I have a 3.2 mp Canon PowerShot S1 IS and ages ago I lost my user manual, but I went to the Canon website today and found it so I printed it out - all 167 pages (double-sided, of course)! I know it's not the best digital camera, and it's not the highest-pixel model, but it does what I want, and the pictures are pretty good. I've been reading about the different settings and am really interested in getting some good shots in dark attractions on my upcoming trip, such as Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion and perhaps some of the new scenes in Spaceship Earth (which I have not seen yet). It has some features I wasn't even aware of! But tonight I intend to sit down and read up and experiment with some low-light shots around the house to see how they come out. If I'm successful, I won't have anymore washed out dark images! If anyone has any low-light hints or tips with this type of camera please reply! Speaking of images, I'm going to be putting all of the photos from my past Disney trips on my server, so you can come by and have a look. Unfortunately I don't have a program that allows comments on each of the photos, unless I install something like Coppermine Photo Gallery, which does. If someone can recommend something (free) other than Coppermine that allows comments, I'd sure appreciate hearing from you! I'll be sure to come back to this thread and post the URL.
Hey Dan. The S1 IS was my "non-SLR" camera of choice until it came to a bitter end this spring. What I would do is bump up the ISO to the max (800 I think?), use manual mode, and set the aperture as low as it will go. Shutter speed I would vary based on what you are trying to shoot, but no slower than 1/30 sec for a dark ride. IS won't help to stop the movement of a DoomBuggy or a boat..... I would also manual focus if you think you can using the viewfinder (I know that will be tough!) I wouldn't use Coppermine. I used to use it before it got attacked along with a few other open source packages out there. Gallery 2 is what I'm using now; I just have turned off the commenting feature of it. I'm not aware of any other free packages that would allow you to do that other than maybe Flickr.
