Understanding camera settings...

Hi!

Recently, I bought Canon SX130 IS. I understood few things by reading the manual and some information from online. Even after reading, I couldn't understand the depth of the information I read. There are lot I didn't understand completely.

I thought of asking before, but I felt it was too early to ask things. And I thought I would understand things when I started using my cam. But I didn't, So here I am...

I tried to take macro, and my camera allows to take picture as close as 1 cm. I put the camera closer to the subject, but I wanted to zoom the subject so that I can get bigger image with more details in it. But when I zoom I don't get correct focus. I tried manual focus too...

Subject is just an inch away (roughly) from the camera. And the camera is fully zoomed at 12x.

This may sound silly or you can even ask "How it is possible to get the clear focus @ 12x while the subject is just an inch away from your gear?"

I just wanted to clear this thing.

And this is not the end of it. I have plenty of things to clear up. I posted just one to not to scare you by asking too many things in the very first post.

Thank you.

Sujay,
I tried what you suggested, but still I didn't get it. I don't wanted to post in the thread which serves other purpose and disturb the thread viewers. So this new thread.

@nac U did the right thing by starting a saperate thread

But I cant help u much coz I have never used the cam...only guys having the cam can help u

Sujay,

Ok, try this in your camera. I don't know how to figure out the zoom in SLR. I divide the bigger no. with smaller one. If this is right, you have roughly 3x zoom in your lens.

Now few questions to you,
* Do you zoom the subject when you keep the camera just next to it (say 1 inch or lowest possible in your cam)?
* If you zoom (not the subject which is far away), do you get clear focus?

I just want to know that,
Is this possible to get a clear focus both @1x and 12x where the subject is 1cm away in both the cases?

In all the three photos, camera is rested just next to "space bar".

Macro...

*img573.imageshack.us/img573/4320/img0484r.jpg

Zoomed little...

*img10.imageshack.us/img10/4301/img0486kp.jpg

@ 12x

*img233.imageshack.us/img233/2907/img0485wo.jpg

You can see that with no zoom, focus is clear. When we zoom, the focus is getting unclear and see nothing at 12x

I hope u r using macro mode...and in macro mode cameras minimum focus distance become very less automatically...u wont have space to zoom there

Sujoy,

The first one was macro. Rest two are manually focused.

I think I found why I don't get a clear focus of closer subject.

Focusing Range - 1cm (0.4in.) - infinity (W), 1m (3.3ft.) - infinity (T)

Full zoom is telephoto, right? If this is correct, I can't get the focus if the subject is closer than 1m. It proves that the subject was not in the optimum focus range.

Found this from 7yrs old post in dpreview. There were people like me then

As for focusing, the Canon SX130 delivers several choices there as well. In Macro, it is capable of focusing on objects as close as 0.4 inches (1cm). You can enter into Macro focusing manually or the camera will do it for you automatically while shooting in Auto, which is nice.

Normal Focusing Range 1m (3.3ft.) - infinity
Macro: 1 - 50cm (0.4in. - 1.6ft. )

If u put the cam in macro mode then cams focus distance become 1cm to 50cm.
Do one thing put ur cam on macro mode and full zoom at 12x...then slowly move towards a subject and see the distance u can focus after full zoom.

similarly go to any other mode and try...see the focus distance...u will understand the things easily

Now the next doubt

*img405.imageshack.us/img405/6008/aflock.png

What's the use of AF lock? Where I can use this feature?

After the focus is locked, why should I change the focus?

@nac: the every camera lens has limitation on focus...@ a certain point it fails to focus..
like when I use my D3100 i can't focus more to click a Macro shot....

Zangetsu said:
@nac: the every camera lens has limitation on focus...@ a certain point it fails to focus..
like when I use my D3100 i can't focus more to click a Macro shot....

Wouldn't be good if the camera can able to focus at any given zoom/settings? In fact, I thought it was possible until I read about the focus range.

Ungalukku en intha kolaveri

nac said:
Wouldn't be good if the camera can able to focus at any given zoom/settings?

then we wouldn't had so many variety of lenses :mrgreen:

yes if that happens the whole range of macro lens will become useless

I donno much about AF lock switch...I know only that with that button pressed we can keep the focus locked at a point...soo that lens do not have to focus as same point again

I am bit confused about it myself but it a very rarely used feature

Okay...

My cam don't shoot in RAW mode. It shoots in jpeg (Fine and Normal). My doubt is,
Is it possible to sharpen the photos shot in jpeg mode photoshop?

I don't have proficiency on photoshop and I don't know how to sharpen the photos. I just read an article about sharpening. And here I am throwing my next question.

And I don't hear any sound of videos shot from in-camera speaker. But I hear sounds of shutter and all...
What am I missing here?
Should I check the settings? (I tried and all the sounds are on)

No raw is no problem...even if my DSLR have raw I dont use it coz my PC is bit old and takes time to process it

To sharpen the images Use Gimp the technique is very simple...
1.open the picture
2.go to filters menu
3. Go to enhance submenu
4. select unsharp mask
5. 0.50 makes it very sharp keep it around 0.25 to 0.40 , radius keep 4 and threshold =0

cant tell about photoshop coz I just started using it from last 3 days

About sound in video I am sure when u play the video there must be some options on the screen itself like speaker balance or mono stereo etc check them

well I generally prefer JPEG over RAW...
bcoz of low size

If I had a dual/quad core PC I would have prefer RAW to jpeg conversion....but my P4 PC takes around 1-2 mins for each RAW to jpeg conversion...its soo irritating to convert 100-200 pics

sujoyp said:
If I had a dual/quad core PC I would have prefer RAW to jpeg conversion....but my P4 PC takes around 1-2 mins for each RAW to jpeg conversion...its soo irritating to convert 100-200 pics

+ u need a HDD of lots of space... :mrgreen:

Zangetsu said:
+ u need a HDD of lots of space...

yaah thats soo true...I see nowdays photo enthusiast keep a 1 TB external HDD specially for storing photographs...even I have 40GB pics

...luckily I take only JPEGs

A

nac said:
Now the next doubt

*img405.imageshack.us/img405/6008/aflock.png

What's the use of AF lock? Where I can use this feature?

After the focus is locked, why should I change the focus?

sujoyp said:
yes if that happens the whole range of macro lens will become useless

I donno much about AF lock switch...I know only that with that button pressed we can keep the focus locked at a point...soo that lens do not have to focus as same point again

I am bit confused about it myself but it a very rarely used feature

Okay I posted this a while ago differently, deleted and I'm now redoing it.

AF/AE Lock is used to lock the exposure value at a focal length for a scene as determined by the camera's AF(or by setting it manually and then applying the lock - this may depend on the camera offering the feature) when focused at a subject. This is usually used when the subject to camera distance is nearly constant, and subject is desired to be off center or the lighting is uneven, Sun or a light source shining from a corner of the frame, etc.

Let's say there's a stage performance and the group is on stage with different performers getting spotlight at different times. In usual modes, the camera measures the entire light of the scene and decides the exposure value. So a lot of darkness + a spotlight area means that it believes that the scene is generally dark so it decides on a long enough exposure to bring it on to the film/sensor. This results in a highly blown up light on the performer who is in spotlight and he gets captured as a big blob on the film/sensor. On the other hand, if you focus on the spotlit person and decide the exposure, it will say that the shutter speed has to be very quick, and he gets captured correctly.

Now you want to photograph the scene as it appears to your naked eyes. What you do is:

1. First choose a focal length to decide the scene/frame to capture - this is constant for the click now on,

2. then you choose a focus point(in most cameras it is only at the center or thereabouts) aim it at the person in spotlight and check for the proper exposure to be suggested by half-pressing the shutter release button. What happens in this is that the camera measures the light mostly(about 85%, varies with cameras) from near the focus point and decides the exposure.

3. Once you see stable exposure values suggested, you apply the AE/AF lock to retain the exposure value for the click instead of clicking through. In most cameras this lock applies for 6 seconds after which it unlocks automatically and you will have to start over again.

4. In this time you can place the subject off-center - ie, not in the center focus square which you used to measure the exposure value - for usual compositional reasons, and click the shot with the AF locked value of the exposure.

Good to know that I can sharpen the jpeg images. I tried GIMP today and I did what you suggested. But I don't see any massive difference between the sharpen image and the original one.

GIMP is also new to me. If GIMP is as good as Adobe, I can stick with GIMP and learn to use it.

Thanks for the steps to sharpen the image.

Today, I was little more active than usual taking photographs. And I dried one pair of batteries.

About that AF lock feature, I tried it. I don't know where I can use this feature. It locks the focal distance and lets us to do manual focus. As we do MF, the clarity is getting reduced. I don't know why the camera letting us to do MF after locking the focal distance.

I think one can use this feature where he don't want the camera to auto focus every time he positions at the subject (where the subject is not gonna move) as it takes time to AF (it's like reducing the work load of cam). He can lock the focal distance and take the photos.

Note: It just locks the focal distance not exposure. Exposure continues to adjust.

Ayaat, Thanks for your valuable time and explaining in detail. It helps to understand things deeper. As you said, this varies from camera to camera. In this camera, it means locking the "focal distance".

What you have explained is exactly same with the feature called FOCUS LOCK in this cam. Here as you said, it locks the focus and exposure.

I am OK with few of my shots taken today. I will post it the photography thread.

And there are two more locks in SX130, AE lock and FE lock. (Auto Exposure and Flash Exposure)

I don't see any settings for in-camera speakers. I think it's for sounds like beep, shutter sound, warning sounds etc... I will soon contact Canon and clear my doubt about this speaker.

Finally, I close this post with the question.

I read an article about hyper focal distance. There I read different camera types and I don't know which category my camera falls in.

These are the types,
*35mm
*4x5
*6x6
*DSLR

I am sure, mine don't fall in DSLR and I think it doesn't fall in 35mm too (I guess it uses film roll).

What's the difference between Flash exposure and Flash output?

@agyaat thanks a lot for all that info...it cleared some of my doubt regarding AE/AF lock button...but it locks just for 6 seconds

thats too less

@nac ..I have attached a image in similar way, check it u will clearly see the sharpening effect...use 1 instead of 0.50 in the sharpening value...see the difference

35mm is not only film cam but the standard full frame SLR...all lenses r measured in this standard like 18-55mm its a measurement on 35mm SLR and it will give result of around 27-82 on a APS-C sensor or cropped sensor DSLR which is 1.5x on Nikon and 1.6x on canon (18*1.5=27)
35mm full frame DSLR cost more than 1 lac

dont know 4x4 or 6x6

DSLR is a Digital SLR

There r some more kind of cams too
Point and shoot - ur camera falls here
Bridge cam - like canon S95, S100, nikon p100, p500,canon G12, g10 etc which have slightly bigger sensor and better lens.
micro 4/3 - 4/3rd size of full frame sensor without mirrorflip and viewfinder
4/3 - 4/3rd size of full frame sensor with all capabilities
SLT - this uses translucent mirror technology...uses nomal sensor

*upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Sensor_sizes_overlaid_inside.svg/300px-Sensor_sizes_overlaid_inside.svg.png

This is the article. You can find an excel sheet in this page named hyper focal. Read, If you understand what 4x5 or 6x6 format are let me know.

And difference between Flash exposure and Flash output?

