Are there any digital cameras on the market that are capable of taking time exposures in low light situations?

-- Harold Noonan (hnoonan@concentric.net), February 09, 1999

Answers

Harold,

I have an Olympus D500L that I use to take low light and time exposure photos. To do this, I often must override the outofocus by "forcing" the focus to one of two preset positions. The result of this is that I often get out of focus pictures. But then again, I never use a tripod, and much of the blurring I get comes from my inability to hold the camera absolutely still during longer exposures. (When I say longer exposures, let me clarify this. They are maybe 1/2 second at the longest, but still long enough to require a very steady hand.)

I erase a lot of fuzzy pictures, but then again I get a lot of great photos. In fact, night time photography may be my favorite, and the photos often come out beautifully stylized. One example that comes to mind is when I took a picture of a long narrow alleyway between two downtown buildings. Every hundred feet or so, soft golden lights provided unique contrasts. Just as I took the picture, a man walked across the entrance to the alley. In the photo, he appears as a ghost- like apparition. A really nice shot, and one that would have no warmth or beauty if shot in the light of day.

Good luck!

-- JD Jones (jdjones@nvi.net), February 11, 1999.

Most digicams stay away from really long time-exposures, because the sensor noise in the CCD becomes a problem when you let it accumulate for a long time. At the low end, the HP C20 could take up to a 2- second exposure (I forget, it might even have been 4 seconds). The C20 is discontinued, but the C30 probably has a similar capability. The Kodak DC260 can shoot at up to 4 seconds or so out of the box, and up to 16 seconds under control of a Digita script. - The image is very noisy at that point though! We're just testing a camera right now that will be officially announced next Tuesday or Wednesday, that does a surprisingly good job at up to 8 seconds. (Sorry, can't say which - under non-disclosure until then.) Hope this helps!

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), February 13, 1999.