What Settings for Aerial Photography of City Lights..?

[lewisgoddard]

First, let me start by saying that at no point am i talking about cityscapes (apart from this bit saying i'm not).

Second, this is a fairly strange scenario.
I appreciate that.
It is kind of the point.
Please don't feel the need to inform me of this.

Now then, i will shortly be involved in a project to take photographs of various cities and towns in the east of england from varying altitudes in an effort to capture a night scene.

Google "space city night" to see what i mean.

To achieve that, ignoring all the tweaking of physics involved, i will be held responsible for photographs taken on two Canon Powershot Canon Powershot 3300s (16 MegaPixel) from a completely uncontrolled and untethered unmanned craft.

Using the CHDK software, i will be able to set the cameras to take photographs as frequently as space (SD Card) allows during the 2-3 hour flight.

I, quite simply, have no idea what settings to put the camera on, or even if leaving them on automatic will allow them to adjust throughout.

Remember i have two, so i could potentially leave one to it's own devices, and the other with custom settings.

Also, i haven't bought the cameras yet, so if anyone has any better suggestions (good battery life, high-res, below £100, light, small, good with nights, compatible with CHDK or repeated timings) please feel free.

TL;DR
Google "space city night".
What settings would you recommend for taking this kind of photo?
Or any good, cheap cameras to do it with?

 

[WhiskeyTango]

I'm not overly hopeful that this is do-able with the setup you're describing, though perhaps others can chime in to disagree.

The first thing Google returns in a search for "space city night" is a youtube video of shots taken from the International Space Station (ISS) using DSLR's. The voiceover talks about getting pretty bad shots until they built a motion tracking rig to cancel orbital speed. I strongly believe you're going to need to do the same thing. In other words, you need a motion tracking rig that can lock onto a point on the ground, and then keep the camera aimed at that point over the course of a long exposure, i.e. 8 seconds plus.

The camera and CHDK software will be the least of your problems. You need to figure out the motion tracking part, and for that, I have no help.

 

[WhiskeyTango]

Ok. Curiosity got the best of me. (I like "weird/unusual" projects. Its a weakness.)

Take a look here and see if this leads you anyplace useful... It's a post about a low cost motion tracking chip posted on a forum dedicated to DIY drones/unmanned aircraft...