*www.vividlight.com/articles/3513.htm

A

nac said:
Good to know that I can sharpen the jpeg images. I tried GIMP today and I did what you suggested. But I don't see any massive difference between the sharpen image and the original one.

GIMP is also new to me. If GIMP is as good as Adobe, I can stick with GIMP and learn to use it.

Thanks for the steps to sharpen the image.

Today, I was little more active than usual taking photographs. And I dried one pair of batteries.

About that AF lock feature, I tried it. I don't know where I can use this feature. It locks the focal distance and lets us to do manual focus. As we do MF, the clarity is getting reduced. I don't know why the camera letting us to do MF after locking the focal distance.

I think one can use this feature where he don't want the camera to auto focus every time he positions at the subject (where the subject is not gonna move) as it takes time to AF (it's like reducing the work load of cam). He can lock the focal distance and take the photos.

Note: It just locks the focal distance not exposure. Exposure continues to adjust.

Ayaat, Thanks for your valuable time and explaining in detail. It helps to understand things deeper. As you said, this varies from camera to camera. In this camera, it means locking the "focal distance".

What you have explained is exactly same with the feature called FOCUS LOCK in this cam. Here as you said, it locks the focus and exposure.

I am OK with few of my shots taken today. I will post it the photography thread.

And there are two more locks in SX130, AE lock and FE lock. (Auto Exposure and Flash Exposure)

I don't see any settings for in-camera speakers. I think it's for sounds like beep, shutter sound, warning sounds etc... I will soon contact Canon and clear my doubt about this speaker.

Finally, I close this post with the question.

I read an article about hyper focal distance. There I read different camera types and I don't know which category my camera falls in.

These are the types,
*35mm
*4x5
*6x6
*DSLR

I am sure, mine don't fall in DSLR and I think it doesn't fall in 35mm too (I guess it uses film roll).

What's the difference between Flash exposure and Flash output?

There are more 'types' of cameras, based on the size of the film/sensor, usage and the kind of technology/mechanism used in their making, etc.

Mostly 6x7, 6x4.5, etc are in centimeters of dimension of the sides of the film. The cameras are good actually but the films are most likely rare.

SLR: Single Lens Reflex. It has one interchangeable lens, and mirror mechanism. It means that like those small cameras there are no two points of view to the subject. Instead, what enters the lens is what the eyeviewfinder sees. This is achieved by the mirror between the lens and the film/sensor which directs the scene's light into a prism above it, more or less like a kind of periscope for the eye. There are also twin lens reflex cameras.

In the times, the film was flexibly sized as you can see that there are different sizes and all. Now, in the going on it turned out that the dimensions 24mm x36mm became most consumer-level popular. This is the normal 35mm film image capture size inside the camera. The 35mm is because the width of the film is 35mm if you add the width of the sprocket hole on either side of the 24mm side (24mm+ 2 x sprocket hole extra =35mm, that is.)- you can check this using an accurate ruler and pulling out a length of old 35mm film.

Film producing companies like kodak tried to make a smaller width film and named it APS(Advanced Photographing System or something like that). It was smaller than the 24x36 mm exposure by 1.5 to 1.6 times. They wanted to make it so popular as the 35mm film and gradually eclipse the 35mm usage altogether. Consumers did not take to it. Instead we liked the 35mm more

.

Now enter the digital sensor into the camera and replace the film. The APS sized sensor is the most commonly installed one in a SLR with Digital Sensor (the DSLR). Usually the SLR for the common man means that it is a camera with SLR system in it, and it takes a 35mm film roll. But the DSLR is not the same - it has the APS sized sensor in it instead of the 24x36mm. As the DSLRs with the (1.6 times lesser)APS sensor became more used, the name 'full frame' became common to refer to clarify that the usual DSLR has a smaller sensor, and the 'full frame DSLR is the actual complete conversion of the SLR into digital capture mode'. These 'full frame' DSLRs are expensive and highly advanced. So if you have a full frame DSLR, you have a 35mm DSLR

.

Then there are the cameras called the P&S. They have no interchangeability of lenses, they have a sensor which is a quarter of the size used in the APS sensor DSLRs, and they don't have a mirror mechanism. They use electronics to display the live view, and use software to process the very small capture they make on their little sensors and give the 10-14 MP which is advertised. Your camera the 130SX is one of them.

About the AF lock well, these locks are used commonly to keep the camera from doing focus hunting/f-value hunting/exposure time recalculation etc as you will lose the shot altogether while it is busy with this kind of work-rework. User judgement is essential in them, so you will make better use of them as you gain experience ie, burn up a lot many more batteries

.

Gimp is believed to be almost equal to Photoshop, except for some exclusive(patented) brushes and such features used mostly by fashion photo manipulators. Most usual things are conveniently covered in Gimp.

Thank you agyaat...

Sujoy, thanks for the flickr link (cloud shots)

Finally found how to turn up the volume of in-camera speaker.

In playback mode, we need to press UP button to increase volume. One of the toughest search to find this solution. Even I called Canon care, but they weren't sure.

Again found it from dpreview.

@nac congrats...its exactly same as in mobile phones

I told you before too that there must be some option while playing the video

U didnt try it properly

I had no clue and there were no mentioning of volume button or volume indicator in the manual.

Now, it's not about my camera or camera settings. It's about DSLR lens.

Nikon D3100 DSLR - DX Format camera
Nikkor AFS VR 18-55mm - AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR (3.0x)
Nikkor AFS VR 55-200mm - AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 55-200mm f/4-5.6G IF-ED
Nikkor AF 50mm 1.8 - AF NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8D
Nikkor AIS 55mm 2.8 Micro - Micro 55mm f/2.8

Yours is DX format camera. So the first two lenses (DX format lenses) will work well. And I am not sure about the last two lenses, so I put it in RED font. If this is the lens you have, they are FX format lenses. I understand that all lens can be mounted in any Nikon SLR camera. But few things like AF, Metering compatibility may vary. How about in your case?

Nikon D3100 can mount any lens but
AF lens wont autofocus on it but will meter properly and mine is not 1.8D version mine is older one without D
AIS lenses can be mount on any nikkon DSLR with the exception of D90....It will harm it

AIS/AI lens will work as manual lens...wont meter wont autofocus...soo u have to set Exposure manually to take an image

All FX lens can be mounted on DX easily without second thought but DX lenses should not be mounted on FX coz it produces vignetting anf distortion and its not worth

Thank you Sujoy.

My cam has 12x optical zoom. When I take photos at full zoom, info shows that focal length - 60mm. I used digital zoom combined with optical zoom and zoomed @ 48x even now focal length is 60mm.

I understand the focal length in mm is the distance between the sensor and lens.

Now my questions...
What is the distance between lens and subject if the zoom is 1x?
What could be the distance between lens and subject if focal length is 1mm/5mm?
Is there any calculation to get the distance between the lens and subject?

You will understand lens focal length in lenses from this webpage -> Focal Length and F-Stop Explanation

The total zoom does not consider digital zoom...digital zoom is mere magnifying the same picture ...soo a 12x optical zoom will never become 40x anyhow ..and zoom is measured in mm in optical terms soo your lens will remain at 60mm

1. suppose my lens start from 18-55mm soo at 18mm my lens is 1x at 55mm it is 3.5x..
.my 18-55 can focus at a minimum 1 meter weather at 18mm or 55mm soo your lens at any zoom will focus at a minimum focus distance

focal length of 1mm/5mm is nearly impossible

Nikon have minimum 6mm lens...
*www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/ai628.jpg

and you r actually talking about distance itself and not focal length...sorry that you have to check in your image properties...take a macro shot and check yourself

Leave the macro option....simply at any zoom your cam will focus only till the minimum focus distance (not macro distance) it may be around 1meter...you have to find it out

Thank you.

Yes, I can find the focus range in the product specification.

After some search, I don't think it's easy thing to keep in mind. Too many photographic terms, too many calculations.

So I better keep it like this... Higher the focal length no. closer the subject. Smaller the crop factor (bigger sensor) more the details/better the image. If I want to know the hyper focal distance, DOF etc... I better keep a chart.

One update: Yes, u can shoot in RAW.

Try this...CHDK

CHDK Wiki

Thats nice....keep it simple

You know even if I understand something its very difficult to tell u in simple ways coz I am no expert...soo bear with me

Rhitwick - Thanks for the link to CHDK. I heard about this before buying this camera. But all I knew was it is a third party software. I didn't know this has plenty of attractive features. It's great RAW mode, Hyperfocal calculator, DOF calc, Ultra fast/long shutter speed.

Sujoy - It's alright. Everyone knows something better than others.

And a little clarification. This may help you too as you have Nikon.

sujoyp said:
All FX lens can be mounted on DX easily without second thought but DX lenses should not be mounted on FX coz it produces vignetting anf distortion and its not worth

DX lens can be mounted on FX cameras.

Nikon's DX lenses are lenses which only cover the smaller sensor of DX digital cameras. DX lenses have reduced capacity compared to regular lenses.

Used on a film or full-frame sensor, at some or all settings they will black-out in the corners. FX cameras have the option to use only a smaller section in the center of their larger sensors, so DX lenses will work properly on FX cameras, too.

And FX lenses for full frame cameras. If this FX lenses used in DX cameras, the full frame (of the lens) will be cropped by DX cameras, right? And the effectiveness of the lens will not be as effective as when used on FX cameras???

Any FX lens when used with a APS-C or DX DSLR it with work as good as it will work on Full frame DSLR...

But it will be a waste of money coz FX lens r costlier than DX lenses....but people who wants to upgrade to FX DSLR in future or people using film SLRs will have FX lenses

You are right , to effectively utilise the FX lenses its important to have FX or full frame DSLR....A DX camera will utilise only a part of that lens optics.

These FX and DX came with Digital SLRs only....in film days most SLR were full frame and all lenses worked with full frame sensors

What are the benefits of having in-body motor vs the camera which don't have?

I am just asking after checking these two DSLR 550D vs D5100.

nac said:
What are the benefits of having in-body motor vs the camera which don't have?

I am just asking after checking these two DSLR 550D vs D5100.

In body focus motor will let you auto focus with the non AF-S lenses.

Talking about Nikon

Nikon low end models dont have in-body motor but above D90 all have...This is useful coz nikon have lots of old lenses...from around 1980s to current(around 30 years) Nikon used to make AF lenses and only from around last 12 years its slowly making AFS with motor.
Although In-body motor do not focus as quickly as AFS lenses...Also I have read somewhere that higher models like D300 and full frame D3 etc have better motors for fast focusing.

AF lenses r cheaper than AFS and can be bought used at good bargain price

About Canon

Canon took a different path alltogather...it scrapped out its old mount...and old lenses wont work on current DSLRs without adapters..In current scenario all the canon lenses have focus motors...soo all canon lenses will work on all canon DSLRs
Its a misconception that all canon body have motors but rather all lenses have motors

Thank you binarycodes and Sujoy.

I think I shouldn't have compared 550D vs D5100. I couldn't pick one. Luckily, I wasn't buying DSLR a month ago. It would have been a hell of a confusion which one to pick.

Now back to my camera settings.

1.
*img39.imageshack.us/img39/9866/10591174.png

In this snap you can see three shooting options. I can see three options but instead of third option continuous LV I have Single Shoot. I don't know what LV stands for...

