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Would something like this be possible on the Blackstone? I think this would help to get better results in dark conditions!
"For handheld shots, an app such as River Past’s $1 Night Camera can increase your chances of getting a steady shot. The program uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to determine when the camera is still enough to take the shot. It also lets you turn the entire screen into a shutter button-so you have an easier target-and lets you set a timer so you can prop up the iPhone and get in the shot yourself. In our tests, Night Camera gave us noticeably sharper photos in low light."
Interesting...but I think the problem is more with the movement of the object in front of the camera during low light conditions rather than the movement of the camera itself.
I think in dark conditions the shutter have to stay longer open to get enough light for the shot! And if you have to much movement when the the shot is taken everything gets blurry, it would at least help to get better shots on non moving objects.
Ok, let me start out by saying I know very very little about photography. I pretty much just leave it on Auto. I mean, I know how to switch between different presets (Auto, Portrait, Night, HDR, etc.) and that you can tap to focus there.... that's about it. I don't know how to set ISO levels or anything else.
Anyway, so I was at a 3-day event a few weeks ago, and was hoping that my M8 was going to be a huge quality boost over my EVO 3D. Sure, the photos would be 4MP instead of 5 (Though most of my photos were 2MP anyway since I mostly shot in 3D) but I figured the phone being several years newer and having high low-light performance would offset that.... boy was I wrong.
I noticed that my indoor photos were kinda fuzzy and blurry, even with my hand held still (thank you HTC for removing the OIS...) so I resorted to taking the same photos 2-4 times and hope I can pick a "best shot" out of the batch later when I could review all my photos on a PC. (Yes, I know I can hold the shoot button to make it auto-snap quick images, but I wouldn't have time to review and select the best out of each one for each photo I took). Even with this many of them even with perfect focus were still pretty terribly grainy/noisy, some even out of a batch of 5-6 remained blurry.
Outdoor where there is a lot of sunlight...... had it's OWN problems! Any object, sign, wall, or person clothed in white was overexposed to near comical levels! I had taken many shots, both with the subjects in focus and out (on a shaded area so it used more light on the subjects) and both on auto and flash off. This resulted in photos that were kinda badly over-exposed to photos that were so badly overexposed anything with white in it just looks like a bunch of white blobs! Even of the ones where it managed to get decent exposure on the subjects, the image was overly dark and anything not in focus which was white was still overexposed to the point of any and all detail being lost. (Seriously, it was so bad that there were signs which just looked like a solid white rectangle or circle, no words or symbols could even be noticed on them).
I took over 2000 photos (over 4 gigs worth) during those three days, mainly just mashing the shutter button at slightly different settings and angles hoping one out of every 20 or so would at least be usable... and to say that I can even get 100 to 200 "passable" photos out of these 2000+ would be a stretch!
The other day I was experimenting with the HDR option that I was advised to try which should hopefully alleviate these under/over exposed issues. Purposely shooting white objects in bright outdoor conditions in different conditions with HDR on and off. Didn't really help. The condition or light focus on which I shot them in HDR mode seemed to not matter, but the image was still fairly over-exposed. Not AS bad as when the focus is off the white object, but still pretty close (and still nowhere near as good as when the focus IS on the white object). On top of that, many of the HDR photos looked washed-out and with dulled colors (I thought HDR made colors more vivid?).
So I am at a loss, I don't know if this is a problem with my new expensive phone which I am stuck with's camera, if I am just using it horribly incorrectly, or both. (I remember several reviews mentioning over-exposure being an issue, but I didn't expect it to be worse than my EVO 3D, and it was mostly for background objects).
Does any have any tips or advice on what I can do?
Cyber Akuma said:
Ok, let me start out by saying I know very very little about photography. I pretty much just leave it on Auto. I mean, I know how to switch between different presets (Auto, Portrait, Night, HDR, etc.) and that you can tap to focus there.... that's about it. I don't know how to set ISO levels or anything else.
Anyway, so I was at a 3-day event a few weeks ago, and was hoping that my M8 was going to be a huge quality boost over my EVO 3D. Sure, the photos would be 4MP instead of 5 (Though most of my photos were 2MP anyway since I mostly shot in 3D) but I figured the phone being several years newer and having high low-light performance would offset that.... boy was I wrong.
