Help with s100 low light

mv3830

12

« on: 15 / January / 2012, 12:46:35 »

Advertisements

I need help:
The s100 is a real sweet camera. I had a s95 before until it stopped working. Returned it and upgraded to the s100.

I used the s95 with the CHDK for time lapse of the moving stars and other low light things. It was really easy with the s95 to set a 15" shutter speed with moderate ISO and get really good results. After compiling the series of pictures the results were amazing for such a compact camera.

The new s100 has a high 6400 ISO, but when you set the shutter speed to slower than 1 second it automatically hard sets the ISO to 80. With a 15" shutter speed and an ISO of 80, no matter the aperature, I can't achieve good pictures of all the stars. Does anybody know a way around this without CHDK (s100 not ported yet)? I tried setting the speed to 1" and ISO to 3200 and 6400 but the results were still lack luster with more noise.

The s100 is a really cool camera, but the main thing I like to do it cannot.
Can anybody help?

Logged

waterwingz

12138

Re: Help with s100 low light

« Reply #1 on: 15 / January / 2012, 12:54:53 »

Quote from: mv3830 on 15 / January / 2012, 12:46:35

The s100 is a really cool camera, but the main thing I like to do it cannot. Can anybody help?

CHDK is not available for the S100. Or at least not yet.
This link will give you some idea of what happens next : link> CHDK FAQ : My camera isn't ported yet

Logged

Ported : A1200 SD940 G10 Powershot N G16

mv3830

12

Re: Help with s100 low light

« Reply #2 on: 15 / January / 2012, 13:02:32 »

Yes, I'm familiar with the process and familiar with using the CHDK firmware, just looking of a way to work around it till firmware is developed for the s100.
I was wondering if anybody is familiar with using low light on the s100 and could offer insight or work-arounds.

Logged

reyalp

14079

Re: Help with s100 low light

« Reply #3 on: 15 / January / 2012, 15:01:12 »

Quote from: mv3830 on 15 / January / 2012, 13:02:32

Yes, I'm familiar with the process and familiar with using the CHDK firmware, just looking of a way to work around it till firmware is developed for the s100.
I was wondering if anybody is familiar with using low light on the s100 and could offer insight or work-arounds.

If the canon UI doesn't allow it, the only plausible approach that I can think of would be using canon basic http://chdk.wikia.com/wiki/Canon_Basic

However, to date no one has figured out how to get canon basic to run in shooting mode. It seems like it should be possible, given that there are many obviously shooting related functions available as eventprocs.

If you have the skills required to reverse engineer the firmware, and are willing to devote a lot of time to it, you may be able to figure it out. This would be a great benefit to users. OTOH, if you have those skills sufficient time, you could probably also port CHDK.

Logged

Don't forget what the H stands for.

mv3830

12

Re: Help with s100 low light

« Reply #4 on: 16 / January / 2012, 21:46:03 »

Quote from: reyalp on 15 / January / 2012, 15:01:12

However, to date no one has figured out how to get canon basic to run in shooting mode. It seems like it should be possible, given that there are many obviously shooting related functions available as eventprocs.

If you have the skills required to reverse engineer the firmware, and are willing to devote a lot of time to it, you may be able to figure it out. This would be a great benefit to users. OTOH, if you have those skills sufficient time, you could probably also port CHDK.

Thank you for your replies,
I definitely don't have the skills or time required to reverse engineer the firmware or port the s100.

I was, however, able to shoot the night sky in RAW using 15" and the mandated 80 ISO. Using the software that came with the s100 I was able to increase the brightness sufficiently to bring some of the stars up.
Time Lapse Test s100 stars
It is by no means award winning work. Along with the camera restraints, the moon was about 60% illumination and I could not get very far away from ambient lighting. I guess this method will be the best I can do until the s100 is ported.

I'm very new to all of this stuff, but it has some pretty exciting capabilities.

Logged