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Canon S100 & S110 Elph Digital Game Camera Modifications

By Brian G.

Below is a step-by-step procedure for taking a Canon PowerShot S100 Elph or S110 Elph digital camera apart and soldering to the shutter and "On/Off" buttons. These cameras are not hard to wire into but if you have trouble with wiring the 35mm cameras you might want to use caution in wiring one of these due to the investment. By no means am I guaranteeing that you cannot destroy this camera by taking it apart. I am just giving you an idea of how to do it if you don't mind the risk. As far as the length of time it should take it only took me about 10 to 15 minutes and most of this is putting it back together. The wires sticking out makes a little difficult to put back together.

The camera does not have a sleep mode. It will shutdown after a user entered time frame or you can do away with this feature and have it not shutdown at all but the batteries will not last long. I developed my external timer board to turn on the camera, wait a specific time (Compact Flash card dependent, more memory, longer to turn on), then take a picture, wait to process it, then turn the camera off. The specs on the camera brochure say the batteries last 274 pictures without flash. I have never had a Compact Flash card bigger than 32M so I don't know for sure. I have just recently purchased a 128M Compact Flash card and will test the batteries further.

As far as the detailed external timing circuit, I posted a circuit some time ago that deals with the on/off control of the camera and the shutter. It will turn the camera on and wait for it to power up then take a picture and wait for it to process and then shut the camera back off. The circuit is a little complex so I am working on a single PIC micro to do the whole thing. It is on my test bench now. As soon as the circuit is finished it will be posted here to complete your wiring of your game camera.

I use the default settings for the resolution which is just one less than the max each picture is just under a Megabyte and this seems to work well. There is a lot detail in the pictures with this setting. The S100 does not have a lot of file format options. The S110 does and they are identical to take apart and wire into. The S110 just has more features. Auto flash and turn the display option off. This means the display will only show up for an instant when the pictures is taken so you save battery power. If you would like to see some pics from this camera setup, click here.

Picture of the entire completed unit.

This a picture of the unit opened up. The camera on button is needed to turn the camera on in the field to check pictures or to modify settings. Since we take the "On" button out I needed a way to turn the camera on independently of the circuit.

This is a picture of the open front end of the box.

This is the waterproof connector for the external flash unit. As you can see I can run the unit with or without the external flash. This is a three-wire connector with a wire for power, GND, and control. The connector for the external flash part numbers are as follows: DigiKey is the vendor.

SC1165-ND Female for Camera Box. SC1157-ND Male for the External Flash Box. You can use any 3 wire connector but a waterproof connector is recommended

First thing you need to do is find all the screws that need to be removed in order to take the camera apart. I left out one picture of the back of the camera but there is one screw that is in the top right hand corner of the camera that will need to be removed. I usually take the screws out in a particular order so I know how they go back together and you will need to put the screws back in the right order since the screws are different sizes and three patterns. I usually start with the screws on the back which there is just one. Then move to the closest side shown below. This is the left side of the camera looking from the front. There are four screws that need to be removed. Keep in mind which ones come from where. I believe the small screws are the two outer ones and the larger ones are the ones holding the strap loop in place. At this time you will have five screws removed one from the back upper left hand corner not shown and the four that are shown below. I use the strap loop as a strain relief.

This is a picture of the bottom of the camera and there are four screws that need to be removed. Keep in mind that these screws you are removing will need to go back in their original spot.

This a picture of the right side of the camera in reference to the front. There are actually four screws that will need to be removed. The three you can see even though the picture is blurred and one hidden under the communications flap.

Once all the screws have been removed then the front and back panels can be removed along with the top plate. These pieces are all separate. I have a picture of each below.

Back Plate.

Front Plate

Top Plate with on/off button removed and with wires run through it.

The compact Flash door will come out with the removal of the front and back panels along with the rubber communications cover not shown.

Picture of the camera body after the front plate has been removed.

Picture of the back of the camera with the back plate removed.

Picture of the top of the camera with the top plate removed and four of the five wires soldered on. The final wire should be soldered at the location shown below. The wire size for the connectors I use is 28 gauge stranded. I use telephone cord and cut it length and take the wire out of it. If you are familiar with the Canon Owl PF then you probably know that Canon uses technology that allows you to connect both the shutter contact and the focus contact together and just switch the common contact to these points to take a picture. This would be possible on the Elph as well but I connected them together at the external timer board level and not in the camera because of the membrane used to solder the on/off button and shutter button is very fragile. Yes this means you need the extra wire but I didn't want to mess anything up so I used the extra wire. Also, there is a limited amount of space in these areas when it comes time to put it all back together. You will find it is a little difficult to put back together and get the metal sleeves to fit properly with the wires coming out of the top.

Be careful while soldering these connections since the switches are surface mount and they are connected to a flat layer screen that can be damaged. The yellow wire is common and the bottom left is focus (missing wire) and the upper left black wire is is take a picture (shutter close).

This a picture of the underside of the top plate. There is a button in place where the wires for the camera need to come out. This button can be removed by taking a small flathead screw driver and bending just one side of the flaps holding the button in place. Once the flap has been removed then just pull the button up to break the glue like substance that is holding it in place and the button comes out undamaged and can be put back if need be. Caution: Be careful not to bend or damage the mode button to the right of the on/off button.

Finished wiring should be like the picture below.

That pretty much does it. Now your control scheme can turn the camera on and off and take a picture.