I noticed that my indoor photos were kinda fuzzy and blurry, even with my hand held still (thank you HTC for removing the OIS...) so I resorted to taking the same photos 2-4 times and hope I can pick a "best shot" out of the batch later when I could review all my photos on a PC. (Yes, I know I can hold the shoot button to make it auto-snap quick images, but I wouldn't have time to review and select the best out of each one for each photo I took). Even with this many of them even with perfect focus were still pretty terribly grainy/noisy, some even out of a batch of 5-6 remained blurry.
Outdoor where there is a lot of sunlight...... had it's OWN problems! Any object, sign, wall, or person clothed in white was overexposed to near comical levels! I had taken many shots, both with the subjects in focus and out (on a shaded area so it used more light on the subjects) and both on auto and flash off. This resulted in photos that were kinda badly over-exposed to photos that were so badly overexposed anything with white in it just looks like a bunch of white blobs! Even of the ones where it managed to get decent exposure on the subjects, the image was overly dark and anything not in focus which was white was still overexposed to the point of any and all detail being lost. (Seriously, it was so bad that there were signs which just looked like a solid white rectangle or circle, no words or symbols could even be noticed on them).
I took over 2000 photos (over 4 gigs worth) during those three days, mainly just mashing the shutter button at slightly different settings and angles hoping one out of every 20 or so would at least be usable... and to say that I can even get 100 to 200 "passable" photos out of these 2000+ would be a stretch!
The other day I was experimenting with the HDR option that I was advised to try which should hopefully alleviate these under/over exposed issues. Purposely shooting white objects in bright outdoor conditions in different conditions with HDR on and off. Didn't really help. The condition or light focus on which I shot them in HDR mode seemed to not matter, but the image was still fairly over-exposed. Not AS bad as when the focus is off the white object, but still pretty close (and still nowhere near as good as when the focus IS on the white object). On top of that, many of the HDR photos looked washed-out and with dulled colors (I thought HDR made colors more vivid?).
So I am at a loss, I don't know if this is a problem with my new expensive phone which I am stuck with's camera, if I am just using it horribly incorrectly, or both. (I remember several reviews mentioning over-exposure being an issue, but I didn't expect it to be worse than my EVO 3D, and it was mostly for background objects).
Does any have any tips or advice on what I can do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an Anti-shake mode. I'd check your lenses for scratches, sometimes the coating gets scratched and causes problems. It can be removed.
Incidentally my lens is perfect and nothing at all wrong with the photos it takes.
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried it on my G4. But on other digital cameras, I have seen the displayed preview screen image get jerky in low-light when aiming the camera around.
My theory is that, to make the image bright enough, the camera needs to take a longer preview exposure. Capturing the image for the preview screen works the same way as taking an actual picture, of course. In bright light, maybe the sensor takes a 1/500 second exposure to generate the preview. But in low light, maybe it needs a 1/5 second exposure to make the preview image bright enough to be useful on the sccreen. So now it can only take a max of 5 preview images per second, and the screen will look jerky.
The muddy details, and looking like an oil painting, are at least in part due to the image sensor's ISO value being turned way up, due to the low-light conditions. Some of it may be due to the JPG compression settings, and perhaps noise-reduction. Pictures taken with the flash should help with this, as you're providing more light, and therefore the camera can use a lower ISO value, for better image quality.
You could try taking the same picture in Auto, then in Manual mode. Turn the ISO value down in Manual mode (to maybe 200, 400, something like that), and slow the shutter speed as needed for a proper exposure. In the Gallery, you can check the Details for the picture taken in Auto, to check the ISO value that the camera used. Use a lower ISO value for the Manual mode picture, and see if the results look better. Doing this with the flash turned off should help make the difference more apparent.
You can also capture JPG + RAW in Manual mode. The RAW files do not exhibit JPG compression, or other processing, they are straight from the image sensor. So you may get less muddiness and oil-painting effect.
..
mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.
What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?
RedOCtobyr said:
mufaa, can you post any example indoor pics you've taken? That might help provide some context for what you're seeing.
