A slow-shutter day

Standby, standby, standby...
The Powershot G1X may be one flawed camera.
But if you understand its shortcomings, you will get some really good shots from it.
Its large sensor can produced some really interesting photos.
I lugged this camera to Templer's Park with the intention of snapping some water flow shots from its streams.
The objective is to hike up to the waterfall and set up a shot using a tripod to steady the frame with shutter speed settings down to 60sec.

My first shot: A subject at the falls, notice the ghosting due to movement..

Built-in ND filter...
Like its predecessor, the G1X comes with an built-in Neutral Density filter. When you set it, the images would not be overexposed during long exposure shots.
The LCD viewing panel helped in framing the shot, but this will drain the camera's battery really fast.
To get a soft effect on the water flow, I set the camera to capture with Shutter Priority (TV-mode) and toggled down the shutter speed to 4, 10, 15 and 30 seconds.
The bracketed shots revealed the water movement in a very soothing manner. I loved the effect.


Angles
I should have brought my travel tripod instead of my Slik Mini-Pro tabletop tripod.
What I shot was from a low angle using a remote shutter release trigger.
It would have been interesting to see the falls from eye-level. Maybe next time, I'll bring my large tripod.


Gallery

Slow shutter shots done right

Underutilised feature...
I must say that I've only used about 5% of my Canon Powershot G12 digital camera's features.
This enthusiast-level pocket camera is feature-packed and unlike its predecessor, the G11, it has yet to be dropped from Canon's powershot line-up.
In the past, I've been strugging with the slow-shutter settings on the G12, usually ending up with overexposed shots.
Now, I know that there is a Neutral Density (ND) filter which is built-in on the camera's retractable zoom lens.

Taking the shot: A tripod steadies the camera for the slow shutter technique on this stream at the Sungai Tua nature park in Selangor

Got it!
After fiddling with it, I realised that the feature can be activated under the 'Function' button.
All I need to do, is to scroll down the functions and activate the ND filter.
With this feature, I can step down the shutter speed without overexposing the shot in the frame.


Results..
I must say that I am pretty impressed with the results.
Some shots that were taken with a slower shutter speed like 1/8sec did provide some promising results.
I placed a tripod and pointed the camera on a stream.
The effect of slow shutter speed is a soft flow of water.
And if you control the aperture and shutter speed, the results are just amazing...


ND and slow shutter gallery..

HDR shot of the stream

Slow-shutter shot with ND filter feature

'Miniature' effect