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Need advice re digicam
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Posted by: vulpes71
I recently acquired a digicam and I've been using it for a couple of days now. I need some expert advice from longtime users. Why are some pics not as clear as the other? Pls take note that the blurred ones came before the clearer ones. I've checked the rechargeable battery, the flash and everything that needed to be looked into. Any advice how can I be sure in the future that all the pics will turn out clear? I'm currently developing a travel website of all the places I'm visiting so clearer pics are a must. My unit is a 2.1 megapixel and I'm using only 16mb MMC which can store up to only 25 shots.
I did some research in the Net but I guess your advice will be more helpful.
Posted by: redwench
blurred pics are generally the result of movement of camera and/or subject. since youre taking pictures of scenery, im guessing thats not moving too much. when possible, use a tripod or set the camera on a stable surface to take the picture. make sure you allow enough time after turning it on for it to power up fully. if you have autofocus on, follow the directions on your camera for that to work properly. just snapping a pic without allowing the autofocus to work would certainly blur your pics.
Posted by: Chako
What make and model is your camera?
What is the speed of your lens?
Red is correct. Most blur comes from hand held shake. You see, many digital cameras are fixed in that you cannot load faster speed film, so you are quite often stuck at a given ASA rating. Many times, this lower ASA rating means that you will get a slower shutter speed if there isn't enough light.
So you need to figure out the lighting of your scenes that are blurry. Is this a plausible cause? If so, you will need to either hold your camera more solid and still, or use a tripod or a bean bag, or you can prop yourself and/or camera up to an object for added support.
Another aspect you need to be aware is that digital cameras are not good for fast moving objects...because of the above problem. Slower shutter speeds cause faster objects to blur. Now there is a technique (you need practice though to pull it off) of panning with the object in motion. done right, you can get exceptional photos. This take lots of practice. It took me over a year of on off practice to do it well.
Another problem could very well be your auto focus. Auto focus can let you down some of the time. Really good cameras will have a bracket that will show up on a back LCD to show what part your camera is focusing on. Cheaper ones won't tell you. So, if parts of the photo is blurry, such as the main focal point or subject of your photo and other parts are sharp, then it is possible that the auto focus focused on the wrong part of the picture. This happens enough with modern day cameras to make it a worry. My Nikon Coolpix 990 at least tells me where it focuses on. Although it has a good auto focus algorithm, it still makes mistakes about 10% of the time. So with the focus indicator..if it is wrong, you just repress the shutter button and it will refocus again. An annoyance.
Another thing you will need to remember is your digicam resolution. Resolution means everything in the world of digital photography. If your digicam is low resolution, then chances are you pictures will be blurry when you blow them up on screen. Even more so if you print them out at a larger size on paper.
For example. If you have a low resolution camera (320x240 pixels or something a little higher), then it is only good for sending small pictures on the Internet. If you try to print from this, be prepared for blurrines and pixelation problems.
Medium resolution cameras (800x600 and 1024x768) are capable of producing post card sized prints of acceptable quality.
High resolution cameras (2.2+ megapixels) are capable of producing 8"x11" blowups of acceptable quality. The higher your resolution the better the quality of your photographs when printed onto paper. Seeing that you have a 2.1 megapixel digicam, your at the low end of the high resolution cameras. So don't expect photo quality 8"x11" prints.
Another thing you have to think about is "wait time". Because there is no film, cameras take some time to write the photo to the memory card. This can cause the first time digital camera user to make blurred photos. Wait time occurs when you press the shutter button and just after. if you look carefully, you will note that your digital camera take a little time to actually take the picture. You should time this and become familiar with it because when you press the shutter button, the camera does not instantaneously take the picture like film cameras. All digital cameras have this wait time, and the time varied from model to model as well. Because of this, if you press the button, and then move at a critical time, then you will get blurred photos.
And then there is the lint, dirt, or finger smear on the lens that will cause blur. This is obvious though, and I am sure this is not your problem.
Hope these suggestions help you. You will find that digital photography is a little different from film photography, With a little work, you will be taking awesome photos and burning them onto CDs.
You need to get 2 things right now if you don't have them already.
1. rechargeable batteries (2 sets with a recharger).
