REALLY helpful, sh1981! Thanks so much!!
I read through the SDM and felt a bit more ...
Thats right, it is a hybrid between knowing the basics of photography, knowing the functions available in your camera and SDM. SDM documentation is not written by a prize winning author, I agree, but its all about finding what you need to do really. For instance, I care about trying to make my camera zoom more than possible, so I looked into digiscoping. I wanted photos taken automatically without that annoying red light, so I looked into time-lapse. I wanted to turn my camera into a CCTV, so I looked into motion detection script. I wanted photos taken uniformly everytime I pointed towards the sky, so I looked into ND filter.
I've been manually messing around with my camera for the past month or so. Some of the things you've mention I've stumbled upon by myself, like the Vivid color option for instance. Some of it though I haven't. I knew I couldn't change the aperture without SDM but was hoping I could with it. I guess not. ...
If you really want growth, go for interchangable lens cameras, or bridge cameras. Look on
http://snapsort.com . First of all you must understand that there are features of a camera that you are stuck with, forever, for example its maximum zoom, its sensor size etc. CHDK or SDM or anything for that matter will not be able to change that. If it could, we would have one single generic camera, perhaps we will someday in future.
Secondly, you wont be limited at all in this camera. The only limitation is aperture, and that also can be overridden by ND filter, which will allow you to darken or lighten the scene just as in a real aperture. What you will NOT be able to do is control depth of field. Here is an example of DOF
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Shallow_Depth_of_Field_with_Bokeh.jpgEven if you get say, a canon A3000 which is relatively cheap point n shoot, you might be able to control the aperture with CHDK, however, the maximum light will be almost the same as what an IXUS 105 would get. Aperture is like your iris, so lets say you got one eye without an eyelid and one eye with an eyelid. You open the eye with the eyelid, all the way, and you will let in maximum light. You uncover the eye without an eyelid and would you will still get the same light as the other eye. So say you get an A3000 or A2000 with an aperture (eyelid), and compare it with an ixus 105, if I'm not wrong, at their max they will both be letting in same amount of light based on their similar sensor size and lens construction. Did it ever occur to you that maybe canon did not put an aperture cause it was so unneccesary in a small point and shoot anyway? I mean you can achieve same results with an ND filter. So no good there. You will however be able to work the DOF with a camera having an aperture. If you really love the effect of background being blurred, as a last resort you just might be able to achieve it with some computer software tweaking afterward. Look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focus_stacking and here
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/aperture/editdepthoffield.html . So I dont think just because you cant control DOF on this cam you will be severely limited in your learning growth.
I'm not sure if you can answer this question or not but I'll ask to see -- if you cannot then perhaps someone else might be able to...
You will never be able to change aperture in any IXUS cameras because, they do not have one. As far as my knowledge goes, on G and A series, you can. If your need is to control DOF, go for something like G9 or A3000 or A2000.
You said 'whatever needs'. The needs need to be defined. Once you've done that, a site like snapsort should be your first visit. Why? Because there is more to camera hardware than software that matters. I'd ask questions like whats the sensor size? Is image stablization lens based or sensor shift? How many shots can you take with one battery charge? How long does it take for the camera to turn on before you can take photos else you might miss that magic moment. How many photos can it take in succession? Is the video 1080p or 480p?
You will realise that even if you get a high-end camera, be it canon, it might not support CHDK. CHDK is basically for enhancing capabilities of low end canon point n shoots really. You cant use it on canon DSLRs. So look here first
http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Template:Supported_Cameras
One last question...I kept pressing buttons and whatnot in order to get the options on the camera to change but I felt as though I was mostly dumb-lucking it. Are there actual "instructions" for how to select the various options or even what they all mean?
The manual booklet provided is abridged, look here for the detailed manual
http://files.canon-europe.com/files/soft37742/manual/IXUS105_107_CUG_EN.pdfCameras are like cars, whether you're driving a merc or a fiat, you gotta know the road rules. I sit in a merc and I feel cold, what do I look for? Thats right, the heater. I want a photo of the sky, what do I look for? ND filter IN, shutter speed 1/200, ISO 80, and most of the time I get the shot that I want.
Let me give you another example. You seen those photos of race cars where the background seems blurred and the car is going full speed but is clearly in focus? I wondered how that happened. Heres what I did on my ixus 105 to achieve it. I set the image stablization mode to panning. I attached a rubber band to the bottom of my handheld tripod and held the band down by my foot. Then I 'panned' the camera as the car was passing by. I also set the cam to continuous shoot and kept iso to 400. The point is, I found out about stuff like IS mode panning and the rubberband trick only after I had the vision of taking a photo like of those racecars.
Thanks again so much! I'm going to keep a copy of your post in a Word file I've been keeping so I can refer back to again as I better learn my head from a hole in the ground. :-D
Thats ok, no need to thank me, I'm more amateur than you really. What led me to SDM was only my need to zoom in and out during movie capture which microfunguy helped me out with. As I wanted to do more stuff, like extending zoom (digiscoping), and that panning thing I mentioned above, as well as turning my cam into CCTV with motion detect and taking photos automatically (time lapse), I kept on coming back to learn more.
No matter how silly your question might appear to you, do ask it, I might learn a bit as well!