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Click to collapse
Well, here's one for starters. This is the only non-personal image I can share at the moment (I am at work!) but if it's not enough I will snap one tonight and post it for you.
http://i.imgur.com/5mpaT2h.jpg
Zoom into the picture and you will find details buried in blurry oil painting like smudges. This happens in bright pictures as well. Is this how the sensor on the camera is?
KingFatty said:
What are your requirements for the picture?
Do you have a moving subject that demands a fast shutter, or can you afford to use a slower shutter speed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
This wasn't the case with the iPhone 6 i had. I just turned on the camera and snapped away.
phineous said:
Reboot or try force stop on the camera app. I've had mine get like this occasionally but force closing the app or rebooting fixed it when I opened it again.
If that doesn't do it, you could have a bad camera. There were some people complaining about camera problems in early June.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy. I will try that. I have rebooted my device multiple times and the result has been the same though.
..
somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso
iiEatTurdz said:
somebodyyy doesn't know how to use manual mode for iso
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Click to collapse
Any tips?
phineous said:
Maybe try clearing the cache and data on the camera app. Also, check that the laser window next to the camera lens is clean and unobstructed. Most of my pictures, even in lower light are very sharp when zoomed in.
Gotta be a bad camera or focusing laser.
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Click to collapse
Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?
That sample pic does not appear to have the EXIF data where we could check the ISO and shutter speed etc. that you used, can you check on your camera or source image what the settings were?
..
mufaa said:
I usually shoot with subjects (my family, nephew, etc.) and I need the viewfinder to be fast. Because the viewfinder is so slow, subjects come out blurry even with the slighest movement. I also have to have a super steady hand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.
mufaa said:
Any tips?
Can you share some low light/indoor pictures of yours, and what settings you used to take those pics with?
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Click to collapse
it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.
RedOCtobyr said:
The sample picture looks fairly normal to me. That is, it looks like ones I've taken on my G4. I believe the effect you're seeing is partially noise-reduction done by the camera processing, but I'm not 100% sure. A high ISO value will also contribute.
Now I'm wondering if maybe I misinterpreted what you meant in your original post. When you say the viewfinder is slow, do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? Or that the pictures themselves come out blurry?
With only so much light available, the camera typically needs to use a longer exposure to get a bright-enough picture. A steady hand helps, as does OIS, Optical Image Stabilization. But neither of those can help if your *subject* is moving, of course.
You have 2 choices to make a moving subject sharper in low-light:
- Add more light. Use the flash if you aren't already, assuming the subject is within reach of the flash (probably around 10 feet, max). This will change the look of the picture, making it look more "harsh", but the added light should improve the image quality. With more light, the camera can use a quicker shutter speed.
- Raise the sensor's sensitivity, by using a higher ISO value. Effectively turning up the amplification, and allowing a quicker shutter speed. But as most of us have experienced, when you turn up a weak/noisy signal (car radio, etc), you observe more of the low-level background. Static, hiss, and so on. In a picture, this shows up as "noise" in the details of the image, and will typically result in pictures with more of the oil-painting look.
The lens on the G4 is f1.8, and should let in more light than the iPhone 6, at f2.2. It's certainly possible the iPhone does better noise reduction, or things along those lines. I'm not saying the G4's camera is perfect. But it shouldn't be woefully worse in low-light, anyways.
To get a comparison of how ISO affects things, try taking the same, stationary-subject picture, at maybe ISO 200, ISO 800, and ISO 2000. Then zoom in and look at the details of each picture. BTW, every camera will exhibit this behavior.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"do you mean just the jerky image if you move the camera around? "
Yup. I hate the jerkiness but I guess there's no way to work around that other than decreasing shutter speed and increasing ISO which results in super grainy pics.
I will try the flash light and see if its any better. Usually, I dislike using flash in normally lit indoor places. It doesn't feel natural.
iiEatTurdz said:
it has nothing to do with the cache and stuff lol they sound stupid. just play with the settings. i typically use my outdoor iso from 100-500 depending on what kind of lighting or colors are present. for indoors i set it 500+. just don't go within the thousands if there's no vivid colors or bright lights. try like 500-800 for the iso and 1-1/8 for the shutter.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, it has nothing to do with the cache. I will try those settings. Thanks!
..
