Canon Powershot S100 Digital Elph hACK This really is a great little camera, but it has one annoying feature that I was not willing to put up with when it came to Kite Aerial Photography (KAP). The shutter button is a 2 step switch. Press it part way, and the auto-focus/exposure system goes to work. Press the button fully and a picture is taken. If you press the button all the way down expecting to take a picture, the S100 takes a full second to adjust the focus/exposure and click the shutter. For me that's too much of a lag for KAP. The camera can be 20 feet away pointing in an entirely different direction in that amount of time. Here's what I did to "fix" the problem. click the thumbnail to see a larger view |
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The S100 without its case. Thirteen screws hold the S100 case together. They are not all the same type or size. The 2-step shutter switch is the square silver gizmo with the black circle in the center. It has 4 contacts soldered to the circuit board. |
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The front cover. |
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The back cover. |
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The shutter button / on-off switch case assembly with the button popped out. |
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Inside view of the selector switch with shutter button removed. Note the 2 screws that hold the switch in place. |
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Back view of the disassembled camera. Note the wires soldered to the switch contacts. I've used the same color code as the remote switch that goes to the Rebel X 35mm SLR camera. |
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Connecting Black to Red closes the first switch. This activates the auto focus/exposure. |
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Connecting the white wire to the already connected black and red wires closes the second switch. This causes a picture to be taken. |
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The wires were pirated from a web cam cable. I also could have used the wires from an old mouse cable that I have. They are small but not too small. |
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My original plan was to run the 3 wires through the hole that the shutter button came out of . . . |
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. . .but once I got the case back together the selector switch wouldn't work. It's really a tight fit in there. |
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Remember the 2 little screws holding the selector switch in place?? The functions lost by removing the selector switch I could live without. I've never used the zoom lens on the S100. Losing the viewing features that the selector switch controls was a very small price to pay. When you turn the S100 on the zoom lens defaults to wide angle--just what I want for KAP. |
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This is the S100 mounted on my Rebel X rig. I drilled a new mounting hole, and used a wooden riser block to position the center of gravity of the Elph in line with the rig tilt axles. |
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The real brains of this operation is the RC Switch made by Michele Schieppati. Actually there are 2 RC switches soldered together inside the yellow heat shrink tubing. Both run on the same RC channel, but can be programmed separately. |
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I programmed the RC switches so that when the trimmer tab on my transmitter is full left, and the joystick is centered both switches are open. |
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Moving the trimmer tab full right closes the first switch. This activates the auto focus/exposure on the S100. |
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Moving the joystick fully to
the right, while the trimmer tab is fully to the right, takes a picture.
Releasing the joystick, which returns it to the center, and then moving
it back to the right takes another picture. I can take a picture almost
as fast as I can move the joystick from center to right, as long as I
leave the trimmer tab fully to the right.
However, in a rapidly changing low altitude KAP flight, it is necessary to reset the focus/exposure often. This is done, of course, by moving the trimmer tab fully left, and then fully right. |