By default it is in Continuous AF. Should I keep it as it is or it's better to change it to Standard Single Shoot.

2. What is AF assist beam?

3. There are three options in IS mode.
Continuous, Shoot only and Panning. By default it is in Continuous mode. Can I leave it as it is or change it to other mode. And what is panning here?

1. LV stands for live view...since DSLRs have viewfinder people shoot from viewfinder which is faster..live view is like shooting from the rear screen...which is the way in digital cameras..u can keep it on single or continous ...no problem

2. AF assist beam is there in Nikon DSLRs to focus in dark...an orange led light is there ...which light up when one try to focus on the subject...one way its annoying but without it cant focus in dark.

3. Continous IS is the stabiliser work all the time even when u r viewing the scene...shoot only is stabiliser work when u push the button to focus...Panning I dont remember

Thank you Sujoy

AF turns LV in few modes like "Fireworks" (Scene mode)

AF beam - You mean small light blinks while pressing shutter button?

The reason I asked about Continuous/Single shooting mode and Continuous/Shoot only IS was if these things eats up battery more, I can turn to other mode.

I checked those modes today, and I don't see any difference between Continuous and Continuous AF.

@nac better keep it on shoot only IS to save battery...I think it will definitely eatup battery in continuous mode

Your cam is a simple one

...even continuous shoot with focus on DSLR is difficult...I think it can be done on a tripod using focus lock...dont know perfectly

So it does drains the battery if "Continuous IS" mode is ON. Thank you...

And did you mean "Continuous AF" would drain the battery faster?

1. Continuous AF - Here cameras keep on adjusting focus and exposure even when I am not shooting. Logically, it should eat up the battery.

2. Continuous - I don't know what's the difference between this and Continuous AF. I am guessing like this, it will shoot (and focus) continuously only when I press shutter button.

3. Standard Single Shot - I am not sure. Again I am guessing like this. Even If I keep the shutter button pressed, it won't shoot more than 1 snap.

I think I can use the 2nd option for regular use. If it is good to keep it in single shoot mode and turn to continuous/continuous AF when situation arises, I better set it in single shoot mode.

I am not getting a decent no. photos per recharge. So this clarification...

continuous AF means it will AF for everyshot u take in continuous mode
Continuous means it will focus once and take shot without autofocussing again
single means u will get only 1 shot per click even if u press the button longer

to save battery keep in single shot mode....and keep the IS in when shoot mode...it will work like any normal cam and u will get more battery life

Kindly advise....

Hi!

Good to see the extensive research you have done. I have also done a simillar research for the past one month and have zeroed in on canon sx130 IS. Just came across your post saying you have already bought the camera.

How is the camera sx130. Performance and ease of use especially the battery life which has got a lot of flak from users. For how much did you get it.
Also which battery, chargers are you using. (also cost of them)

Can you advise me on wether i can go ahead and buy the SX130?

Thanks in advance!!!

skr - I have replied in the other thread.

Sujoy - Okie, I'll turn off continuous (both IS and AF). I was thinking for asking this before, some how missed. Surprisingly I didn't get time to take photos. I was little busy watching movies today. I have watched two, THE BLIND SIDE and ALONG CAME POLLY. First one was very good...

Did you see "the stork photo"? 1st photo in this post
*www.thinkdigit.com/forum/cameras-camcorders/118227-photography-thread-151.html#post1544127

Why grains? Any idea?

Enjoy watching movies

no problem

I saw the info in that stork pic...all look fine f5.6, 1/320s ISO 125.....did u cropped it too much?? did u applied sharpning??

Yeah, I cropped. What I have posted is a cropped one from 4000x3000 to 640x480.

It's faster to upload a smaller one.

I just checked sample photos of cameralabs. Theirs too have grains but little not this much. And I checked some of mine too. Those moon photos don't have any grains at all. May be it was just black to fill...

Is this because of photos were taken with handheld camera?

And NO I didn't apply sharpening.

Bro resizing and cropping is different

U cut a piece out of original pic means CROP
and u make 4000x3000 into 640x480 is resize

Yeah, it's different. And I did crop the picture.

Is this the reason for the grainy photo?

I am sure cropping is the reason

I upload my photos in imageshack. Sometimes there will be trouble uploading, in such case I have to upload one by one. So I was thinking of uploading in flickr.

Again today there was login issue in imageshack. I googled flickr, clicked the link to camera finder (little curious about to see images taken in SX130 IS

), selected Canon from the drop down box. Scrolled down to find SX130, I was stunned with the images taken from this camera.

IS THIS THE CAMERA I AM USING???

Wow!!! Pictures are awesome... Here are few links

*flic.kr/p/8XYbA5

*flic.kr/p/a4sGjB

*flic.kr/p/9XBSZA

*flic.kr/p/9SVoTE

*flic.kr/p/8Yu12p

*flic.kr/p/aSgVi6

When am I going to take like these???

it will take lot of learning to get superb results like those...

Its all about the photographers technique and not the gears

BTW you saw lots of pic today...did u checked the exif details...what was the setting used

if not then check again and try to use them on similar situation next time

To get a sharper image in low light, I need tripod. Actually, I don't want to have one. But thinking of getting a stand like tripod. Like this one...

*www.ebay.in/itm/270869823789?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Is this of any good? And how about left/right and up/down movement?
-------------------------------------------------------------------

I noticed that I was taking images of sunset/deep DOF at largest aperture. I know I should use smaller/est Av but didn't strike when I was taking photos.

And I also noticed that, the macros I take are lacking sharp focus on key areas like "eyes". But in fact, I keep the focus frame (square box) on the subject. Since the subject's total body itself fits less than the frame, I couldn't guess where should be the key areas in the frame.

How to get it done? Little help/suggestions would really be appreciated.

ok 1st is that little camera stand really useful....how r u planning to use it...if u have to keep the stand on flat surface y not keep the cam directly there

I dont think it can be moved left right or updown
If u want something branded like this then u will like gorillapod *www.smartshoppers.in/product/gorillapod-gp-1-flexible-tripod/
*www.smartshoppers.in/published/publicdata/SSLIVESSLIVE/attachments/SC/products_pictures/Gorillapod-GP-1_M.jpg

yes for sunset u can easily use f7.1-f8

When taking macros...if there is something like digital zoom in the cam then use it....just zoom in and check the eye focus then zoom out again

Re: The TDF bug reporting page

test post copied by ICO.

ICO,

Tried posting a new one, but it wasn't successful. So I am editing this post.

Edited one was successfully posted. But not the new one... I am again trying this new one to post

-----------
After successfully edited the test post, the last one was a new one and posted successfully. It got bumped with the edited one... Thank you ICO...

===========================================================

If it's not gonna tilt up and down or swing left and right, what's the use of this pocket tripod.

And the same model is priced much lower in ebay...

*www.ebay.in/itm/280796394872?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

And this one look like this can swing and tilt...

*www.ebay.in/itm/250964251316?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649

Closest possible focus in macro is 1cm. If I use the zoom from 1cm, I have to pull back the camera to get the right focus. Again the subject fits well inside the frame. It will be good if the camera has face detection here :rofl:

Is this possible to use digital zoom alone?

@nac what I suggested was a branded gorillapod and what u linked is a Chinese copy....not comparable

can u zoom in macro mode after getting soo close to insects??...I dont have that cam soo u have to find a way to that urself

Oh!!! It's a duplicate... :shock:

How in one of the largest online seller?

Yes, I can zoom in macro when I am so close. Okay... I figure out that.

This one looks like it swings left and right and can be tilted down and to tilt up we have to adjust the legs, I guess.
Mini Tripod

lol thats good for cams having weight under 300gm....dont even think of superzooms on that

SX130 IS is fine...

One of the user reviewed that it could withstand 1kg (Nikon D5100 + Tamron 18-250 mm)...

D5100+18-250

It dosnt look so

but anyways its a tabletop tripod

I have a little doubt about focal length. I googled but couldn't find an answer.

There are two cameras A and B.
A's lens range is 24mm-100mm
B's lens range is 28mm-120mm

Sure there will be a good difference at wide angle as A is wider than B. So it would cover more than B. And sure B go closer than A as it's focal length is higher at telephoto. But my doubt is...
Will both camera cover the same area at 100mm? or
A will cover more as it is wider?
It may seems silly, but I would like to clear it. I can understand, it's wide at wide angle how come it will be wide at telephoto. But still...

nac said:
I have a little doubt about focal length. I googled but couldn't find an answer.

There are two cameras A and B.
A's lens range is 24mm-100mm
B's lens range is 28mm-120mm

Sure there will be a good difference at wide angle as A is wider than B. So it would cover more than B. And sure B go closer than A as it's focal length is higher at telephoto. But my doubt is...
Will both camera cover the same area at 100mm? or
A will cover more as it is wider?
It may seems silly, but I would like to clear it. I can understand, it's wide at wide angle how come it will be wide at telephoto. But still...

The widest A can go is 24mm and the widest B can go is 28mm.

At 28mm to 100mm both has the same FOV (other than some minor construction/calibaration differences, if any).

At each focal length (assuming the sensor size is same) the FOV will be same

But do remember this may be true in P&S coz of similar sensor size 1/2.3" but not in DSLRs

Thanks Binarycodes and Sujoy.

So if the sensor size differs FOV will also differ. I understand bigger the sensor more the coverage.

So if the sensor size differs FOV will also differ. I understand bigger the sensor more the coverage.

correct

New found...

Use tungsten (white balance) when you shoot sky (in a day light) or something blue. It gives a nice blue colour. But just remember it makes blue, bluer and other colour gets blue tint a little. Just I am posting couple of shots to see the difference. Check it guys...

*img204.imageshack.us/img204/5051/img5313c.jpg

*img845.imageshack.us/img845/2461/img5314h.jpg

good find nac

Soumik said:
Nice pics.

I need advice on shooting photos. I have an EPM1, and i have a problem like... when i would go to some party and take pics, it focuses on the nearest faces and blurs out the ones a bit far. How do i get all of them into focus?? Kinda bummer for a party pic.
Also, for low light, the shutter speed becomes too low. A normal PnS camera can shoot a pic with no shake at all, while, i have to make sure no one is moving while i take the pic.. else it gets blurry.
recently i went to a butterfly park, and in all the pics, the wings were blurry. While same place i had been with a Panasonic PnS, the wings were very clear. Why is the default shutter speed so low?

And if i increase the shutter speed, the pics become completely dark.

what mistake am i doing? Anyone with a good point and shoot cam may take better pics than me handling this epm1 .

If you want everything in focus, set smaller/est Av. It's nice to have the focus on the subject and blur everything else.

Your cam has bigger sensor, so it should be better than PnS in low light. I don't know... Whether your PnS increase ISO while you kept at low sensitivity in your EPM.

Using one or all of the following will help you increase shutter speed
* Using larger/est Av
* Increasing ISO (higher will result in some noisy picture)
* Using negative exposure
* Using flash

For static subject, you can longer exposure. For that use tripod or some flat surface like table or something...

@nac WOW! thanks a lot for that

Got so excited that I took four shots to see effects-

1) This is the original scene, to be used for reference

*i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u442/thetechfreak/Photography%20Experiments/IMG_2074.jpg

2) With the Tungsten effect

*i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u442/thetechfreak/Photography%20Experiments/IMG_2075.jpg

Great Blue colour. a bit too blue at some places

3)White "Tubelight" effect

*i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u442/thetechfreak/Photography%20Experiments/IMG_2076.jpg

4) Shady Effect

*i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u442/thetechfreak/Photography%20Experiments/IMG_2079.jpg

Surprisingly same like the first one.

