Feb 9, 2022

50MP Moon Shot Using Olympus OM-D Hand-Held

About half a year ago I was stuck in my tiny room during the lockdown and there was only so much I could do or shoot to create content. I saw the bright, round moon outside my window, and I decided to grab some shots. I then realized I have not made any videos or shared any tips on shooting high res moon shots, so I made a video demonstrating step by step on how to achieve a 50MP moon image. The video was never published until now, because I was not so keen on sharing content talking about a rock floating aimlessly in the sky, as honestly that is not my usual photography as well. I decided to start the ROBINSPEAKS podcast series which was short-lived, but I enjoyed making tremendously. Now revisitng this old content of the high res moon shot, I guess it would be a waste if I never put it out there. So here goes!

The video can be found here (click). 

Image shot with Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III and M.Zuiko 100-400mm F5-6.3
Of course this image was heavily cropped

Exact same image as the one above, but this was uncropped

LEFT: High Res Shot
RIGHT: Normal Shot

I used the hand-held high res shot to get the 50MP output. With just one click of the shutter button, the camera takes 16 images and then merges them all into a high res 50MP file, resulting in a highly detailed and sharp final output. The processing does take a bit of time but it is so worth the wait. And the fact that this can all the done hand-held without the aid of any support (tripod, monopod, etc), I find it quite amazing. This is one situation where resolution does matter, and the fact that Olympus has the lens that is powerful enough to resolve the details, is also quite an accomplishment on its own. 

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3 comments:

  1. Great shot and a remarkable technology which enables to do it hand-held.

    And - a bit of deserved luck. :)
    At that focal length and that distance to the subject the atmospheric turbulences are in the range of "good visibility" which usually leads to an amount of blur we have to cope with. The lower the moon is above horizon, the more challenging it becomes.
    Maybe the 16 sequential images are just enough for the computing in the camera to achieve a sharp and detailed image. Amazing technology.

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  2. Hi Robin

    Olympus Workspace 2.0 is available and has a new AI Noise reduction module which can be downloaded separately.
    It may be helpful for your low light shots.


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  3. Hi, Robin,
    do you have any tips on how to make the HHHR work? I tried to get a handheld 50Mpx image with Panasonic 100-400mm on both E-M5III and the new OM-1 and no luck: I get the processing error, supposedly due movement...
    Thanks!

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