Camera settings to shoot the moon

The best way is to set your camera to manual exposure and ignore the camera's light meter. The light meter will try to make the entire scene a middle gray, which will result in a gray sky with a blown-out moon.

There's an old rule-of-thumb called the "Sunny-16 Rule." This says that the proper exposure for a picture under a bright sun is f/16 at a shutter speed of 1/ISO seconds. So if you're shooting a daylight scene at ISO 200 then the proper exposure would be f/16 at 1/200 seconds or equivalent (such as f/11 at 1/400).

Why is this relevant? The moon is simply a large rock essentially at the same distance from the sun as any other landscape you've photographed. So start with f/16 at 1/ISO. Take a look at the result on the back of the camera. The sky will be completely black, but so what? It's the moon you want. Zoom in on it and see whether it looks the way you want it to. Adjust the exposure if necessary. Don't let it blow out to complete white. The best way is to set your camera to manual exposure and ignore the camera's light meter. The light meter will try to make the entire scene a middle gray, which will result in a gray sky with a blown-out moon.

There's an old rule-of-thumb called the "Sunny-16 Rule." This says that the proper exposure for a picture under a bright sun is f/16 at a shutter speed of 1/ISO seconds. So if you're shooting a daylight scene at ISO 200 then the proper exposure would be f/16 at 1/200 seconds or equivalent (such as f/11 at 1/400).

Why is this relevant? The moon is simply a large rock essentially at the same distance from the sun as any other landscape you've photographed. So start with f/16 at 1/ISO. Take a look at the result on the back of the camera. The sky will be completely black, but so what? It's the moon you want. Zoom in on it and see whether it looks the way you want it to. Adjust the exposure if necessary. Don't let it blow out to complete white.