^ Yeah, its getting blue tint. So its better to use when we need the scene to be blue.

@Nac - Thanks. Its good to have the effect of background blurring, but not always. Its good for portraits and some fancy photography. But in a team parties, you want to capture all the people.. not capture the nearest one and blur out the rest. It kinda spoils the mood.

Thanks for the tips... i try them out in my room. This is.. in Shutter priority mode, if i increase the shutter speed, it just gets very dark.

And my auto mode seems to be completely auto..

I mean no iso settings in there.. gotta read the manual properly!

For the butterfly pics i was talking abt.. :
P and S- (pic quality not good, but no blur in wings)
*www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150690541855005&set=a.10150690521845005.696463.623935004&type=3
EPM1- (heavily edited to hide the bur of wings)
*www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151829675610005&set=a.10151829663315005.858114.623935004&type=3

Let me know if you cant access the pics.. will upload in tiny pic and post

Yeah, sometimes we want narrow depth of field and sometimes don't.

No, that's in Aperture priority mode and yes, we can't adjust ISO in Auto mode.

Probably when you shoot that butterfly using PnS, wings wasn't moving. Just saying...

But try that things to increase shutter speed when you're in aperture priority mode.

Just a sample

Largest Av (f/3.4 in my cam) blurs the background and keeps the subject (battery) in focus
*img577.imageshack.us/img577/385/img5512dh.jpg

Smallest Av (f/8 in my cam) everything is in focus (decent)
*img405.imageshack.us/img405/7972/img5513b.jpg

thanks... was able to keep maximum in focus by increasing the aperture..
But in low light... the shutter speed keeps decreasing too much. Sometimes it going down to 5 seconds!
F22 - *i46.tinypic.com/7u2q.jpg

F3.5 - *i45.tinypic.com/10fw1vo.jpg

See how the F22 image has shake and higher brightness due to longer exposure (6 sec.. compared to 1/13th sec )!

But it worked out great for outdoors... Not very bright.. but enough to get small enough shutter speeds both times

(1/60 and 1/3200 respectively)

F22 - *i46.tinypic.com/2870yh0.jpg

F 3.5 - *i45.tinypic.com/furqdl.jpg

The background tank is a lot more in focus in the high aperture pic than the one in low aperture.

F22 -

Yes, as you increase the aperture value, you're decreasing the window size which lets the light pass through the lens to the sensor. Smaller the window, deeper the depth of field and increase in exposure time (i.e, needs more time to pass enough light through the small window).

Smaller the aperture no. (larger aperture), more light can pass through and shutter speed will be higher and DOF will be narrow.
Larger the aperture no. (smaller aperture), little light can pass through and shutter speed will be longer and DOF will be deeper.

Thanks for the information...
Can you also briefly tell me how is ISO related to this? What does that technically do?

Soumik said:
Thanks for the information...
Can you also briefly tell me how is ISO related to this? What does that technically do?

ISO refers to sensitivity of sensor. Usually cameras have ISO ranging from 100-6400. Upper limit may be more. Increasing the ISO increases the sensitivity of sensor to light. It means the camera needs less light to capture the shot with proper exposure.

ISO can be used to increase the shutter speed (as less light is needed at higher ISO) A shot at ISO 100 in dimly lit condition will be blurry as it will need 1 second or more exposure. However the same shot at ISO 1600 will be perfect because of higher shutter speed.

The first shot you did with f22 was blurry. You can use ISO 800 or 1600 in these conditions for faster shutter speed.

Another use is capturing in low light without flash.

The important thing abut ISO is as you increase ISO, NOISE INCREASES too. Point and shoots tend to become very noisy above ISO 800. But your camera can shoot perfectly usable images at ISO 1600 IMO.

QUESTION

What is the use of different light metering settings : Evaluative, Center Weighted and Spot?

What is the use of different light metering settings : Evaluative, Center Weighted and Spot?

its very easy actually ...it works like its name

Evaluative - it will calculate an average light in the frame...and make the picture brightness according to that.

Center - it will check the brightness of only the center area of the picture and decide the overall exposure or brightness/dulness of the picture

Spot - spot checks the exposure of the point on which u will point it...it will expose the picture according to that...example if u spot at moon the camera will think the sky is very bright and try to darken it....but if u spot on sky the cam will think its too dark and will brighten the picture and overexpose the moon

@sujoyp thanks for the explanation. I still cannot figure out the use. I use full manual mode while shooting so exposure depends on f-number and aperture value right?

u may have heard of words like details washed out due to overexposure or sky became colorless or bird is clean but sky is white....these r all due to wrong exposure settings

try taking pic of sea using spot metering ...it will say the sea is too bright and make the overall pic dull

similarly try totake a pic of flower using evaluative metering it will overexpose the flower

^ Thanks for the explanation

it comes with practice...but I can give some straight examples

Bird - spot
landscapes - evaluative
family - center or evaluative
bugs - spot
sports - spot
moon - spot
portrait - spot or center
flower - spot or center

One more question

Is it possible to do a bokeh with my camera - SX240HS ? By bokeh I mean the light circles in background. I tried some and could not get it properly. I was trying with the small Diwali lights.

The problem was ... light circles were very small
They were round not hexagonal
The edges were bleeding with light (not shart as if light was leaking) so I adjusted aperture/shutter and when edges got perfect, center was gone.

What are the best settings to do bokeh. What kinds of light give the best bokeh

If u want bokeh like this pic

[url=*www.flickr.com/photos/34748095@N07/6920706685/][img]*farm8.staticflickr.com/7064/6920706685_0bfa1537ba_z.jpg[/url] Cup of Love by sujoyp, on Flickr[/IMG]

u need to keep the subject close and light at least 4 meters away from it (behind) ....also keep the focus close as possible so that the lights becomes totally out of focus ....
better 1st make lights out of focus then keep the subject to closest focus...that will do it

Compact may not get bokeh as good as DSLR but we can get a decent one from it...

In SX240
Priority mode: Av
Av: f/3.5
Subject distance: 5cms (closest); You can relax this if you can't frame the subject in this distance.
Lights: Well behind the subject (I tried only once. When I tried, I put the light about 16ft behind the subject).

nac 16 feet is subjective....basically set the light to a distance soo that the light becomes totally out of focus....then keep the subject according to that

I can make the light out of focus but cannot get the bokeh circles big enough due to distance.

Sujoy I had seen your cup shot few days ago. I tried to do it but lights look too small. *farm6.staticflickr.com/5151/7415103466_04249a48f7_z.jpg

just try again...follow the steps

1. Put the lights at least 10 feet away
2. Put ur camera to closest focus and check those lights...move forward and backward and see if size of bokeh changes

3. when satisfied...put the subject in front on a small table just in front and move the table back and forth to set the focus on the subject

I took my pic this way...try it

Seems you need to put the lights even farther...

Sujoy, That's an example. Since that was shot indoor, that's the farthest I could put the lights. )

marvelousprashant said:
I can make the light out of focus but cannot get the bokeh circles big enough due to distance.

Sujoy I had seen your cup shot few days ago. I tried to do it but lights look too small. *farm6.staticflickr.com/5151/7415103466_04249a48f7_z.jpg

OMG! how did you do this?

@nac even I have shot mine in a 8X7 feet room...not big enough

what i told you is the exactly I did..

guys a quick question. there are quite a photos I see that light is just splitting through the clouds and we can see beatiful rays(not one or two but whole stream of)

so how do we take those

?

1st the scene should be there actually...mostly u will find it in early morning or before sunset in rainy season

keep evaluative metering and use f7 and if needed put negative exposure

thetechfreak said:
guys a quick question. there are quite a photos I see that light is just splitting through the clouds and we can see beatiful rays(not one or two but whole stream of)

so how do we take those ?

Pretty easy. The effect is similar to seeing rays of light close to window in dimly lit room - known as tyndall effect. Use faster shutter and/or lower aperture and adjust it till you get the desired shot... If your camera does not have these settings use a lower exposure compensation

@serpent It is lights we use in diwali that are in background and blurred because i focused on cup

thetechfreak said:
guys a quick question. there are quite a photos I see that light is just splitting through the clouds and we can see beatiful rays(not one or two but whole stream of)

so how do we take those ?

Are you referring the pics taken by me in "Mobile photography thread"?

Well, I just happen to look at sky most of the time, and got quite lucky to find many scenery when there are clouds in the sky.

Monsoon is about to come. I guess you will have many opportunities to find such scenery. Just keep your eyes up!

Nikon G lenses don't have aperture ring. It's not a good thing, I read. And all the DX format lenses are Gelded. Then how come you are controlling aperture?

Fine, you are using DSLR so you can change Av in your camera. DX lenses can be mounted on Full frame cameras, I read. Here how the film camera owners can set Av in their camera?

Canon lenses both EF and EF-S don't have aperture ring (correct me if I am wrong). EF-S is only for APS-C equipped Canon DSLR, fine. How the film camera owners can use (I mean set Av) EF lenses in their camera?

It seems like no Canon lenses have had aperture ring (correct me if I am wrong). How Canon film camera did control aperture?

ok nac some nice questions

1. yes nikon G lenses dont have an aperture ring...but we dont need aperture ring in zoom lenses including 11-16 to 200-400 .....aperture control is more often used in prime lenses like 50mm and 600mm so that we can use old teleconvertors or extension tubes with that.
also i dont see any use of aperture ring in day to day usage.
yes in film days the camera used to change aperture using an aperture liver and not electronically soo maybe they need it more.

its not just case of DX or FX lenses...I think a 50mm 1.8 G AFS is a full frame lens with G

2. u r right about canonn that most dont have aperture ring...but i think some EF lenses may have it in those times...also canon had a different mount in those film days called FD mount...which they totally scrapped when they came to digital world...it was a blunder by canon i would say

u can still use canon FD lenses using adapters if u want..

I hope most of ur queries r clear...

Does sx150 have manual zoom?

Sujoy,
Thanks... Yeah as of Canon, my queries are almost clear.

But not all FX lenses are gelded. Roughly 1/3rd of the FX lenses are gelded.

Since film cameras can use DX lenses and FX lenses, how they control aperture setting when using G lenses?
I guess, either the camera should have some controls in the body to set aperture or they can't control aperture at all like they can't use Auto Focus feature even if the lens have focus motor.

Canon have listed 60+ lenses in their site. None of them having aperture ring.

But can started making EF lenses since late 80s. So they should have making lenses with aperture ring then.

Serpent,
No camera has auto zoom. I think you are talking about focus... Yes, SX150 have manual focus.

For you information, only two models have manual focus (MF) under 10k.

btw it just came to my mind that aperture is stillcontrolled by lever and not electronically ....every lens have a machanical lever....maybe thats the reason old camers can use aperture,,,,,they just have to pull the aperture lever using some mechanical jack

*www.phototestcenter.com/assets/images/autogen/a_Nikon_18-55_2_Web_Size.jpg

look there a aperture lever on left side

You mean something like screwdriver???

I don't know where exactly. As this is DX lens, it should be G lens.

