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Night photography: help!

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IamTrainsYT

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I have a canon Powershot bridge camera, and am having a few issues with night photography. Of cause the camera is a bridge camera, so has a fixed lens (rather than a removable one). But it is possible to purchase an adapter to fix a lens to the front. So I’m wondering, does anybody know of any decent prime lenses that I would be able to buy? One issue I have with finding the right lens is that they are mainly for the canon EOS (which has these copper contacts - for auto focus?)
1606730196401.jpeg
and of cause there’s no way for that to link up with my camera.
 
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malc-c

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What is the issue.... it might be something not related to the lens. Exposure ??
 

PauloDavesi

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Bridge cameras do not have interchangable lenses, for that you will need an SLR.

However there are adjustments you can make to the settings to improve your results.
(Contact me by PM if you want more advice)
 

GB

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I don't understand. You say the camera lens is fixed in that you cannot take it off the camera body. But then say you can affix another lens to the current lens?? That is pretty impossible as far as I can make out.
 

DelW

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I don't think it's remotely feasible to fit an SLR lens onto the front of a Powershot lens, it wouldn't work either optically or electronically. It may be possible to fit a supplementary lens via an adaptor, but it would have to be one designed to suit the specific Powershot camera model.

If the problem you've encountered needs an alternative lens, I think you'd have to exchange the Powershot for an SLR or a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera.

However I'd be surprised if that was necessary, Powershot cameras are mostly quite well specified and versatile, and as suggested above, it's quite likely that investigating settings options will solve the problem.
 

IamTrainsYT

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You need to tell us precisely what "issues" you are having and post some examples
1606830525421.jpeg
Settings listed along the bottom
If the problem you've encountered needs an alternative lens, I think you'd have to exchange the Powershot for an SLR or a mirrorless interchangeable-lens camera.
Only just bought the camera, so don’t want to replace it already!
I don't understand. You say the camera lens is fixed in that you cannot take it off the camera body. But then say you can affix another lens to the current lens?? That is pretty impossible as far as I can make out.
 

GB

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Not sure why the listing says you can attach lenses but you cannot attach another lens to a fixed camera lens, that's not how cameras work. Even if you did manage to attach another lens onto the fixed lens, your camera won't work properly...particularly focusing as the camera would have to focus through the proper lens and through the extra lens. Your pictures would come out awful and mushy.

Also, the last thing you wan't to do is add more elements to your lens for night photography. If F5 is the lowest you can go you will need to bump up the ISO and shutter speed to compensate. You can also try adjusting the exposure compensation a little at the same time.
 

simonw

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I have a canon Powershot bridge camera, and am having a few issues with night photography. Of cause the camera is a bridge camera, so has a fixed lens (rather than a removable one). But it is possible to purchase an adapter to fix a lens to the front. So I’m wondering, does anybody know of any decent prime lenses that I would be able to buy? One issue I have with finding the right lens is that they are mainly for the canon EOS (which has these copper contacts - for auto focus?)
View attachment 86586
and of cause there’s no way for that to link up with my camera.
The item that you link to on Amazon seems to allow you to add a filter or a lens hood to the camera not another lens. Why would you in any event want to put one lens on the front of another.

1/80 th is still to high to take a picture in the conditions you are trying to do so, even at iso1600.

I would suggest buying a tripod and dropping the shutter speed even lower.
 
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DelW

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I think that adaptor is principally to allow use of different sized filters. It's possible it might also be used to attach a macro lens, but that's of no use for what you want.

Night photos of fast moving objects without flash is difficult for any camera.

Looking at the manual for the SX40, within the SCN (scenes) mode-setting there are two night-shooting options, "handheld night scene" and "low light". The first mentions that it combines several continuous shots, so probably isn't suitable for moving trains, though it would be worth trying for stationary ones. If you haven't already, I'd try the low light setting for moving trains.

If that doesn't produce usable shots, you can try full manual using M mode-setting. Set maximum aperture, a shutter speed of say 1/30 to 1/60, and if possible turn the ISO setting up to maximum. If that still doesn't work, you're asking the camera to do the impossible! If it does work, you can try increasing the shutter speed (to reduce blurring), or reducing the ISO setting (to improve quality).

The camera looks to have a decent spec, with a fairly good maximum aperture, so if it can't get acceptable results, probably no other camera would either.
 

IamTrainsYT

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1/80 th is still to high to take a picture in the conditions you are trying to do so, even at iso1600.

I would suggest buying a tripod and dropping the shutter speed even lower.
Which is a fantastic idea. however on moving trains, 1/60 was blurry.
Looking at the manual for the SX40, within the SCN (scenes) mode-setting there are two night-shooting options, "handheld night scene" and "low light". The first mentions that it combines several continuous shots, so probably isn't suitable for moving trains, though it would be worth trying for stationary ones. If you haven't already, I'd try the low light setting for moving trains.

If that doesn't produce usable shots, you can try full manual using M mode-setting. Set maximum aperture, a shutter speed of say 1/30 to 1/60, and if possible turn the ISO setting up to maximum. If that still doesn't work, you're asking the camera to do the impossible! If it does work, you can try increasing the shutter speed (to reduce blurring), or reducing the ISO setting (to improve quality).
I’ll have a look at that thanks

I was using manual mode, had the aperture as low as possible and shutter speed as low as possible (without it being blurry)
 

simonw

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Which is a fantastic idea. however on moving trains, 1/60 was blurry.

I’ll have a look at that thanks

I was using manual mode, had the aperture as low as possible and shutter speed as low as possible (without it being blurry)
You have to accept that with that camera taking night pictures of moving trains isn't going to be possible .
 

Bevan Price

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For best results for night photography of moving trains, you need a wide aperture lens, f/1.4 or f/1.8 (which might be expensive), and to use a high ISO setting -- probably ISO 6400 or higher -- and accept that the image may be a bit grainy. Not ideal, but better than a blurred image of a moving train.

The alternative is to accept that you can only get good night photos of trains that are stopped. A tripod is useful, but with practice, you can get acceptable photos without a tripod. If possible, find something to rest the camera on, or alternatively something sturdy for you can lean on. Stand with your feet apart, and take test photos down to the slowest exposure speed that gives acceptable results.
 
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Islineclear3_1

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An ISO of 1600, aperture of f5 and shutter speed of 1/80 is not going to cut it I'm afraid

You will need a much wider aperture than f5 (e.g. f2.8, f2, f1.8), a much higher ISO (e.g. 5000) and a much slower shutter speed (e.g. 1 - 2 minutes). NB: These are not "the correct" settings for night photography, but just a guide in that you need either: a wider aperture, a much slower shutter speed or a much higher ISO)

It may be that these settings exceed the limits of your fixed lens camera meaning that decent night shots are not going to be possible - sorry if that is bad news
 

malc-c

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Unless you can increase the aperture and ISO then I think you will just have to accept the limitations of the camera and its fixed lens, and even then you may find the lens isn't fast enough to freeze the motion under the low light conditions. Alternatively, you may be able to stretch the image from the camera in software, provided you shoot in RAW rather than use the compressed formats like JPEG. Photoshop or (possibly) the free GIMP application might be able to lighten the image without making it too grainy

To give you an idea, here's a stretch on the JPEG downloaded from the image above. Now remember this is taking a compressed image, uploaded and possibly compressed by the forum software and then the image saved to my PC... so grainy - a RAW image will have more data to play with

1606830525421.jpeg
 
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