Just run into this older post.
My two cents: to avoid high iso muddiness in indoor lower light portraits, you should turn on the flash (or better, use an external led panel to create off camera light)
Indeed flash photos are unappealing, but you can improve them with Snapseed's selective editing, by lowering exposure and warming temperature on your subject faces.
You could also selectively increase exposure on one side to create a less flat picture.
mufaa said:
Hey guys,
I am having trouble taking good pictures with indoor lighting. The first problem is that the viewfinder (or the image on the screen) is not very smooth. It's jittery and lags and its super annoying. How can I improve the speed of the viewfinder so I can frame shots better?
I also hear that the LG has fantastic low light capability. However, with indoor lighting (fluorescent bulbs) I find the images have a lot of noise and the details appear very muddy and very oil painting-ish.
I don't have any problems during sunlight but indoors, the G4's camera is a mess. It's slow, jiterry and all round annoying to use. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am a photographer and am trying to change over to the new mobile camera trend that started years ago but I do know that with LG, since my friend has one, doesn't have a good sense of lighting, period. I am not trying to put down your device, I do not think you need a new one. A good artist can make art from anything and everything to their best of the ability with what they have. I think you should start trying to do things like opening blinds to a window, putting white sheets of paper around or maybe some gray or black sheets of paper to balance your lighting. Is it at all possible for you to share a visual load of what you're doing with the community? I think it would be valuable to have multiple sets of eyes and have many different minds working with you to solve your problem.
So does this "Asus AFLU002 ZenFlash" improve camera performance in low light conditions?
How much feet away can the subject be before making "ZenFlash" useless?
Any Pros or Cons?
blazzer12 said:
So does this "Asus AFLU002 ZenFlash" improve camera performance in low light conditions?
How much feet away can the subject be before making "ZenFlash" useless?
Any Pros or Cons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Flashes (like any light source) work by the inverse-square law. Double the distance, and you need four times the power for equivalent illumination at the same exposure settings on the camera. Camera flashes are measured in what's called a "guide number", which is a rough idea of how distant the subject can be and still be properly illuminated, at sorta-standard exposure settings (typically an f/1.0 aperture at ISO 100, and measured in metres). There's no formal industry standards on guide numbers, so it's best to treat them as rough estimates. Asus' official listing gives a guide number of 4.8 metres (which I'm not sure I believe, as they also claim 2.4 metres usable distance at f/2 and ISO 100, which actually works out to a guide number of 9.6 metres, but whatever), so you can use a guide number calculator (I can't post links as I don't have the minimum number of posts, so you'll have to google this) to work out how far it'll light at your preferred camera exposure settings.
Short version: At the maximum ISO of 800 on the stock camera app, this flash will light up subjects about 23 feet. At a better-looking ISO of 400 you're looking at about 15 feet. This will vary wildly depending on if there's white walls reflecting light back onto the subject, black walls or empty space absorbing light, etc etc etc. Camera lighting is very situational. Anyway, that's not all that great in the dedicated camera flash world, but far better than little LED "flashes", and roughly as good as the built-in flashes on point-and-shoot cameras. You won't light up a stage, but you can light up people close by. But that's best case, and that's after you've given the flashbulb plenty of time to charge up. Also, continuous full-power flashes will strain both the lifespan of the flash and the battery charge of the phone.
Pros: Decent range for social situations. And as crazy as it sounds to non-photographers, this would be great on sunny days as a fill flash. And it seems dead-simple to use.
Cons: This is nowhere near as powerful as even the weakest, cheapest flashes you can get for SLR or mirrorless cameras, and still a little less powerful than flashes on point-and-shoot cameras. And you'll be waiting awhile between shots.
Unknowns: The Asus site lists recycle times of 5-6 seconds. I don't know if that's between full-power bursts or partial-power bursts. And I have no idea how much power it drains from the camera per full-power burst. And I have no idea what it costs.
My opinion: If it's under US$40 or so and you don't want to carry an extra camera, it's probably worth it. If it's over US$100 and you're constantly shooting in dark areas, you might as well carry around a dedicated point-and-shoot camera.
Before I got my m8 i had a china phone with a realy fast camera.
Now with this phone photos often are blurred.