Brian,

Canon PowerShot S100 Elph Camera Specifications

2.1 Megapixel Image Sensor. 1/2.7 inch charge coupled device (effective pixels: approx. 2.02 million)
Color or black-and-white images up to 1600x1200 pixels when set to the camera's Large resolution mode. The camera also offers an additional resolution setting of 640 x 480 when set in the Small mode. Image Storage Capacity with 8 meg Compact Flash card: Super-Fine/ Large : Approx. 4 images. Fine/ Large : Approx. 12 images. Fine/ Small : Approx. 46 images.
Sensitivity: Equivalent to ISO 100
Image format: Design rule for Camera File System (DCF **) (Images/ Thumbnails: JPEG)
2x optical / 4x digital zoom
35-70mm (35mm equivalent) f/2.8-4.0 all-glass aspherical lens
Metering Method: Center weighted metering
Focusing Method: TTL 3 point AiAF. Three-point AiAF autofocus system permits the camera to automatically select the primary subject, even if the subject is off-center.
White Balance Control: TTL auto/ manual. In Manual and Stitch Assist modes, white balance can be set to match the light source when picture taking. Creative effects are possible by deliberately using the wrong settings. Available white balance options are Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Tungsten, and Fluorescent.
Auto Exposure Method: TTL program AE. Adjusting the exposure compensation. In modes other than Auto Mode, exposure can be adjusted in 1/3rd steps from +2.0 to -2.0.
Width of 87mm (3.4 in.), height of 57mm (2.2 in.), and depth of 26.9mm (1.1 in.). Excluding protruding areas.
Weighs about 190g (6.7 oz.). Excluding battery and CompactFlash card.
Stainless Steel body
Displays most camera settings on the LCD monitor. While using the control buttons at the base of the monitor, users can confirm desired camera functions identified on the LCD monitor with easy-to-understand icons or minimal text.
Uses a special rechargeable Li-Ion battery pack the NB-1L. By using the optional ACK300 AC adapter kit the camera can be powered from AC power. The camera standard configuration includes a rechargeable battery pack and battery charger (CB-2L).
Integrated 4-mode flash. Slow synchro-capable flash unit. In addition to auto, red-eye relief, on, and off, the flash settings available for selection include slow synchro. Selection of slow synchro slows the shutter speed and adjusts the flash timing to that speed. Effective for taking shots against nighttime backdrops, etc.
Flash Range wide angle : 27 cm - 3 m (11 in. - 10 ft.) telephoto : 27 cm - 2 m (11 in. - 7 ft.)
Internal memory buffer has a shot-taking interval of about 1.7 seconds.
Stitch Assist Panorama Mode
Macro shooting. In macro mode, the target subject may be at a distance from the camera lens of 10 - 57 cm (4 - 22 in.) (wide angle) 27 - 57 cm (11 - 22in.) (telephoto).
Infinity shooting. When shooting in any mode, other than Auto, the infinity focus function can be used. This ideal for landscape subjects and distant objects.
Three focusing frames
Focusing Range (from the top of lens barrel) Standard : 57 cm - infinity (22 in. - infinity). Macro : 10 cm - 57 cm (4 - 22 in.) (wide angle) 27 cm - 57 cm (11 - 22 in.) (telephoto)
LCD monitor with 100% field of view. The LCD monitor achieves a 100% field of view when used as a viewfinder. Moreover, the field of view for the optical viewfinder is 82% (both vertical and horizontal, for target at 2 meters' distance).
Viewfinder: Real-image optical viewfinder 1.5 inch low-temperture polycrystalline silicon TFT LCD
Supports Compact Flash Type 1 or Type II cards
Shutter Speed 1 - 1/1500 sec. (1-sec. for Slow-Synchro mode and manual mode with flash set to Off)
Self timer: 10 seconds
Auto Mode. Lets the camera handle virtually all shooting settings. Images are recorded in Large/ Fine quality.
Manual Mode. Allows shooting with manual selection of image, exposure, white balance, etc.
Stitch Assist Mode. Shoots images for panorama merges. Allows selection of shooting direction from either left to right or right to left.
Setup menu. Available settings include "Quality," "Digital Zoom," "File No. Reset," "Startup Mode," "Beep," "Auto Power Down," "Set Date/Time," "Format CF card," and "Language." "Language" setting can be switched between English, French, German, Spanish or Japanese.
Start-up Mode Memory. Setting "Last" for "Startup Mode" on the shoot setting menu lets shooting commence in the last shooting mode the next time the power is turned on.
Replay mode. The zoom lever is used to switch between single image replay and multi image replay. During single image replay, the zoom lever can be used to switch the display magnification by up to 2.5 times. buttons are used to change the display position.
Replay menu. Settings include single image erasing, all image erasing, protecting images, rotating images, automating playback , and print setting.
Continuous Shooting. In Manual Mode or Black and White Mode, continuous shooting can be performed at a speed of two images per second, With the LCD monitor turned off.
High Speed plug-and-play USB Interface
Video out interface
Print Order Format: Digital Print Order Format (DPOF)
Automatic lens cover
Windows and Macintosh compatible
Operating Environment Temperature : 0 - 40 degrees C (32 - 104 degrees F) , Humidity : 10 - 90 %

Canon PowerShot S110 Elph Camera Specifications

has the same specs as the S100 except for:

PowerShot S110 can record VGA sized (640 x 480 pixels) movies with sound at the exceptional rate of 20 frames per second due to the high performance of its new digital signal processing IC. Movie format is AVI.
9 image quality settings, and now you can change image quality settings even in the Auto shooting mode.

The Canon PowerShot S100 Elph cameras are going for $250.00 to $300.00 on Ebay. The Canon PowerShot S110 Elph cameras are going for a bit more than the S100, around $350.00.

Tools Needed

Solder station or 15 watt solder pencil.
Electronic solder.
Wire cutters (diagonal cutters)
Wire stripper
Small #0 Phillips screwdriver
Small needlenose pliers

Parts Needed

Telco cord #28 AWG strand wire