Canon A510 settings for beamshots?

I've been having a heck of a time trying to get a Canon A510 camera to do beam shots. Has anyone used this camera successfully for shots and if so, what are your favorite settings. Thanks.

Others can pipe in, but I recently did my first beamshots by leaving the shutter open for 2 seconds on a Rebel XT Digital. Turned out fine, but it was the result of experimentation. So, maybe try placing it on a manual setting if it allows, and decreasing the shutter speed until the desired result is reached.


CR2 Ion on high setting.

best regards

I agree have to experiment. I've done beamshots from my old Nikon CP990 as well as my Canon Digital Rebel. In each case I roughtly picked an aperture and then adjusted the shutter speed until I thought it "looked" right. I also used manual focus. I am familiar with the A510, you should be able to get it done.

Thanks guys, I'll keep at it.

I have pretty much that same camera. For 1-2 metre indoor beamshots, I have best results in fully manual mode, setting it at f2.8 or 4.0, ISO 50, 2-second exposure. Naturally, a tripod (or convenient tabletop) is essential.

Thanks VT, I'll try those settings.

It also depends on what light you're using and if you are wanting to concentrate on the throw (ie just how bright the hotspot is at a given distance) or if you are wanting to capture the entire spillbeam at which point, the hotspot is very likely to be overblown.

I've pretty much standardized on 28mm, f2.8 and 1 second (on a tripod of course) for both indoor and outdoor shots when comparing several lights to one another but if I'm comparing two specific lights, I'll tweak those settings a bit.

Not that they are the best in the world or anything, but you can see some of the shots I've taken at http://imageevent.com/cratz2/lights

Please disregard the first few rows as they were taken long ago on a fully automatic camera.

Thanks Cratz, I'll keep in mind the need for specific settings sometimes. Looks like it worked pretty good for you.