As I see some of the Nikon lenses, aperture ring is placed as the first ring (from the body). Like this one...
*img833.imageshack.us/img833/2605/nikkorlens.jpg

The image you posted, the lens connecting side (to the camera body) is at the top and I don't see any aperture ring there.

I read, FSLR can't control aperture of DX lenses (there may be some exception, I don't know). They can with adapters, but again have to be crude to set Av. So I think it's better to use non G lenses for those cameras rather than having tug of war with the lens.

nac I was showing you the aperture lever which is at the top....at 10:00 of clock

what the film slr cn do is pull the lever as per the requirement....if we pull the lever with handswe can see the full pull will open the whole aperture

yes the aperture ring is there near the mount....but i dont see any use of aperture ring now other than reversing it or use ET for macro (that too is difficult i have tried)

dx lens vigneete badly on fx dslrs so its said to use fx lenses on it ....also fx lenses r costlier

lets take an example u buy a 24-120 fx lens for maybe 40k or a similar focal length 18-105 for 14k

If one have never seen a mango before, it's little hard to show him the mango in a photograph. The same here with aperture lever for me...

Since I have never seen it before, even when you say 10 O'clock I am seeing similar thingy like the one in the 2 O'clock.

I guess these images will people like me :noob:

understand about the placement of aperture lever.

*img827.imageshack.us/img827/5862/20ais28rearconv.jpg

*img853.imageshack.us/img853/7823/49926490108facb9498o.jpg

Thanks Sujoy...

he he he yeh right...the 1st pic of a nikon AIS lens which can be recognised by meter coupeling shoe...and now you know the lever too, the step down lever

Little weird question this time...

I have loaded CHDK in my camera. RAW doesn't seems to be impressive. I don't know how cameras (which have this feature) produce RAW image, but this CHDK RAW is like a dump. Not actually a proper RAW image which we get from cameras which can take RAW image. I heard so high of RAW images, but with CHDK RAW it doesn't seems so.

Am I missing something here? Using wrong setting or something...

What are the factors to be considered while taking RAW files for getting a quality one? (other than faster memory card)

@nac

There is nothing like good quality RAW

A raw image contains loads of information ( leading to large size )
I have edited some raw images from DSLRs and they contained lots of shadow details. A part of image that was completely black due to shadow yielded lots of details without any color loss or noise when I overexposed that part,

Another RAW image of the moon looked ordinary but responded vwry well to increase in sharpness.

From what I have experienced - when I increase sharpness in JPEGs the image becomes noisy hence only fine adjustments can be done. Same with exposure. Underexposed dark areas in JPEGs often become purple (color loss) and noisy on overexposing.

In RAW I could increase the sharpness to much greater levels before noise started appearing.

marvelousprashant said:
There is nothing like good quality RAW

So we can conclude as this is the ability of CHDK in SX130 and rather than wasting resources shooting RAW we can just stick with jpeg, right?

marvelousprashant said:
A raw image contains loads of information ( leading to large size )
I have edited some raw images from DSLRs and they contained lots of shadow details. A part of image that was completely black due to shadow yielded lots of details without any color loss or noise when I overexposed that part,

Another RAW image of the moon looked ordinary but responded vwry well to increase in sharpness.

From what I have experienced - when I increase sharpness in JPEGs the image becomes noisy hence only fine adjustments can be done. Same with exposure. Underexposed dark areas in JPEGs often become purple (color loss) and noisy on overexposing.

In RAW I could increase the sharpness to much greater levels before noise started appearing.

You are talking about RAW and jpeg from the same or similar camera, right? Coz you shouldn't compare RAW from DSLR and jpeg from compact.

nac said:
So we can conclude as this is the ability of CHDK in SX130 and rather than wasting resources shooting RAW we can just stick with jpeg, right?

No. I think you should shoot more before arriving to this conclusion. RAW shooting can be painful at times though. But CHDK forum users say they do get better quality images.

You are talking about RAW and jpeg from the same or similar camera, right? Coz you shouldn't compare RAW from DSLR and jpeg from compact.

I am talking about RAW and JPEG from same camera under same setting. both from SLR

Ok then... For time being I am turning off RAW shooting. I'll turn on when I am little more convinced that CHDK RAW of SX130 is reasonably better than jpeg.

And Thank you...

I never shoot in RAW ...its a real pain ....when u take pic in RAW it dont apply any of the software features inbuilt in camera like noise reduction, exposure, sharpness, contrast etc..

if somehow u r planning to shoot in RAW and just converting it into jpeg without any processing then you r wasting your time with RAW...u have to apply all the desired settings to get the effect

Sujoy, But this CHDK RAW doesn't seems to be capable enough to get desired/better effect than jpeg.

Distortion and noise reduction - Both these are done faster and better in the camera than the software in my PC.
And right from WB everything have to be done in the PC for every RAW. Batch processing will reduce time. But for that we need to know the effective settings to correct the wrongs and enhance the RAWs better than jpeg.

Fill flash:

When I was reading about "How to do this perfectly with compact cameras?" I came across this and I didn't understand "setting flash exposure down (in numbers) one f-stop" than Av.

Is it setting flash exposure compensation down to -1???

yes there is flash compensation for inbuilt flash....donno if u have it or not but my DSLR have it...

Yeah, SX130 has that option. I was confused with "f-stops" in flash exposure. Now it's clear... Thank you...

how to take such pic with canon sx 150 ?

*farm2.staticflickr.com/1395/1485167355_8a1031b7d0.jpg
Rain Drop by John Watters, on Flickr

*www.rachel-rose-portrait-photography.co.uk/_images/impacts/People-Portrait-Photographer-Rachel-Rose-UK-1.jpg

*www.digitalpicturezone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bokeh-photography-25.jpg

*www.digitalpicturezone.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/bokeh-photography-19.jpg

*net.onextrapixel.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/rain39.jpg

*farm4.staticflickr.com/3177/3024953945_ed49358018_b.jpg

*www.forwardedemails.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/amazing-photography-29.jpg

@nac: Dude, does the CHDK work well for the sx130? Coz, i am about to try it on mine

Any precautions to take?

@kool
1st image is very easy. Find a wire with rain drops hanging. Move the camera as close as you can (macro range at widest angle) and the background will automatically blurred/ reflected in drops

2nd image Find a blonde girl in a garden on sunny day. Keep the girl a 50cm and trees/shrubs around 4m. You will get some background blur commonly known. Those circles are light coming through tree leaves

3rd image Go to a place with lots of traffic with a bicycle. Park the bicycle on pavement and use macro mode to focus on the bell. the background blur/circles are headlights/streetlights.
#Pro Tip : Stand under streetlight as you wont be using flash

4th image Ask someone to stand in the middle of the road with a cell phone in hand. Rest is same. Focus on the guy and background will be blured

5th image : Fly to HongKong. Your camera needs exposure bracketing (CHDK provides that) and a tripod. Take 5 images at -2,-1,0,1,2 exposures. Use Photomatrix to merge them.

6th image : Find a guy with still hands. Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed" and John Watson in Sherlock are the two guys whose hands don't move. If you don't find them or are on a low budget find any guy to hold a forcep. Use diwali lights in background for bokeh. Use burst mode or take many shots until you succeed

7th : Find a girl and convince her to go to Sahara Desert, Egypt in a SUV. Park the SUV somewhere and walk 10-20m away. Then ask her to bend and open her mouth. Frame your shot. The farther the object, the smaller it appears. Technically this is the easiest shot of all

Still reading? Those background circles are blurred lights coming from various sources. For experimenting, use any light source like bulbs or street lights. In manual focus, set focus to closest (~5cm) and background lights will be blurred. Once you know how to do this... you can use this funda in various settings. Some of the above shots may be impossible to replicate but you can do other interesting and creative bokeh shots

@marvelousprashant Great answers

M

nac said:
Little weird question this time...

I have loaded CHDK in my camera. RAW doesn't seems to be impressive. I don't know how cameras (which have this feature) produce RAW image, but this CHDK RAW is like a dump. Not actually a proper RAW image which we get from cameras which can take RAW image. I heard so high of RAW images, but with CHDK RAW it doesn't seems so.

Am I missing something here? Using wrong setting or something...

What are the factors to be considered while taking RAW files for getting a quality one? (other than faster memory card)

RAW images have more information ..If you shot your photo in jpeg you will get images processed by your camera image processing s/w with sharpening and other corrections..so by default jpeg will look better than RAW..

RAW is unprocessed image..you have to work on them to make them look better than jpeg...thats why many professionals like them because they dont want to loose any information and want to process these images..many professionals think that jpeg is good enough and dont shoot in RAW (like Ken Rockwell)..
if you want to process images yourself in photoshop/GIMP/lightroom you can shoot in RAW..but in general they will not come out looking great without any processing..

marvelousprashant said:
Find a blonde girl in a garden on sunny day.

Ask someone to stand in the middle of the road with a cell phone in hand.

Fly to HongKong.

Find a guy with still hands. Leonardo DiCaprio in "The Departed" and John Watson in Sherlock are the two guys whose hands don't move. If you don't find them or are on a low budget find any guy to hold a forcep.

Find a girl and convince her to go to Sahara Desert,

marvelousprashant said:
Still reading?

You bet...

Mastervk, Thank you... The thing, is even after processing, jpeg seems to be better. Working on RAW images take time to get a desired result while the same is done (jpeg) by the camera very quickly.

Anish,
It's still in beta stage. Don't try features which are giving errors and crash. I haven't used much, so I can't say a lot about CHDK.

marvelousprashant said:
@kool

Still reading? Those background circles are blurred lights coming from various sources. For experimenting, use any light source like bulbs or street lights. In manual focus, set focus to closest (~5cm) and background lights will be blurred. Once you know how to do this... you can use this funda in various settings. Some of the above shots may be impossible to replicate but you can do other interesting and creative bokeh shots

thanx

now i understand the importance of manual settings. But wanted to learn AV/TV/ISO mode, which still don't know how to use combining all these 3.

ISO mode??? u mean use of aperture,shutter speed and ISO togather

The most simple wayy to learn is to read the basic in books and then just test and test...play with settings...u will learn soon

initially i used to take pic in automode and then check its exif settings to understand how much of these 3 r needed in what conditions

kool said:
thanx now i understand the importance of manual settings. But wanted to learn AV/TV/ISO mode, which still don't know how to use combining all these 3.

digital photography school provides a good explanation of these things about cameras.
here: www.digital-photography-school.com

M

nac said:
Mastervk, Thank you... The thing, is even after processing, jpeg seems to be better. Working on RAW images take time to get a desired result while the same is done (jpeg) by the camera very quickly.

It all depends on your processing skills..You can process jpegs also and it will look good to you most probably..those who shoot in RAW dont want to loose any information before processing..also its easy to change white balance and expose in RAW..

i shoot in RAW because i have 16 GB card so space is not a problem( 1 RAW = 24 MB for my DSLR) and many times i want to process image myself...sometimes when i am nearly out of space or i am shooting lots of pics and i know that i will not be able to process all of them i might shoot jpeg..

mastervk said:
It all depends on your processing skills..

That's true.

Can you tell me how to process RAW to get much better than jpeg.

A

^
Even I am very interested to know that..
Seems damn interesting.

Plz oblige

M

nac said:
That's true.

Can you tell me how to process RAW to get much better than jpeg.

