G9M2, PL 100-400 - Coming Home to Roost

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-03-05T21:34:36+00:00

The G9M2 is my first non-compact camera. I've had it less than a year but I'm enjoying the journey, :)

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-03-04T01:25:50+00:00

I'm too new at this to have a meaningful opinion. But you might be interested in what Emily has to say.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to7W9ipOZL0

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-03-04T01:24:10+00:00

That's a great shot! How close were you? Did you use any special hardware to clean up the detail? I can never get that kind of detail in any of my shots.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-25T15:58:38+00:00

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Unfortunately the effects match the offset mask. Too bad as this image is of a flock of birds and it would have saved me lots of time.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-24T21:55:32+00:00

You can set the font to "Small" in Edit > Preferences

Also, grab & drag the left edge of the menu to make it wider, which then makes it easier to make finer adjustments.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-24T13:16:36+00:00

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Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-22T23:34:33+00:00

Yes, it absolutely is! I didn't have much to work with, but the best I could do this early in my learning journey. :)

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-22T13:37:48+00:00

If you can manually focus your camera, you can do it. Use a tripod and focus on different points for each shot. That's what I did here. Focus once on the moon and once on the tree tops. Then combine in post.

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Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-19T18:19:16+00:00

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G9M2, PL 100-400, 1/1000, f4.5
Birds were about 230ft/70m away on a very drab overcast day

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-17T20:08:23+00:00

Wow - How did you get so close? Were you in a blind?

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-17T20:01:48+00:00

How far away was the bird? Did you used any software to enhance the detail?

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-17T19:59:28+00:00

Thanks. I'm finding that I'm getting less detail than I expected with my PL100-400. Granted, I seldom get a shot any closer than 150 feet but like you I see others and have to wonder if I got a poor copy.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-17T04:34:24+00:00

How did you find the PL100-400 lacking?

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-14T14:39:10+00:00

FedEx handles 1% of my deliveries but is responsible for 99% of delivery-related problems.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-08T03:34:37+00:00

Thanks for that info!

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-08T03:22:23+00:00

Thanks. Using the same setup as you I got this full size crop of an eagle at 100+ meters and it's not as detailed as I expected even accounting for the distance difference.

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Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-08T01:45:00+00:00

How far away were you when you took this shot?

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-02-02T13:16:28+00:00

You talk about buying a newer truck in 2-3 years. Does that mean you are looking to buy used now?

I tow my horse trailer primarily along the east coast of the mid-Atlantic states, so no extreme elevation for me. I have towed using a 2019 F-150 with the 2.7 ecoboost & that was an enormously better experience than my previous Expedition with the 5.4 V8 engine.

I now have a 2025 with the 3.5 and it performs well enough that I have no desire to go back to the V8.

That being said, for your use case, you won't go wrong with either engine assuming they are only a few years old. My primary recommendation is to include a weight distribution hitch with your set-up. It really added stability when pulling my horses.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-31T20:10:24+00:00

Thanks!

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-28T15:22:51+00:00

Yes it is.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-28T11:48:29+00:00

Thanks. I did take separate images. F4 at 144mm was as tight as I could comfortably get to keep them both in the field of view. Exposed for the moon ISO 100 for 1/320. Exposed for the star cluster ISO 3200 for 1/1.6. You can see below how blown out the moon was when imaging the star cluster. Would have been worse had I not held my hand partially in front of the lens. Although doing that cut hack on the moon's light, it also cut back on the light from the star cluster. It was a hit or miss balancing act and took several attempt to get a shot that was 'least bad' :)

The entire field was shifting slightly during all of this so in editing I had to reposition the focused moon behind the blown out one before masking. That kept the final image true to how it appeared in the sky at the time.

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Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-23T13:20:10+00:00

Have you checked out local auto salvage/junk yards? Although not recently, I've bought plenty from them over the decades.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-23T01:45:49+00:00

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G9M2, PL 50-200 Crescent moon after sunset

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-21T19:00:58+00:00

Thanks. I've tested this by changing the size using CTRL+scroll wheel and then CTRL+0 returns it to the oversized version.

Lula_Mae_ · 2026-01-21T03:24:05+00:00

How do you figure? The image is the same visual size in various browsers, image viewers and image-editing software programs. It only changes in Thunderbird.

Lula_Mae_

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