[APML] Another Question for my Photo of the Transit of Venus

["Stuart Heggie" <stuart.j.heggie@sympatico.ca>]

I've been playing with a 500mm f5.6 mirror lens from Celestron (fits either
my Nikon or Minolta cameras). First round of pics were disappointing but
I'll keep trying.

Meanwhile, I also bought (really good price) a TC-301 which is the Nikon
telextender for long, manual focus, lenses.

On my 400mm f3.5 lens, this makes my rig a 800mm f7.0 I think. Pretty decent
speed and focal length for the photo.

The TC-301 doesn't allow the lens to communicate with the camera so the
camera thinks it is at f5.6 irrespective of the setting on the lens. This
means to me that the lens is wide open and turning the aperture ring is not
stopping the lens down. The light meter meanwhile is just judging what it is
getting and "thinks" it is at f5.6 but in fact I have to press the preview
button on the F2 to actually confirm the amount of light that the film will
see.

So...my question is: I should just ignore all this, confirm the light meter
likes what it sees (with the preview button pressed) and set the aperture
and shutter speed to get the best picture I can from a tripod shot of a
moving object? I think so but would welcome opinions - not the kind of event
you want to mess up on with plans to go out again tomorrow to try again.

Thanks!
Stuart

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