I dont have good processing skills..maybe some other member who has worked more on PS/LR can explain the process better..

i generally import the photos in Lightroom,apply tag..rate them and delete bad pics..then select individual pics and change WB/exposure etc if required..sometimes i apply BW filter or any other effect..in case of pic with lots of noise run noise removal program..apply sharpening and then export the pics in high quality jpeg format...

A new find...

I don't know how many of us know aperture size of compact is not equal to full frame camera's. I have heard about it before and didn't mind much until rhitwick raised :?:

Thanks for that rhitwick. We always see focal length of compact in 35mm equivalent like 28-336 for SX130 (which is actually 5-60) but not aperture in 35mm equivalent. Relative aperture value is same but focal length of compacts are low. That means true aperture is small. Aperture value of compact camera (SX130) f/3.4 is equal to f/19 in full frame camera. This is the largest aperture in SX130, and it has an infinity DOF when focusing little above 2 feet.

In general, even DSLR users don't use beyond f/22 or not recommended to use as it gives soft images. Guess how the image will be when you use f/8 in compact (it's equal to f/45 in full frame).

So what's my point here??? Even at the largest aperture, compact camera have more DOF than full frame. Using smaller Av in compact camera will give you softer image. Don't push to smaller aperture as it won't give you sharper image. Try to stay around f/3.4 or larger.

Compact cameras don't have much control over shallow focus but deep focus. Now we know why compact cameras don't produce bokeh as good as DSLR. Even the largest available f.no for compact is f/1.8, i.e., f/10 in full frame camera.

@nac I agree with the focal length thing ...but totally disagree with the aperture thing...please provide me a source which tells this theory..
Also the idle aperture is said to be 2 stops below the largest aperture thats like for 50mm 1.8 its f4 or for a 70-200 2.8 its f5.6
idle in the sense of sharpest and most used....but its just theory

f8 or compact = f45 of full frame is just an impossible theory

It seems to be a possible one.

I thought of going in detail which I didn't understand fully at the first place. Like yours have crop factor of 1.5x, ours got a crop factor of 5.6x. And the numbers I said was my calculations based on the things I read. If there is any wrong in it, that's me. But I don't think there is any...

I have read it from many sites. I don't have the address for all of 'em. Here are some of them...

DOF

Quoting Wiki

In many cases, the DOF is fixed by the requirements of the desired image. For a given DOF and field of view, the required f-number is proportional to the format size. For example, if a 35 mm camera required f/11, a 4×5 camera would require f/45 to give the same DOF.

I didn't know what is 4x5 camera when I was researching before buying my first cam. It is a bigger format camera (4 times bigger) than full frame.

DSLR vs COMPACT - BOKEH

APERTURE: DSLR vs COMPACT

APERTURE RANGE OF COMPACTS

WIDE AV RANGE IN COMPACTS?

DOF TESTING

XZ-1 vs DSLR

APERTURE SETTINGS ON COMPACT vs DSLR

There may not be the exact things I talked about in all the links. But there should be some bits and pieces.

The bigger sensor then full frame is called medium format...

I read all those article and there is no formula ...there are only relative estimation like an f11 at 50mm lens@apsc sensor = f3.3 @S90 p&S

these r just result of some experiment and no science behind it. they estimated this using the background blurring and light in the picture.

like i told you f8 on compact = f45 of full frame is just an impossible theory thats coz f45 will be soo small aperture that even in daylight u may not be able to take pics, but thats not case with a f8 of a compact cam

Hmmm....

I don't have the equipments to try that... But you do... You can try and share the result with us.

Stick to the same focal length in 35mm equivalent. I guess you no need a table for this.

Try the following Av where both the cameras have them or close to that.

T100 - Av D3100 - Av
3.5 13.8173
3.6 14.21208
3.7 14.60686
3.8 15.00164
3.9 15.39642
4 15.7912
4.1 16.18598
4.2 16.58076
4.3 16.97554
4.4 17.37032

Use whatever things are necessary to maintain a similar result like using tripod etc...

I took shots with Image stabilization on and off and IS really improves the quality by reducing blur. Unusual and stupid question but why is there an option to turn it off ??

If i use a tripod then IS is not needed . Will switching off IS impact image quality in that case ?

I have read in many places, that we should turn off IS when we use tripod. If you leave the IS turned ON when camera is on the tripod, camera tends to look for movements and would give you some blur in your image. But I have never turned OFF IS even when I left my camera in stable flat surface to take the image. I don't know how the image would have come out if I turned OFF.

IS should be turned off coz to resist hand vibration it moves itself a bit...i mean maybe it vibrates itself a bit...when placed on tripod it will give u some slight vibration in the pic...also IS takes time to get engaged and it makes it slower to take shots

M

marvelousprashant said:
I took shots with Image stabilization on and off and IS really improves the quality by reducing blur. Unusual and stupid question but why is there an option to turn it off ??

If i use a tripod then IS is not needed . Will switching off IS impact image quality in that case ?

some people like to turn IS off while using tripod..they think using IS on tripod might affect image quality..i have read many articles on IS and based on them even if you keep it on ,IS will not affect the quality...
i think some lens will detect if they are mounted on tripod and will not us IS...

IS definitely slow down the whole pic taking process...if u r shooting above 1/800 then its better to stop IS..

when taking a pic after u set the focus u engage the IS and then u shoot...if IS is not there u can just focus and shoot

but in low light IS definitely helps a lot

Do you guys have any idea about this???

Sensor 1/2.3" = It should be 0.43" sensor
But 6.17x4.55 (dimension of 1/2.3" sensor) gives us 0.3" sensor.

How they call a .3" sensor as 1/2.3"?

Found the answer...

Quoting dpreview

Sensors are often referred to with a "type" designation using imperial fractions such as 1/1.8" or 2/3" which are larger than the actual sensor diameters. The type designation harks back to a set of standard sizes given to TV camera tubes in the 50's. These sizes were typically 1/2", 2/3" etc. The size designation does not define the diagonal of the sensor area but rather the outer diameter of the long glass envelope of the tube. Engineers soon discovered that for various reasons the usable area of this imaging plane was approximately two thirds of the designated size. This designation has clearly stuck (although it should have been thrown out long ago). There appears to be no specific mathematical relationship between the diameter of the imaging circle and the sensor size, although it is always roughly two thirds.

good find nac

A doubt regarding shutter speed.

Two different format cameras (say 4/3 and 35mm camera).
4/3's crop factors is 2.
We shoot the same subject from same distance using Aperture priority mode. Same settings in both the cameras. (say f/3.5, ISO 100)
As f/3.5 is lets more light in 35mm format camera than the 4/3s, does it shoot the subject one stop faster than the 4/3s?
For eg: If 4/3s requires 1/30 sec, 35mm will do the same at 1/60 sec?

bro as long as i know aperture value is not dependent on any format..and light intake will be same on 4/3 or apsc or full frame 35mm

A lens with 1.8 aperture will have same 1.8 everywhere.....the difference is sensor size

a bigger sensor will take more light...the smaller sensors may be have smaller surface for the light (i am talking all unscientifically)

soo as the bigger sensor have more light on its surface it may be slightly better at same aperture value...more light = faster shutter at same aperture

bro as long as i know aperture value is not dependent on any format..and light intake will be same on 4/3 or apsc or full frame 35mm

A lens with 1.8 aperture will have same 1.8 everywhere.....the difference is sensor size

a bigger sensor will take more light...the smaller sensors may be have smaller surface for the light (i am talking all unscientifically)

soo as the bigger sensor have more light on its surface it may be slightly better at same aperture value...more light = faster shutter at same aperture

^ Okie... What's the conclusion?

Whether full frame camera shoot at faster shutter speed or the same shutter speed for both the formats?

About that crop factor/aperture thing...
I will understand that the said thing (from the websites I read about those crop factor/aperture) when I have equipments to test them or when you show the results with your gears

Coz, they have said it so convincing which I can't take it as some wrong information.

conclusion - bigger sensor=more area=take more light=faster shutter speed at similar aperture=better low light

u can do it now itself

take nikon
P100 with max aperture of 2.8 ....do you think it can be compared to a DSLR with lens of 2.8 ....no ...just coz the sensor is soo small ...it will not be able to utilise that much light
Also even if u put same lens on both ...the lens will cover a bigger area and will need a bigger sensor soo ultimately the sensor will only capture a small part of data and light given by lens

*cdn.cambridgeincolour.com/images/tutorials/digital_sensor-sizes.png

*www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/digital-camera-sensor-size.htm

Thank you.

So it does shoots faster.

Now it's clear... So this is the reason why DSLR are more likely to burn its sensor than compact when shooting bright light.

A small point on that aperture thing.
Lets take your cam D3100 and a Full frame camera and a 24-85mm f/2.8 lens
Setting 50mm in the lens on D3100 gives focal length of 75mm (35mm equivalent)
Setting 75mm in the lens on Full frame gives focal length of 75mm (35mm equivalent)

We take camera's focal length, not the 35mm equivalent.

Now, what's that f/2.8 means?
It means that focal length/2.8 therefore,

D3100 opens 17.86mm wide aperture at f/2.8
Full frame camera opens 26.79mm wide aperture at f/2.8

Wider the aperture, narrower the DOF and smaller the aperture deeper the DOF. Thus this proves that crop factor thing.

So to achieve the same DOF by both the full frame and D3100, full frame has to use 1.5 times smaller aperture value of D3100 i.e., f/4.2 in full frame if D3100 uses f/2.8.

S

Sorry for butting in...

nac said:
... So this is the reason why DSLR are more likely to burn its sensor than compact when shooting bright light...

Burn its sensor means? Sensors aren't that easily flammable, unless you plan to shoot the sun flares storm all day long. Same goes for compacts, there are different passages for light, it gets deflected many a times thus its intensity is reduced a lot before the sensor actually grasps it and creates the impression using the color channel.
Or may be I couldn't get what are you trying to say? Pls explain!

Bigger Sensor = larger pixel size... Example a 16MP compact sensor has all 16 million pixels located in a tiny space while in a full frame DSLR that much area will have only say about 3million pixels. In both cameras same amount of light reaches per unit area but as lesser pixels use that amount of light in DSLRs, each pixel gets more light hence better low light performance.. However as per unit area of light and heat reaching the sensor is same... both compacts and DSLRs are equally prone to burns

@prashant u r absolutely correct...and more technically speaking

and nac the aperture remains 2.8 irrespective of camera...its a lens thing...light getting in also will be same through lens....

a 75mm will also be 75mm in both full frame and crop just that a crop can utilise only 1/1.5 *100= 66.6 % of the data provided by the lens...so it feels like its zoomed in.

and yes aperture value is the opening of the lens...and it really depends on the focal length...a lens like 300 f2.8 will have huge opening

see if i have answered all question of missed anything

Prashant,
Ok. But I have read, DSLRs are more prone to bust than compact.

Sujoy,
This nicely says that the theory is wrong. The guys who said (the theory) and you will have a nice debate in this topic if you guys meet in any forums

DSLR r more prone to dust coz we have to open the lens to change it...no other reason..
Do not open lens in dusty places specially in beaches...u will regret it for long

this will clear ur crop factor concept
*www.luminous-landscape.com/images4/scaly4.jpg

Suppose ur lens see the full round image...the 35mm camera will capture the blue rectangle area.....and the cropped sensor camera will capture the red rectangle area
Soo actually we r loosing our lens data in cropped sensor cams...35mm is just a standard to understad....they could also have taken medium format camera with double the sensor size

^
Yeah, I know this (luckily, not a confusing thing).