How can I make the camera more snappy?
If you've had the phone for a couple months or more, or it was purchased used; it may just be that the anti-glare coating is peeling off, and causing the photos to be blurry. If this is the case, you should be able to look at the rear (main) camera glass, and see the coating "flaking" off.
If you can confirm this, the easy fix is to remove the rest of the coating with various methods (gently rubbing with alcohol, toothpaste, etc.):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/htc-one-m8/general/how-to-fix-htc-one-m8-camera-issue-t2803825
thanks for your reply, but this is not what i mean.
i mean motion blur. the lens is to long open when i take pictres.
i mean the Camera shutter speed.
i´ve found no camera app that can adjust that.
Maximus1a said:
i mean motion blur. the lens is to long open when i take pictres.
i mean the Camera shutter speed.
i´ve found no camera app that can adjust that.
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Click to collapse
Shutter speed is a function of the ISO, aperture and amount of light.
If you just change the shutter speed, without changing the other variables, you will have underexposed (dark) pics.
You can try to manually adjust (force) the ISO and exposure, but you'd have to adjust these every time the lighting conditions change. And your pics may look very "grainy" and dark in lower light.
EDIT: Or go to full Manual mode, see details in Post #10 below.
Not sure what your previous phone is, but the M8 is a very good low-light performer, and fast response. At least compared to other phones of its generation.
Low light is not so important than a realy fast response.
With my last phone we drove 80 km/h and i made a photo out of the car. The tree rushing over was 2 meters away and super sharp in the photo. The M8 camera should do this too.
Maximus1a said:
Low light is not so important than a realy fast response.
With my last phone we drove 80 km/h and i made a photo out of the car. The tree rushing over was 2 meters away and super sharp in the photo. The M8 camera should do this too.
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Click to collapse
In "Auto" mode, the camera will keep the "shutter" open (in this case, its not an actual shutter, but just a sensor being turned on/off) as long as it thinks it needs to, based on the ISO, exposure, lighting conditions, etc. The "shutter" speed is automatically determined, and as with any "auto" setting; you might not agree with what its doing. You can't tweak the "shutter" speed on this device. But you can try to adjust the ISO and exposure (as I've already mentioned) to see if it helps to shorten the shutter speed.
EDIT: Or go to full Manual mode, see details in Post #10 below.
Thanks. Yesterday i tried to adjust the ISO. It is a little bit better but not satisfying.
Maximus1a said:
Thanks. Yesterday i tried to adjust the ISO. It is a little bit better but not satisfying.
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Click to collapse
You can choose Manual mode and decrease exposure time (equilvalent increase shutter speed).
To wich camera APP you are refering?
nhoc_maruko9x said:
You can choose Manual mode and decrease exposure time (equilvalent increase shutter speed).
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Click to collapse
Damn, so you can! I knew about "manual" mode, but honestly couldn't remember how to go into that mode (I never use it): http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-m8/howto/464940.html
The slider with the shutter-like symbol (fractional numbers along it) actually works pretty well. I turned it up the lower exposure times; waved the phone pretty quickly while taking a picture, and no blur! Of course, the pics will look more grainy and dark, the lower the exposure time.
But I think that is exactly what the OP was looking for (although the resulting pic quality mayor may not be to their satisfaction). Sorry for any misleading information!
@redpoint73 yes this is what I was looking for. Thanks
Maybe the hardware can take good photos but for normal use and snapshots it is not useable. The camera from my cheap chinaphone was far better.
redpoint73 said:
Damn, so you can! I knew about "manual" mode, but honestly couldn't remember how to go into that mode (I never use it): http://www.htc.com/us/support/htc-one-m8/howto/464940.html
The slider with the shutter-like symbol (fractional numbers along it) actually works pretty well. I turned it up the lower exposure times; waved the phone pretty quickly while taking a picture, and no blur! Of course, the pics will look more grainy and dark, the lower the exposure time.
But I think that is exactly what the OP was looking for (although the resulting pic quality mayor may not be to their satisfaction). Sorry for any misleading information!
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Click to collapse
Sure with high shutter speed, the photo will be dark, you should increase ISO too. I rarely use low exposure time, usually I take photo with high exposure time and low ISO in the night.