Hi everybody, this is my first post on this forum, but I have used many other forums before and was an administrator on a few. I have been using the CHDK firmware for quite easily over a year now and have greatly enjoyed the work others have put into generating the firmware. I use my camera mainly for time-lapses, and have made some lengthy interesting time lapses. Some as lengthy as about 1 month and a half (sunflowers growing from seed to 10 foot high stalks. The time lapse would've lasted much longer but hurricane Irene decided to put an end to that.), and some just tough to shoot (pool being installed in backyard. Needed a wide angle lens attachment and had to jerry-rig it to my camera). I'm hoping to make some better time lapses and figured the best place to summon up answers to my questions would be here.
Currently I use an a460 (purchased from ebay for $8) to make my time lapses. I very much enjoy astronomy and so I like to make time lapses of the night sky. My only problem is that since the sensor on the a460 is 1/3in, and the DIGIC processor is very outdated, I can't push the ISO past 80 (bare minimum) without so much ridiculous noise. My hope is to make my time lapses a little bit more respectable (like this:
ESO ALMA Antenna Time Lapse #1 [720p]). Obviously I won't be able to reach a level quite like that because they are using DSLRs.
So my question is, what camera can you recommend to me. I would like one with a sensor that is at least larger than 1/3", and has the capabilities to shoot at least ISO 400 without unbearable graininess. I've been looking around but I haven't quite found the answer I'm looking for. I was considering the A570IS, which I could get inexpensively on eBay (big factor), and it seems to handle noise much better than the A460.
Here is what I have shot so far, hope you enjoy it. (Watch in 1080p please!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA5IBAJOIpYAlso, another problem I have with an ISO of 80 is that I have the drag the shutter to 20 seconds, and the rotation of the earth causes problems there too, with stars showing up as lines instead of dots, as they should.
And as a little payment (if you will) for my pestering you with this question, here are my startrails! As uncompressed and unresized as imageshack would let me upload it!
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/1451/startrails.jpg