But the theory was about DOF in relation to aperture using two different format cameras. The theory seems to be true, but I am not sure. But what you said is really a nice point. When using FX format lens in both the cameras (say DX and FX), aperture size is not gonna differ we use the same lens. But the theory may be correct if the the cameras use their native format lenses. I mean DX camera use DX format lens and FX uses FX format lens.

I will have an opportunity to use both DSLR and compact. I will this thing then.

I just read another interesting thumb rule about aperture to share
a lens diameter = focal length/max aperture = diameter
a 50mm 1.8 have 50/1.8 = 27mm
300 f4 diameter of 300/4 = 75mm
55-200 f4-5.6 = 35mm
300 2.8 = 107mm

but i read that even if diameter is large the light comming inside will be same

Thats 50mm 2.8 will have same light comming in 300 2.8 coz of increase in focal length

the main difference between dx and fx lens is ...fx lens can fit dx perfectly....but dx lenses creates distortion and softness on the edges of pic on fx...but its still usable at center part

Recently, I had the opportunity to try DSLR (D90). But unfortunately, I didn't have enough time and neither there was enough battery to check out something I wanted (aperture/DOF)

All these times, I was thinking that APS-C sensor will have a better/faster shutter speed than compact (1/2.3") camera at a given lighting. But it seems like both the camera's shutter speed was almost same. Since it was the very first time I used a DSLR, I didn't know what was the base ISO I used. It showed L.1 or something like that.

And I thought the coverage area will be much more than compact, but again it wasn't. Both covers almost the same amount of area...

May be I will clear these things when I get the next opportunity. I don't know when thats gonna happen.

coverage area depends on lens. Real investment is lens. So when you are buying a lens, buy the one which will last you lifetime.

@nac both ur statement of shutter speed and angle of view is very subjective

A DSLR can go as fast as 1/8000s or mostly upto 1/4000s ....but u know that it have mechanical shutter which actually flips soo fast...in P&S there is no shutter...but everything digital...soo I think DSLR is more high tech

Also angle of view is totally lens dependent...u must have used a 18-105mm kit lens...but what if I get a 10mm lens ...p&S cant change lens

Faun said:
coverage area depends on lens.

But I thought different... May because of images like these...

*imageshack.us/a/img31/5312/cropcircled.jpg
*imageshack.us/a/img687/6360/35mmframecrops460px.jpg

sujoyp said:
Also angle of view is totally lens dependent...u must have used a 18-105mm kit lens...but what if I get a 10mm lens ...p&S cant change lens

No no... I am talking about at same focal length. I don't know why the coverage is same here, it's not at all logic. Much bigger sensor, bigger lens (circumference) shouldn't it cover more???

nac most p&S start with 4mm , a m4/3 start from 14mm a nikon 1 series start from 10mm and dslr kit lens start with 18mm a full frame start from 24mm

what I want to say is most of these lead to around 24-28mm coverage area as kit lens...thats almost same

M

@nac what those 2 images shows is if you use same lens on apsc and dslr how much area will be covered

^ Yeah, I understand the FOV will be same after trying my hands and what I thought was not correct.

Never thought of trying custom colour (image tone), but thinking of it. And finally tried, I am not that impressed with the tweaks... Any of you guys tried tweaking contrast, sharpness, saturation, skin tone, Red, blue, green... Any suggestion or the settings you used/using...

@nac you are specifically asking about SX150IS ,SX130 and SX160 or its a generic question??

Actually, I thought if my cam has that option every camera (at least camera with manual exposure control) would have them...

Yes, this option is in my camera and hopefully in SX150/SX160 as well.

I have tried sharpness,saturation and over all color tone in DSLR ....

Sharpness a notch up increases noise but in day time pic looks much better...actually manual setting is there to play

try it
Saturation has to be increased...default pic looks soo dull in my cam
color tone I set to vivid sometime and natural mostly ...normal is again very dull in my cam

Yeah, I tried it and it's not as good as the presets. May be I don't know the secret recipe...

I almost always use vivid.

using vivid always is not a good idea,....u will loose details due to that...the vivid color is to be used in case of landscape and bird,macro...but normal pics r better in natural....just I noticed this

^Oh! I didn't know that... I keep that in mind. I will post some of the pictures with the different settings... You guys may help me figure out these settings...

just put ur cam on a place and take the same shot with different settings...that will help to decide

Yeah, I will do that and post 'em here for your review...

I came here to ask a doubt, but I see my previous post...

I did try with presets and posted (forgot that I said I will post here) in photography thread. The butterfly/bee shots are some of them....

Ok... Here is what I came to this thread today.

I received one the photos I took a week ago with D90. :wow:

What a quality man... I was wondering why I am not getting sharp eye even when I tried to click eye alone (with my SX130). But with D90, I am seeing much cleaner, sharper eyes that too from a group photo.

Ok here is my doubt...
I checked the exif, I screwed up the metering settings. Spot metering for group photograph. First mistake...
I didn't get this... LIGHT SOURCE: SHUTTER PRIORITY; EXPOSURE PROGRAM: APERTURE PRIORITY.
I understand I was shooting in aperture priority but how the light source works here. Was there any setting I could have make it work with exposure program?

I actually didnt understand what u want to know but let me tell u a simple way

1. In shutter priority u set the shutter speed and through the meter of camera , camera decides what aperture to select...if the max aperture is reached then it will increase the ISO
2. In aperture priority u select the aperture and the camera meter decides how much shutter speed can be given ....but now the shutter speed can go down to such that u can not hand hold the shot

in dark places or indoors I usually use shutter priority and set it to 1/30-1/50 so that even if my ISO increases my shot do not get blurred.

now metering u know...spot,center and matrix

spot - it will check the light of a perticular spot only
center - it will check the lightning in the middle of the frame
matrix - it will take the whole frame into consideration and check the average light....this usually make the sky white

hope ur question is answered

sujoyp said:
hope ur question is answered

Actually NO

Sorry for making you confused...

I better post the EXIF for better understanding my query..
*img35.imageshack.us/img35/3415/54625648.jpg

I don't understand the one marked in RED. How I can control it?

hmmm never seen the exif in much detail...will tell u if i get any info about that

hey guys,.

I'm going GOA next week , want to know basic settings for best clicks for SX-150. Mainly i want to click : beach side pics, Portrait mode of my friend with focus on face only and blurred image of background.

Also tell me, how to take VIVID color of any pics? In my camera SUPER VIVID is only option. Is there any way to take VIVID only ?

some pics clicked by me

*sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/150750_10152566107830181_2047888856_n.jpg

*sphotos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/559791_10152566103290181_898046643_n.jpg

kool u r taking ur own pic that too in mirror

Actually I dont have SX150 soo cant help u in profiles...like beach,portrait,vivid etc

I can tell u ...just use portrait mode and zoom fully then take the shots of ur friends...it will make the background quit blurry..

A

can anyone tell me how to take HDR pics if the feature is not built in camera?
My Canon 600D does not have it.
But I find it essential when the background is very bright or backlit.

What I understand is I can use auto exposure bracketing to take the same shots in different exposures.
But, how do I combine those? Which software to use? Anything free available?

sujoyp said:
I actually didnt understand what u want to know but let me tell u a simple way

1. In shutter priority u set the shutter speed and through the meter of camera , camera decides what aperture to select...if the max aperture is reached then it will increase the ISO
2. In aperture priority u select the aperture and the camera meter decides how much shutter speed can be given ....but now the shutter speed can go down to such that u can not hand hold the shot

in dark places or indoors I usually use shutter priority and set it to 1/30-1/50 so that even if my ISO increases my shot do not get blurred.

now metering u know...spot,center and matrix

spot - it will check the light of a perticular spot only
center - it will check the lightning in the middle of the frame
matrix - it will take the whole frame into consideration and check the average light....this usually make the sky white

hope ur question is answered

Sujoy, in Canon 600D there are 4 metering modes -
Evaluative - same as matrix.
Partial - Not sure about this.
Center -
Spot -

@aadi u can use photomatrix or photoshop cs5 for HDR ...auto exposure bracketing is provided in DSLR for HDRs and not the HDR mode

and use the negative positive and none exposure as per need...dont always do -2,+2 and 0

Partial metering...hmm what does it do??

R

You can find basic info on the different metering modes for 600D here, with sample pics for evaluative vs. partial:

Choosing an Exposure Metering Mode on a Canon EOS Rebel T3 Series Camera - For Dummies

Basically, Partial metering measures 9% of viewfinder area while spot measures 4%

Thanks for the info @raja ... can we move the partial metering to different focus points or is it fixed on center 9% only....because already the center metering evaluate according to the center exposure

R

It is fixed on the central 9%. Only Evaluative Metering gives weight to the chosen AF point. Centre Weighted Average only gives additional weight to the centre, unlike Partial which is purely the 9% formed between the central AF points. This link

Canon DLC: Article: Quick Tip: Photographing Snow

provides a veiwfinder simulation tool which explains how each metering mode works (click on 'here are some of the common ones' to make it active). As can be seen, there is a very big difference in the area considered for metering between Centre Weighted Average and Partial.

When I was reading these topics (white balance and metering) I am little confused. I read the usage of grey/white card for manual white balance and exposure settings.

I understand that professionals use 18% grey card for exposure and there was no contrary in it when reading. But when I was reading about white balance, in one place the author said, using white card for custom white balance setting and in another they say, grey card for custom wb settings. I am confused here... For WB is it white or grey card??? If it's grey card, what's the percentage of the darkness of the grey card. In video, the said grey card and it isn't as dark as 18% grey card which they use for exposure. It almost looks like white (I would taken it as white, if they didn't say it grey)

As far as my camera is concern, user manual says point the camera to white and fill the frame to set custom WB.

I will try all those when I am serious enough...I know white balance is very important...a whitebalance turns yelloish,blueish and what not...but auto mode works 90% times

R

To the best of my understanding, white balance has to be set based on pure white. I would assume (need to verify) that the use of a grey card is to eliminate the problem of reflections from a pure white card. Wikipedia has some interesting points on spectral neutrality:

Gray card - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thank you guys...

I take it light at this point of time. I will try experiment what kind result I get from white and gray card and fix the one I see correct.

@nac how will u decide if the white you are using is 18% gray or 10% blue or pure white....a paper is never 100% white

^ That's a nice question

I would say white as white, gray as gray but I would never know or prove in terms of %. I have bunch of A4 sheets on my desk. Some of 'em are little bluish and some are little yellowish and some are whiter than the other two bunches. I will pick the whiter/est one here, it may not be the pure 100% white. But as of now this is the whitest white I have.

he he he thats good

I am sure it will be 8% grayish blue

Thinking of making a grey card on my own. Just would like to know what kind of result if I print 18% grey in B&W printer. Will I get a grey??? or black? If I get, then I should think of getting it printed from a colour printer.

ok then go to the market and find the brightest white sheet...and print it with gray

Thank you... But can I print it from B&W printer or should opt for a colour printer?

