New Camera -not Happy With It At All

[shelaghfishface]

after breaking my finepix , i needed another one so was browsing argos online this morning and found this for £49.99, read the reviews-all fab i add, and have been taking pics of guess what ... fish.. an its rubbish!!!.. probably user error but not impressed at all, from what i see i would have to ask the fish to stand perfectly still to take a pic of them

really fed up now as the camera is exempt from the 30 day return thing,so im stuck with it

the only good thing is that it works with vista with no hassle at all

 

[BigTom]

after breaking my finepix , i needed another one so was browsing argos online this morning and found this for £49.99, read the reviews-all fab i add, and have been taking pics of guess what ... fish.. an its rubbish!!!.. probably user error but not impressed at all, from what i see i would have to ask the fish to stand perfectly still to take a pic of them

really fed up now as the camera is exempt from the 30 day return thing,so im stuck with it

the only good thing is that it works with vista with no hassle at all

Do you know how to meter and use the manual controls? You'll need a reasonably fast shutter speed to capture moving fish (try 1/100s) and adjust aperture and ISO accordingly. Depending on how well lit your tank is you may find you need to use the flash to get a suitable shutter speed.

 

[shelaghfishface]

that will take me an age to find out as the instruction book that came with it is about 20 pages long and not very good at all

thankyou tho tom, ill go thru it and have a look, i might suss it but i wouldnt bank on it poor gazgunman went blue in the face explaining to me how to use the finepix that i had then i went and dropped it

ill try it again when the sun goes down, see what happens then

 

[BigTom]

Hah! We'll get you there, just shout when you get stuck again

Just noticed that cam has an 'aquarium' shooting mode, dunno how it works but that might be worth a shot if you haven't tried it already. Also, if you post a couple of the problem pics it'll be easier to see where you're going wrong.

 

[shelaghfishface]

right found the aquarium mode- wasnt easy
so at least the fish arnt a shooting blur now, shame ( at least i dont think you can) u cant have the super macro on at the same time
heres 3 quikkies

super macro would have been nice with this one ..maybe theres another way

wasnt ever expecting to get a pic of a danio with this camera

- or one of the clown loaches.


maybe i was a little harsh, maybe with a little practice it will be ok after all.. good job you found that mode tom.. tho i dont remeber what i pressed to get to it
camera seems very sensitive to "shake" or maybe its the auto focus .. ill play with it and find out

 

[shelaghfishface]

hmm u can have it in aquarium mode and in macro.

a lot better imo,tho prob a bit too close as even i had trouble telling what it was

just need to work on the light now

 

[england]

play with it hun, took me age's to work out my camera, pic's with it in the first we awful, now iam quite happy with them

 

[shelaghfishface]

your pics are always a pleasure to look at nelly

have an extra set of batteries on charge so i can play till my hearts content.. massive window in this room and only blinds so loads of light reflections grrr!!

we`ll get there in the end

 

[england]

try using the flash and macro mode, take picture at a slight angle so flash doe's not reflect, close cutain's etc..

 

[three-fingers]

If you feel like it, read up on how cameras work with regard to settings like aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focus, optical "zoom" and changing the lighting and you will be taking photos better than with any preset mode .

The thing I like with Canon cameras is that there's usually some way (even if it's installing something from the internet onto the camera) to access all the manual settings .

I find the best thing to do to improve aquarium pictures is to add more light above the tank, whenever you want to take pictures, try to add a desk lamp (or as many as you can) above the water (not from the side, which can look naff on it's own).

More light allows the camera to lower ISO to get less grainy photos, smaller aperture for better depth of field (more of the image will be in focus) and a faster shutter speed so fast fish like danios wont be blurry.

The reason automatic modes aren't always the best is that they sometimes just don't have a s good judgement as the camera holder.

For example, the plec photo is very bright, but not all to in focus. The camera has chosen a shutter speed of 1/30 a second and a large aperture size, meaning a bright photo but shallow depth of field. The camera doesn't know your photographing a still plec. If I was taking the photo I would have tied to keep and steady hand and take a few photos at 1/20 or 1/15 of a second, and put the aperture size down. This would result in (with at least one of the pics) the whole plec being in focus, and the photo only slightly darker.

 

[england]

wow see i learn something new everyday, but iam lost at "camera to lower ISO "and so on

 

[nickelplates]

Glad you seem to be settling down with your new camera now. I bought the exact same model from ARGOS last Sunday and I am very pleased, got some of the best fish pictures I've ever taken with it too (although as you can see my tank ws dusty when I tried it out ). In case you havn't found it the detailed manual is on the CD, the paper one is just a quick guide and next to useless. Happy snapping.

 

[shelaghfishface]

thats fab advice, thankyou ever so much ill give it a whirl, but im like you nelly with iso and apeture we must knuckle down!!

oh yeah nick, i saw the disk that said MANUALS in big letters when i read ur post i just thought.. "oh thats what there for "
youve done well with ur pics,.. i need to catch up, just tried a few more with a different plec, ill get one or 2 uploaded, bit dark as i had the flash and tank lights on..

 

[shelaghfishface]

 

[england]

oh yes think you got it hun, then just touch it up on photobucket before airing it