Re: Photographing the Comet

[Fred Ward <fward@erols.com>]

For some good comet photography and solid information about how to make
pictures of Hale-Bopp:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/comet/images.html
This site has more than 2400 pictures of the comet, and most of them say
which lens, film, and exposure were used.

www.nyip.com
This is the New York Institute of Photography site. Buried in here is a
piece about how to photograph the comet that is so good that it has been
mentioned in several articles as the place to go for data. 

To go directly to the comet tip site, use:
      http://www.nyip.com/tips/comet.html

And if you go to Alta Vista, the search engine, and type in Hale-Bopp
you will get a few hundred entries, many of which have terrific pictures
of the comet, and many of those include lens and exposure data. 

The reasons the Leica M cameras are perfect for this use is that they
are mechanical. That means that a simple locking cable release is all
you need to get the 20 second to 3 minute exposures that most people
seem to be using. Some of the SLR auto-exposure electric cameras seem to
be having trouble with such long exposures (battery problems it seems
are common). So, the M Leicas are ideal. You can easily sight and frame
the comet and the typical lens range of 50, 75, 90, and 135mm is what is
producing the best images of the comet. Also, faster and sharper lenses
are perfect, and we all have some of those for Leicas. 

So, go for it and good luck with your pictures. 

Fred Ward