I can feel the pressure of getting what I need out of the lens.

I've been considering the lenses you suggest myself but I wonder if there's a zoom/telephoto lens that can achieve this perhaps other than prime or semi-wide lenses? The 70-200 G SSM or the 70-300 G SSM or even the untried 70-400 G lens to come...Of course, this photo was taken at 50mm but I also zoom in onto the subject a lot, therefore I have to think both ways: wide and tele.

It would be good to be able to do this...

Thank you, much appreciated..
Yildiz

ps. Below is a 100% crop of an other photo I took towards the end of my trials:SAL 18-200mm F3.5-6.3, ISO 1600, F5, 50mm, and NR off. I also tried continuous shooting but that didn't help either.

[Dr. Harout]

And completing Sonolta, you might also upgrade to A700 with FW 4
Frankly I was not interested in high ISO photography, but after this latest firmware, ehem... I'm trying to do some low light - high ISO shots. Kind of like them.

[aster]

Thank you Sonolta,

Seems we all agree that a faster zoom lens is needed and there's nothing that can be done with the SAL 18-200 3.5-6.3. I'll be checking out the recommended lenses.

Dr. Harout,

There's no doubt that the upgrade is due for me and with the firmware V4, Alpha 700 became an other camera altogether! I was one of the first to admit that, though I don't own one at the moment. But I did get in touch with a Sony reseller about getting the A700 or the A900 and asked about zoom lenses. The A900 will determine the purchase of A700 ironically enough...
I'm going the tough way with the A100 while I still have time to shoot with it and also want to make sure that I fulfill what it can offer within its limits for the moment.

I'm glad the firmware upgrade is working wonders for you ...

Thanks
Yildiz