Sunset, moonrise

Gee, I bought a camera this past week, can you imagine?  It is state of the art circa 1973, and while the camera is interesting in a nostalgic sort of way, I really bought it for the 400mm lens that it had with it.  I have a newer 400mm lens, but it is $1,300 lens so when I use it I feel I have to be serious.  And it scares small children when it is pointed towards them, so it mostly stays on the shelf. 

This lens is a generic Vivitar lens, an OK brand but hardly a Nikon or Leica lens.  It benefits from the basic telephoto design that requires only a few elements, one of which can be the bottom of a 60s-era Coke bottle.  Even the really good 400mm lenses are pretty simple and basically are a 20 inch tube and three elements.  This lens, for about 25 bucks, didn't do too badly, and in fact is pretty good. I captured the sunset photos and the first moon photo with it, and the faults you see are mostly caused by the photographer, not the lens. 

I was disappointed in the moon shots--it is almost a full moon and clear, but there is a lot of haze,  probably all the pollen I have been suffering with! Tomorrow is a full moon, the so-called strawberry moon so I might try again if it is clear.