Sony Dsc-W100 manual exposure.?

Question

I noticed that my Sony Dsc-W100 has a manual exposure option. Does this mean that I can make long exposure photographs for astrophotography?

Answer 1

I'm not familiar with that camera at all, but that's my understanding of it.  Is it located under "shutter speed" settings?

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RE: ADDITIONAL DETAILS

I've provided a link in the sources section that should help you out.  Scroll down to "maunal mode"  It looks like there's a 30 second limit though.

Answer 2

It depends on what kind of astrophotography you want to do. A regular snapshot works on the Moon. Just hold the camera up the the eyepiece of the telescope. The Moon is bright enough to photograph that way.

There are a number of yahoo groups devoted to digital camera astrophotography. The first source is one, but there are many. Check them out for more details.

(EDIT) The second source tells me it can do exposures up to 30 seconds. That is long enough for the brighter deep space objects. You will need some kind of adapter to hold it up to the eyepiece though. Or you can just put it on a tripod for wide sky views. Not all astrophotos are through telescopes.

Answer 3

No.  Manual doesn't mean long exposure.  It means you can set it to over or under expose according to the meter.

Answer 4

I think you should be able to manually set your shutter speed.  I like to set mine on 8 seconds.  ISO works good on 400 (reduces noise) and if you can set your timer for 2 seconds, that way you can press the buttom and move your hand away before it takes the picture.  Hope this helps.