Michael O'C
1/60sec isn't the fastest exposure but it's still a heck of a lot shorter than what a webcam will catch (60fps vs. 5fps).
I think that even though a webcam may be set to only take 5 frames per second that the individual frames can have a much shorter exposure. See on the second tabbed page of the Philips settings, above the gain the exposure duration can be set. On the webcam image of the sunspot I think that the fps was 10 and the exposure was 1/250.
Anyway if a subject if moving, and the Sun was swimming yesterday, then the shorter exposure should give a sharper image.
I agree that the contrast on a digital image of the Sun is not as good as the visual experiance. May be something to do with the fact that digital still cannot match film for capturing both bright and dark subjects in the one image. I think that they refer to this property as "Latitude"?
Just a thought..
Michael Scully
  