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somynex | all galleries >> UK & Europe >> Devon Again > The Milky Way!
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07-AUG-2004

The Milky Way!

well... more or less =)
limited by the 16 sec shutter on my camera, but you can see it there. the faint whitish patches here and there. =)

Olympus C-5050Z
16s f/1.8 at 7.1mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium original auto
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somynex01-Mar-2006 06:38
Hi Matt,

thanks for the kind comments =) to be honest, it's been quite a while and i don't remember exactly whether i used manual focus or just the autofocus, and i can't seem to dig it up from the exif data either.

Chances are, however, that i used auto focus, and that perhaps i was a bit lucky in that it was a very dark, yet clear night, and i was out in the country side with very little light pollution - this was without a doubt the clearest night sky that I had seen ever in my life.

There are a few methods that i can possibly suggest. 1) try autofocus, if that does not work; then 2) try setting a smaller aperture (higher f-stop number) and focusing on a distant object then locking focus (halfpress shutter to focus, and while half-pressed, hit the focus-mode button to lock), and if this doesn't work either, then; 3) try manual focus and setting all the way to infinity and then tapping it one or two taps back away from infinity. While i was more active in the photography forums, i learned that this scale is more a guide than anything and no really accurate, and you need to tap a step or two back for "real" infinity focus.

anyway i hope this helps some, thanks for looking and do drop a link to your pictures if you have any galleries online =)
Matt Laak 27-Feb-2006 18:30
I have tried this with my c-5050. How did you get the da...I mean..the camera to focus? All I get are blobs. I though maybe 16 seconds was causing a short streak (due to earth spinning), but it doesn;t matter for me whether I use a shorter exposure time or not. Obviously, you have been able to get it to work. This is a great shot. How the heck did you do it?