How to Photograph the Moon with a Superzoom Camera?

Superzoom point-and-shoot cameras are slowly gaining popularity over the years. They are cameras that look like DSLRs but are truly point-and-shoots at heart. They have DSLR-like functions yet have a basic 1/2.3” sensor. What makes them awesome is their long-zoom lenses that go above 20X. They have versatile capabilities that allow you to shoot wide landscapes and get close-up snapshots of birds.

Many enthusiasts use long-zoom P&S cameras to take photos of the moon. I own a Panasonic FZ47, a humble megazoom camera, which is the cheapest in its category. If you have other bridge camera, you can use it to photograph the moon.

Look at the phase of the moon. How you set your camera depends on the phase of the moon. A crescent moon is difficult to photograph without a tripod. A full moon, on the other hand, can be photographed handheld. I suggest shooting in manual mode. Zoom in your camera above 300 mm or above 10X, unless you want your moon to appear like a tiny disc in your photo.

A crescent moon 2-3 days before or after new moon can be photographed at slow shutter speeds of 1/4-1/10 seconds. You can use ISO 400-800, whichever allows you to come up with a properly exposed photo without the obvious noise. Small sensors are susceptible to image noise. You can use longer exposures (and possibly lower ISO) to expose the earthshine, the dark part of the moon subtly lit by earth’s reflected light.

4s ISO 100

1/4s ISO 400

As the illuminated side of the moon gets progressively larger in the succeeding nights, you can use faster shutter speeds, say 1/30-1/50 seconds at ISO 200-400.

1/50s ISO 400

The first quarter and last quarter moon has enough light to allow you to use shutter speeds faster than 1/60s at ISO 100-200. If you’re shooting handheld, make sure to hold your hands steady and shoot several photos so that at least one or two of them come out sharp. This is your opportunity to capture the craters on the moon nicely.

Last Quarter (1/80s ISO 400)

The gibbous phases and the full moon are easy to photograph because of their natural brightness. You wouldn’t need a tripod. You can shoot at low ISO (100-200) and fast shutter speeds (1/100s-1/800s). You can even go to Program mode and use Spot metering, which automatically exposes the bright disc of the moon quite well.

1/400s ISO 400

1/250s ISO 160

1/200s ISO 100

Should you go past the optical zoom? The Panasonic FZ47 only has 24X zoom, equivalent to 600mm on a 35mm DSLR. A full moon image taken at 600-mm looks like a small disc. If you want a larger moon image, you can go past the optical zoom and continue to zoom in until the moon covers a huge part of the LCD screen. Many point-and-shoot cameras have intelligent zoom feature that allow you to go farther than the optical zoom limit at lower resolution. Another way to make the moon bigger in your photos is through cropping. Set your camera’s resolution to 10 or 12 MP. Then crop your photos. Make sure to check the cropped photos if they look decent enough. Cropping can make image noise and artifacts to become more obvious. 

12 MP Image

cropped version of the same photo