Camera advice?

Discuss cameras, settings, composition, or anything related to photography - cactus or other subjects.
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lancer99
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Post by lancer99 »

In the end, I got used to its quirks and kept it, but.........(ominous music plays)......
lancer99 wrote:
1) The Canon 790 was much "boxier," i.e. it had square edges and was basically a rectangular solid. The 1400, while almost exactly the same size, has rounded edges everywhere. That makes it much harder to get a solid grip, and although I'll probably get used to it, IMHO this was a big mistake on Canon's part.

-R
I was outside taking pictures on the patio, and the cam slipped out of my hands and fell about 18" onto the bricks. The back cracked, but I was hoping the cam would still work...no go, the autofocus is 75% dead. Occasionally it works fine, but I keep getting error messages saying the cam is about to shut down...then it does.

I got 1307 pics for my 229 simoleons!

Then again, it may be my fault. I really should have washed my hands after having greasy tacos for lunch :)

-R
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Harriet
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Post by Harriet »

Some things are just not meant to be.

By the time you get through buying cheap cameras you could have paid for a good DSLR. And before you argue about greasy taco hands, think about how much more careful you would have been with an expensive camera!
It’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end.
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lancer99
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Post by lancer99 »

After all my complaining about how this cam is terrible at auto-focusing in macro mode, I don't know whether it's irony or karma come back to bite me in the butt...

...but even after the drop, it focuses just as well in macro mode:

Image

Image

(Blue Demon's head is about 1/2" tall)

Image

But once it's farther away, everything looks like this!

Image

-R
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lancer99
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Post by lancer99 »

So now I have a brand spankin' new Canon PowerShot ELPH 100 HS 12.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 4X Optical Zoom.

Just based on one night's usage, it doesn't seem to have the same horrible macro misfunction (unfocusing as soon as you took your finger off the button) like the SD1400 IS had.

Instead, it's unable to correctly autofocus for non-macro pics.

Image

Canon continues to get worse and worse. I miss the 970, which made it almost impossible to take a bad pic.

-R
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Harriet
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Post by Harriet »

I believe the ominous music from a few posts back is still playing...
It’s not the fall that kills you; it’s the sudden stop at the end.
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

I think the point and shoot digital camera market in general has fallen prey to several ugly scams, design flaws, probably unintentional glitches and really aggravating techno-idiocies. I recently had to replace my Sony Cybershot DSC W220 and got a Cybershot DSC W560. In nearly every respect, the touted "improvements" over the W220 generation are in fact downgrades and sometimes just outrageously stupid.

I am generally happy with the images of the camera. I stick with Sony because the Zeiss optics are very stable and the images generally crop very well. Macro mode is not too bad. The camera, an extra memory card and an extra battery were package priced very reasonably. But can the engineers and design and software people who come up with unbelievably stupid ideas that are supposedly improvements please be fired?

peterb
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Harriet
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Post by Harriet »

peterb wrote: But can the engineers and design and software people who come up with unbelievably stupid ideas that are supposedly improvements please be fired?

peterb
Sadly those seem to be the guys that end up running companies...
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

My first digital camera was a Sony Cybershot. It was a 4 MP and it worked (still works) great in all aspects.

I now have a Cannon Powershot SX 110 IS and it takes fantastic Macro shots:

Image

But almost every "landscape" shot is blurry and it doesn't seem to matter if I use manual focus either.

Here is one that is more clear than most:

Image
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*Barracuda_52*
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

Alot of cam's in macro mode need to be right up to the target subject in order to get it real nice and clear, sometimes in that mode i find it only focuses on things behind the target subject, so i try to turn my auto focus off durring the macro setting.. In Mac setting you just need to carefully adjust your distance to the target pic, if your to close it blurs it if your to far away it will catch background. I still havent used all the features on mine yet and ive had it for more than 2 yrs now.. :oops:
Heres mac mode with auto focus turned off, click pics for better viewing..
Image
Image
Image

Sometimes i can get it just right sometimes NOT..

Its just a cheesy FujiFilm FinePix 6.3 mega pixel but it gets the job done for me.. :P

Image
Image
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lancer99
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Post by lancer99 »

I misspoke above. The problem with the 1400 was that the autofocus in macro mode was fine, but as soon as you pressed the rest of the way down on the button to actually take the pic, it as often as not lost the focus.
peterb wrote:... In nearly every respect, the touted "improvements" over the W220 generation are in fact downgrades and sometimes just outrageously stupid.
daiv wrote:..But almost every "landscape" shot is blurry and it doesn't seem to matter if I use manual focus either.
It's so weird. Usually improvements in technology migrate from higher-end to lower-end models, which is why I was comfortable getting a "mid-range" Canon, despite my problems with the 1400. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

If there's any more proof needed that cams are getting worse, I briefly borrowed a 4-year-old cam from a friend. He paid (IIRC) $350 for it, and used models now sell for about $1000 on the net.

Frustrating!

-R
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bananaman
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Re: Camera advice?

Post by bananaman »

Or you can just get a flexible tripod, like my Gorillapod!

Flexible tripods are very useful.
Mine is 6" long, and allows me to take steady pictures using just about anything for support.
For example, I've used mine wrapped around a safety fence in a cave to take a 10 second exposure picture of a dark feature, while lighting it with my flashlight.
There wouldn't have been room for a normal tripod there though.

Also, tripods are illegal on top of the empire state building, but they let me take my Gorillapod up there because it is so small (and not metal) that you couldn't hurt someone with it.
Hope this helps!
-bananaman

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DaveW
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Re: Camera advice?

Post by DaveW »

Unless it has a continuous autofocus mode the autofocus stops as soon as you partially depress the shutter button on most digital cameras to hold that focus. Not a problem in normal photography, but in macro photography with often depths of field of a few millimeters you can sway out of focus before the picture is taken. You either need to use a tripod or to improve your camera holding technique to hold it steadier by say bracing yourself against something. Whilst some people like small light cameras for their portability, especially the ladies, a larger heavier camera does provide inertia since it is heavier to start moving so damps out more vibration. Compact camera users may find this video useful:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIcOY2XRNbQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One for DSLR users as well:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1rqbfdc3Kk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a primer for those new to macro with compact cameras:-

http://digital-photography-school.com/m ... mera-users" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ideally if your camera allows, switch off autofocus for macro and learn to focus manually.
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