I wrote down some of my experiences here, which I made during photographing, particularly in the landscape park. Maybe it's useful for some people.

It is amazing, what the camera can do with few light. With my pictures in the landscape park the camera had to get along with very few light.

I do photograph with a QV3000 digital camera of Casio. The following experiences and tips base on this camera, some might be portable to other cameras, in particular to digital cameras.

Tripod
Blende und Verschluzeit bei der QV3000
The hot pixel topic
Flash
Autofocus
Display
Selbstauslser
Be creative
Software
Some experiences

A basic condition for the taking pictures at night is a tripod. With exposure times from partly 30 seconds and more is it logical-proves not possible to photograph from the hand. My first experiences in the landscape park without a tripod was, that I needed the most creativity to find a suitable place for the camera, in order to photograph. The first pictures became corresponding.

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A second basic condition, that applies for the QV3000 only, is the following one: It's completely incomprehensible, that some fundamental functions are not contained in the QV 3000 camera. It is not possible to select an exposure time of more than two seconds. Additionally you cannot adjust the aperture in the S-mode, in which you can select the exposure time. (In the A-mode, in which you can freely select the aperture, it is not possible to select the exposure time).
These functions are prevented by the software in the camera and can be called only by undocumented combinations of keys. Why? Casio will know it...
Hot-pixelAn idea would be that Casio limited the exposure time on 2 seconds, in order to avoid complaints due to so-called hot pixels.

To select an exposure time of more than two seconds, the camera must be switched into the S-mode. Then select an exposure time of 2 seconds with the down key. Jetzt die 'Set-Taste' und dann gleichzeitig die Pfeil-nach-unten-Taste drücken. Nun ist eine Verschlußzeit von 2,5 Sekunden eingestellt. Es lassen sich jetzt Verschlußzeiten bis 60 Sekunden wählen. Die 'höchste' Verschlußzeit ist 'bulb'. Ist diese Verschlußzeit eingestellt, so öffnet der Verschluß solange man den Auslöseknopf drückt. Diese Funktion ist daher nicht besonders sinnvoll, da man an die QV3000 keine externen Auslöser anschließen kann.
Um jetzt auch noch die Blende frei einstellen zu können, muß wieder eine Tastenkombination gedrückt werden. Durch Drücken der Set-Taste zusammen mit der Pfeil-nach-links- oder der Pfeil-nach-rechts-Taste läßt sich auch die Blende wählen. Wurde die Kamera ausgeschaltet, muß diese Prozedur eventuell wiederholt werden.

Aperture F8, 40 seconds exposure time

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In the internet-newsgroup de.alt.rec.digitalfotografie the topic Hot pixel was passionately discussed. But what actually are ' hot pixels '?

Because of technical reasons, a CCD, thus the chip in a digital camera, that provides, that the taken pictures are converted into digital pictures, can not be produced without any error (anyhow not to justifiable costs). That means, that some pixels on the CCD can produce white, red, blue points on the photo. The probability that such incorrect pixels occur, increases with the exposure time and the temperature of the CCD. In the summer we will observe thus more hot pixels as in the winter, on the day fewer than at the night, since we have to increase the expose time due to few light. Even with long exposures in the dark, these hot pixels disturb very much.

A very detailed essay about the hot pixel problem can be found on this page: hot pixels (in english).

Two Tools for the fight against Hot pixel can be found at www.mediachange.com:

1.) HotPixels Eliminator
2.) BlackFrame NR

which I did not try until now, a report on it will follow.

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The flash disturbs in the most cases, it should be switched off. But sometimes it is quite useful in addition, in the darkness, if you like to arrange the foreground brighter.

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Because the autofocus does not work in the darkness, the focus should be set to infinite. This mostly does it. The disadvantage of the QV3000 is that you can focus only with the display. This unfortunately does not have the necessary resolution, in order to be able to detect the sharpness.

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Because the autofocus does not work in the darkness, the focus should be set to infinite. This mostly does it. Reasonable aligning of the camera to the motive to be taken up is hardly possible with a switched on display. Therefore it should be switched off, when you look through the viewfinder.

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Perhaps not really necessarily, but I usually set the delay timer to two seconds. Thus it is ensured that the picture does not blur when releasing.

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The advantage of digital photographing is that that one can see the result immediately on the display. If a picture is over or under exposed, you can see that on the display immediately, and repeat taking the picture with another aperture or exposure time. Extreme effects as on my pictures can be implemented very easily, since you can experiment.

I believe, everyone has to play with aperture and exposure time. It's a good idea to photograph a motive not only once, but with different aperture / exposure time combinations. At home at your PC you can select the best photos and delete the remainder. Admittedly those people are in the advantage, who own a 340MB-Microdrive of IBM. I never did create more than 130 pictures in a photo session ever. You can store almost twice as many pictures on the Microdrive.

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With each photo the QV3000 stores some data, which permits subsequently to get a quantity of information about a picture. You can reconstruct e.g., with which aperture and exposure time a photo was taken, whether lightning was used, when the photo was created and which zoom was used, and so on. To be able to read out these information, you need a program called ' DicaInfo ', what can be downloaded here . Additionally there is a tool by DicaSoft, which can remote controls the QV3000 over the serial interface ( remote control), for what ever.

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With aperture F8 and accordingly a longer exposure time you get a star effect with punctual sources of light on the photo.

The moon is shining

With stars in the sky it is to be noted that the earth turns!!! At eposure times of more than 20 to 30 seconds you get strips instead of stars on the picture.

Stripes, caused by the earth rotation

Although it is almost absolutely dark, nevertheless you can get good dusk pictures. Aperture F2 with a long exposure time will do the magic.

Aperture F2, 10 seconds exposure time

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