# Sony DSC W220 Digital Camera Beam Shots?



## Tiresius (Oct 16, 2010)

I'm having some serious issues with capturing beam shots properly with this digital camera. Does anyone have a similar camera that can shed some light on it? All my beam shots look like garbage.

Here's some crappy beam shots. The camera doesn't capture what I wanted it to...

This is my G2 with Cree XR-E Q5...Noticed how everything in the picture turned warm?






Here's the Surefire U2A (left) and Cree XP-G in a Solarforce L2 (right):





Here's the 2D Mag Led (left) and Cree XP-G in a Solarforce L2 (right):


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## Tiresius (Oct 16, 2010)

Some settings on how you take the shots, which mode used and the settings used on those modes. I'm a complete noob in photography.

If it's important, this digital camera is an auto light adjuster and focuser.


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## Icebreak (Oct 16, 2010)

Here's my beef. It seems that the smarter a digital camera is the dumber it is. I had a Canon 870 and I could get a good manual mode and set it to NORMAL or DAYLIGHT or I forgot what and set it a certain ISO and to a certain amount of seconds of exposure and keep it there for beamshot comparisons. Worked great. Well I tried to teach it to float in mid air in the kitchen and broke it.

Now I have a wonderful Panasonic DMC-ZS3. Problem is that it has little manual control and is missing my oh so used precise seconds of exposure time. So I can't do a proper beam shot of just any target under any circumstances. I have to pick something that is in the camera's range of likable scenes and distances and ambient lighting. I can get a setting of 10 seconds or 15 seconds but I need usually 5, 6 or 7 seconds.

From your beamshots it doesn't seem as though this is your problem. Exposure time looks good. The problem seems to be getting the beam to look like what your eyes saw.

This is where a flurry of discussions have occured. If your camera like mine can do a white balance setting (not AWB) you can set a benchmark. Some might say the sun is best. Some might say your benchmark should be a benchmark flashlight that many will recognize. What ever your benchmark is state it or lable it in the pic and most folks will understand what you are doing. Keep it set that way for the comparisons.

My Panasonic is difficult but if I set the focus to read a point and not an area, set the white balance to a benchmark and set the ISO to manual I can get the shot but it's no where as easy to do as with the Canon. Also this new camera doesn't do justice to perfect red light like the Canon did. A strawberry yes. A red light no.

I hope that helped a little. I feel your frustration. I've seen so many beamshots I can tell what your lights were doing so they are viable to me. Unlikely they, as they are, will meet the scrutiny of knowledgeable members. This you already know. Good luck.


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## Icebreak (Oct 16, 2010)

Oh yes, your Solarforce looks awesome. I can tell by the change in brightness of your living room window that it is blowing the others away.


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## Tiresius (Oct 16, 2010)

Icebreak said:


> Oh yes, your Solarforce looks awesome. I can tell by the change in brightness of your living room window that it is blowing the others away.


That's my problem. It's capturing only the Solarforce's light and spill. It's ignoring the other beam's spill and true brightness. It simply set focus on the one that shines more.

Here's a fine example of what I wanted it to look like. This is the U2A with an AW 17670 (left) and the Solarforce L2 + XP-G R5 on a Panasonic 18650 (right). In the previous shot, the Solarforce was running off 2x AW16340.





But yes, I will definitely test the white balance and iso settings. A lot of the shots look worst than these examples and got thrown away.


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