Topic: new camera... Focus?!

Hi there all,

I'm a photography newbie, but have bought a nice Pentax Optio S4 to learn with...

It has loads of manual features, which I'm enjoying exploring (yes, I've RTFM) but I have one niggly issue:

When I use the flash, I get VERY sharp 4megapixel images.. its outstanding.. more detail than the naked eye kind of thing. HOWEVER, when I turn the flash off, to get more natural tones, almost every images comes out slightly blurred...

any thoughts as to why? I'm guessing its to do with camera shake, as it uses a longer shutter time with the flash off.. maybe?

Pete

That could be the answer if you are shooting in low light.
However, if there is sufficient light to take the photo without the flash, then they shouldn't be blurry.

Ok, so I haven't got my manual with me right now.. but when I half-press the shutter release I see the following on screen:

Flash ON..

1/60
F2.6

Flash OFF..

1/8
F2.6


what does the fraction tell me? Does this info help?

the rule of the thumb is: if your shutter speed is less than the angle of the lens - use tripod. That means if you're using 50mm lens (standard), then shooting with a slower shutter speed than 1/50 would produce blurry images. Of course, this is not a mathematical fact, but thats how photographers go about it.

so yes, your images are blurry because 1/8 second is too long to hold the camera without shaking it.

When you press the shutter button down halfway and hold it there, it'll auto-focus. Then just press the button the rest of the way down to take the picture. That should be in your manual somewhere...

[Edit: And yes, what ^he said - the longer the exposure, the more likely you are to move and blur the image.]

"Nothin' like a pro-stabbin' from a pro." -Weadah

[This message has been edited by synax (edited 02-05-2004).]

It's best to always use a tripod unless you can come up with a good reason not to.
Another thing is to make sure when you click that shutter you don't do that with jerk motion. If I hand hold my camera I hold my breath when taking the photo and try to have my camera on something like a fence rail or whatever.
Make sure that you click the shutter half way and wait for the camera to lock in and focus. There should be a flashing light then the light will stop flashing when ready.
There should be no other reason I can think of of than the low light issue and longer shutter that would cause the blur.

Thanks for the feedback/suggestions everyone... I'll experiment and get back to you with some results :-)

(Apparently, the single feature that Pentax omitted from the Optio S4 is manually setting shutter speeds.. one review suggested this was to ensure people still had a reason to buy more expensive cameras!)

Pete

I didn't see a clear answer to your question:

quote:

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what does the fraction tell me? Does this info help?

---

The fraction is the shutter speed, in fractions of a second. So the camera had the shutter open for an eighth of a second in that case. You'll probably have blurry shots unless the shutter is 1/20 or 1/30 or so with that camera (depending on how steady you are).

You could try a tripod, as suggested above, but you might get some laughs; an Optio S4 looks really silly on a tripod

One other thing that might help is to crank up the sensitivity. ISO 200 will give faster shutter speeds, but will introduce some noise.