2. a larger memory card. Get a 64+ meg memory card..you won't regret it.
I would also like to remind you that if you wish to get creative with your camera..you can use filters etc very much like film photography. You can jury rig a filter holder with either Velcro or elastics and use 35 mm filters for special effects. Imagination and fun is king. You can even slave that camera to a 35 mm flash for greater illumination. Just some suggestions.
Posted by: vulpes71
Thanks so much Rwench and Chako. I'll keep note of your advice. Now I have to shop for a tripod.
BTW here are the specs, it's quite long though. If there are still any more help I would greatly appreciate it. And yes, I'm an "aspiring" photographer who dreams of having my photographs printed at NGC magazine
2.1MP pocket-sized power
aspheric, all-glass lens, and continuous 3X digital zoom,
CCD resolution - 2.3 megapixel
image resolution - 2.1MP (1752x1168 pixels)
image quality - 2.1MP (best)1752x1168, 0.5 MP (good) 876x584
optical lens - 38 mm (35 mm equiv.), f/3.9
digital zoom - 3.0X continuous digital zoom in 0.1X increments
focus distance - 0.8m (29 in.) to infinity
exposure control - automatic
shutter speed - automatic (1/2 to 1/1200 seconds)
flash range - 0.8 - 2.5m (2.6-8.2 ft.), quenched, charge time 7 sec. max.
flash mode - automatic, fill, red-eye, night shot, off
ISO equivalent - 100 - 200 (automatic)
white balance - automatic
file format - JPEG/EXIF 2.2
user interface controls power, shutter, menu, joystick with center select, flash/print
movie mode audio recording during capture, no audio playback on camera
movie length unlimited, based on memory size, 5 sec., 15 sec., 30 sec. settings
movie image resolution
best: 320x240 at 19.1 fps,
good: 160x120 at 19.1 fps
microphone - built in
file format - QuickTime
viewfinder - optical viewfinder
LCD - 40.6 mm (1.6 in.) transmissive D-TFD color
storage 18MB internal memory (approximately 49 images in good quality
setting or 12 images in highest resolution setting; approximately 35
sec. of video in highest resolution setting)
optional storage
Expansion slot for optional removeable MMC/SD card
interface
video out - NTSC, PAL (user-selectable)
tripod mount - standard
self timer - 10 seconds
power - lithium ion rechargeable battery
camera specs - weight with battery: 160g (5.6 oz.)
dimensions - WxHxD: 109x45.5x28.5 mm (4.3x1.8x1.1 in.)
dock specs - weight: 75g (2.7 oz.)
dimensions - WxHxD: 139.5x35.2x59.1 mm (5.5x1.4x2.3 in.)
Posted by: Chako
You have told me everything but the most important part. Who is the manufacturer and what is the model number of your digital camera?
Do not use that digital zoom much. You won't get good pictures from it because the way that works.. it crops your normal photo and blows it up to fill your screen. This results in bad pixelation problems that increase the more you zoom in.
Posted by: vulpes71
Oops, sorry. It's a kodak ls420  Yeah, I noticed that too when I use the zoom, the pix turn out bad and blurred. Now I remember, I used the digital zoom for the blurred pix. I'll post later the 2 pictures for comparison.
Posted by: Chako
Kodak digital cameras are good. They do not give natural colors though, but many people like it that way. Kodak cameras tend to give you rich warm supersaturated colors.
Heh, that could do it if you zoomed to the 3X max.
Posted by: Canis Lupus
My digital camera at home is an "old" Kodak DC280 2.1MP camera ...
http://www.opentechsupport.net/guid...akdc280zoom.gif
And if I remember correctly, you wrote a guide about digital photography, right Chako? 
Posted by: vulpes71
Thanks for posting the guide. And sorry for not being that resourceful
Posted by: vulpes71
Here's picture of my digicam. I love it! Everyone here at work practically drools over the sight of it. Small but really cool...
http://www.kodak.com/global/en/digi...420/ls420.jhtml
Posted by: Chako
And here is mine.
Nikon Coolpix 990
Posted by: vulpes71
Wow! I wanna have one! How long has it been with you?
Posted by: Chako
Since 2000.
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