Whats Wrong With My Camera!

[fishfishfish]

i cant take good pics of my tanks or fish with my cam.
what settings do i need to put on?
http/www.dpreview.com/news/0502/05021802_hpm22m23.asp

 

[allan45121]

i set my camera to manual mode and then increased the shutter speed. which decreases the "exposure" which means that you dont get that blurring when the fish are moving

 

[fishfishfish]

how do i do that?

 

[dgwebster]

you may find that your digital camera does not have the facility to have manual control over the shutter speed - but you should have exposure control.


sadly though, without the shutter speed on manual, you will probably find you get blurry pictures.

Approximately 50% of digital cameras have manual, the other 50% dont. Im looking to pop about £400 on a "starter range" digital SLR myself and even in the SLR ranges, its amazing how many do not have manual control over the shutter.

 

[fishfishfish]

ISO Speed?thats what mine says

 

[dgwebster]

ok, a general rule of thumb:

the higher the ISO number, the faster the action you can capture, eg;

ISO100: people sanding still / dead fish
ISO200: Strolling along the road / snails
ISO400: A good all rounder, people moving faster / neons, bettas etc
ISO1600: racing car flying past/zebra danios sorry they are a pain in the neck for getting photos IMO
ISO3200: photo of a helicopters blades as they spin in flight - blades appear still in photo/ zebra danios on an upper drug.

so basically, the higher the ISO speed, the shutter is open for a shorter length of time, but the aperture is set to let "more light" hit the sensor and therefore capture the image in details.

the lower the ISO speed, the shutter is open for a longer period of time, but the aperture is set to let "less light" hit the sensor and therefore capture the image in details, but anything moving risks being captured in more than one area of the sensor.

instead of giving you complete control over the shutter, aperture/exposure, its creating a link between the two and giving them a likeness to the film spees you'd see on negative film cameras. makes it easier for the non-initiated to get the settings right, pain in the arse if you deliberatelly want to over expose, double expose etc.