Long back I was talking about equivalent aperture compact camera vs dslr... Here is an article discussing the same... In my camera @ wide open (f/3.4), the aperture is equivalent to f/19 (35mm equivalent).

your aperture f3.4 is equivalent to f19 of full frame

....thats too small...I will check the article

A new find...
My RAW file contains 35 equiv metadata whereas jpeg doesn't. Is this the case with your camera guys?

what does that mean nac ???

It means that the RAW files contains more metadata (exif data) than jpeg (at least in my case).
----------------------------------------
I have noticed this before, and again I am noticing it now. (I may have asked this before, I don't remember).
Does fast shutter speed leads to noisy image? (to get high shutter speed, we deliberately underexpose the image, so the noise appears in photographs)

no nac there is no direct relation between shutter speed and noise ...yes if we increase the ISO or underexpose the image then try to recover details from dark its definitely going to be noisy..

The jpeg itself got some noise. So I guess, in-camera processing too try to get some details from the underexposed area (esp. darker area) and that does introduce noise in the image.

yes that is possible...incamera processing like sharpning, vivid profile, noise reduction certainly effects picture quality of jpeg

You're warned. It's a long post...

My Star Trail shooting experience

It didn't go well.

I have posted couple of test shots in photography thread. I am yet to process the images.

I called my friend to accompany me as I don't dare to shoot alone in the dark. But he couldn't make it as he had some work in the last minute. So either I had to go back spend the rest of the evening in my home or can go out and dare to shoot alone in the dark. I did the later...

Went to the first location, looked around for about 5 minutes. Didn't find a good spot in the dark and I wasn't comfortable being there alone. So pack up...

Second location, this is one of the test location I went last week. So I was little comfortable. But the problem is... .... ... are,

* People around there don't like/want a stranger taking photographs in the dark. Kinda I was intruding their privacy. But they didn't say it and I tried and kept my head as low as possible (Indirectly, saying that I am not here to intrude your privacy).
* We don't need tripod to star trail. But that will be really helpful and could avoid lot of fuss. I will tell more about this later.
* When you don't have all the right equipments, you have to check, re check, confirm, re confirm. If you doubt, you have to cross check again and again, it's a time consuming + energy (battery) consuming thing.

Alone in the dark, not comfortable. People around there didn't make it any better. Super slow performance camera, with class 4 card. 7-8 second interval between shots (it was about 5sec last week) will totally screw the continuation of the trail and make it dotted trail. When you shoot straight up, and put the camera on the ground you can't see the screen. So no way, you can find whether its still taking picture or not, battery life...

I did few things right, like packed water bottles, torch with extra batteries, made sure batteries are full, brought compass (not much of a use when I couldn't find stars on North/South).

Test shot spot 1: Facing North. All the camera could see was a dozen faint stars and few more fainter stars. So decided to shoot straight up.
Test shot spot 2: Shooting straight up. There was a tree on the left, I didn't want it in the frame, so I put the camera facing little on the right, but that end up bringing palm tree in the frame.
Test shot spot 3: To avoid the palm tree, put the camera in portrait orientation. It was OK, but I felt that there wasn't much stars in the frame. (I don't know whether it's just an illusion or fact)
Test shot spot 4: Checking if I could cut palm tree from the frame. But no... its still there.

I was roughly guessing what are the things will be in frame, as I can't see the screen when it is facing up and it's on the floor. So the reason for so many spots and tests.

Attempt 1: Finalized, and pressed the shutter. After the first exposure, AF assist lamp was blinking. I realized that I forgot to turn off self timer which I used during test shots as they were just one shot and wanted to be blur free. So had to interrupt and turn off the timer.
Attempt 2: After the first exposure, the camera didn't seem to be shooting continuously. I was waiting... waiting... checking my mobile to see the time. But the camera is quiet even after exposure duration. Had do check it, so took the camera. Yes, it's not shooting, because I forgot to turn the scripts ON after turning off timer

Now I want to move to a new spot. So again few test shots and few more attempts after finalizing just like before. Finally, everything set, checked, confirmed after so many trial and error. By now I have wasted lot of battery.

Pressed the shutter. Guess how long it took....???

It took about half an hour from my arrival at second location to start the star trail. I intend to stay there as long as battery lasts. Now starts waiting... Sit, squat, walk, stand, watching stars, flights...

People need to go past me, took a longer route after seeing me. That tells that they are not comfortable me being there...

There came a high school boy in casuals. I thought he was a big man until he started speaking. Started askin' few things like what am I doing and all... Later, it became big list of questions. Whether the camera can shoot people, what am I focusing?, Will we be in the frame?, will the vehicles/people pass by be in the frame? what about the ground?... And the list go on and on. :yaaawwn:

I was glad there was someone to talk to. It's been more than an hour. The boy left as it was getting late. After he left, and in the dark I started to feel the fear in me. So thought of packing up. I was really surprised to see battery is still there even after one hour. Stopped the script. Total of 82 pictures i.e. 82 minutes. Still 33% battery left when I stopped.

I didn't know I screwed up until seeing them in computer...

to be continued...

Great experience you shared nac...lots of details

...It stime to get a real DSLR and do the experiment...you have enough knowledge to shoot good shots right way

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] don't be concerned about dotted trail. It can be fixed in photoshop easily if you have the pole star in your frame. Regarding people, i prefer to shoot from my rooftop only or a secluded place

^
Dotted trail:
I thought of asking someone about that few weeks ago. Guess who crossed my mind first. It was you, I remember you had mentioned this before. So that of askin' you, but you weren't active then. Fortunately, now you're active and you can explain how we can fix that in PP.

I went on with my second attempt in our terrace. I can see lot of light pollution.

- - - Updated - - -

... Continuation

So what went wrong?

* There was this street light from about 50m from me on the left (the reason I want the tree off of the frame). After my eyes used with that lighting, I couldn't see where my camera is. So I had to use my torch to look for it. I thought I did a right thing by packing torch light. But see what I did with it.

So every now and then I used my torch light to look for camera. I guess I used it about half a dozen times in that 82 min shoot.
* Since I had no tripod, I had to use make shift arrangements with stones, pouch... Even after so many tests, trials and all the angle wasn't that good. Why? because when I rig with stones, I can't get the very same angle again (at least that's remotely possible).

When I view the photos in computer, I see the flares. Any guess how in the world I could get lens flare shooting stars. :!:

Is it the headlights of the vehicles passed by? No. It's my xxxxxx torch light. It's me... I screwed up. There are some beautiful foreground bokeh :-x

in star trail shoot.

*i.imgur.com/SyOB6dt.jpg

*i.imgur.com/rCxIgTQ.jpg

oooh no ...soo a torch light spoiled your pic this time....nac I will still say dont try this night trail photography in summer...it may damage your camera ...or at least google it if it can damage P&S or only DSLRs

I will post this question in a photo forum and look for answer

^ It doesn't seems to be, sujoy. Even for DSLR it's fine I guess.

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Six Common Myths About Long Exposures

I read that nac....but camera does gets hot...the person there did not consider summer temperature of 40-45 ....I have started a thread for this question...If sensor have no problem then I will also try that today itself

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] it involves overlapping two pics and rotating one of them slightly around the pole star.

[MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] I got a nice reply from a prominent forum member

There's a cut off if the sensor temperature goes above a certain limit and the camera will shut down automatically (I've never reached that - but I did do some reading a while back that indicated as such).

I've also seen plenty of star trail shots made in hot climes - so there's more circumstantial evidence showing that it won't be an issue.

^ Yeah, I read that. Isn't there in that link?

soo will try star trails from today

Sujoy, You read how I did it. To avoid such things gather enough info before starting. To know where the stars are/celestial pole etc you can use a simulation software called "Stellarium". I find it useful.

- - - Updated - - -

Prashant, If I rotate, I can get the continuation of the trail. But what about the foreground subject?

Or google sky map for android

hmm let me try some shots today from my roof...then will give it a serious try in someday

With your camera, you could easily get celestial pole or things like nebula and all, I think. And you don't have to spend too much when testing. 30sec or less (note when not shooting for star trail you have to keep your exposure duration ideal or less in respect to focal length you use to avoid noticeable trail) exposure a piece for about 10-15 min @ highest ISO could make it possible. But it's a time consuming process (I mean PP). Deepskystacker is a software I used. Need to read the instruction before trying to process (actually even before shooting) your images with this software.

Note: Just I "think" it's easy and possible with D7000 coz of the sensor size and it's low light capability.

Nac can you give me the link which you are following for starry sky and star trails ...

Stellarium I really like this software. You can see where the stars/moon/earth/planet @ a given date/time. It's a simulation and not a heavy one.
Deepskystacker It's a simple software. But processing time is toooooo much. Esp. when you're processing lot of images. You go bed, wake up next morning it will still be processing it

So don't load hundreds of images to process unless you have a super computer.

There were some user tutorial for this software you can find online and also youtube videos.
- - - Updated - - -

Star trail attempt 2 happened yesterday night without any fuss. Went to terrace, tried north. Wasn't good. So put the camera @ pretty much the angle as 1st and went down to watch that "Canon ad"

Checking once in a while. Battery lasted for 111 minutes (+5 test shots).

nac is it required to check all those star details...cant we just keep our camera and shoot directly

Shooting close to pole stars will give you curved trails. Shooting away from it will give you straight ones. It depends on how you want your photo to look.

Also it is not really necessary to use full resolution images for star trails. So you can
1. Shoot full resolution raw
2. Edit white balance, colour tones, noise, etc
3. Copy and paste the settings to all images (LR does it pretty quickly)
4. Output all images in lower resolution... maybe 1080p or 4mp
5. Stack them

This way the star trails software will process them faster

ook thanks prashant...that was very helpful

No, your camera can take photos even if you don't check them.

For those who don't have a clue to find where the milky way is.

There are many sites explain how, what, where and all. This is one of them...
David Kingham | Ten Steps to Photograph the Milky Way

Many people are surprised to find out the milky way is not visible the entire year, at least not the brightest portion that is easily visible to the eye. The best viewing times are February thru September in the northern hemisphere. To learn more you can use the planetarium software Stellarium to determine exactly when it will be out. Quick tip: Look SE in the spring a couple hours before sunrise, look South in the summer around midnight, and look SW during the fall an hour after sunset.

If your location is already there in the stellarium pick it, else punch in your lat/long coordinates and look at what time it's there in the sky. When I was trying, I preferred when it's at highest point (why? because, there will be less light pollution than the horizon level). In the following sample picture, I picked Delhi and it peaks around 8pm @ 30 deg on south. On a clear sky night, point your camera on south and tilt it 30 deg or based on where you want to frame your milky way and click.

*i102.photobucket.com/albums/m108/tkphotos1/delhi%20milkyway_zpslbbn2htp.png

[MENTION=39722]sujoyp[/MENTION] [MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] as per ur recommendations I bought SX150 3 years ago. after 1 year I stopped using it because of slow performance , and slow flash charging etc. Now I don't get time to use this camera.

So my siblings are using it for bday, marriage pics. I just need help here. Just tell me the best settings for taking selfie and low light photography. Can I get desired result like iPhone selfie ?

I never get vibrant color image. Always get kinda dull output in auto or easy settings. I am using YU YUPHORIA mobile which gives better image.

for this definitely [MENTION=125321]nac[/MENTION] can help as he owns SX130 I think.. but there must be some screen modes like portraits and landscapes...or you can check if it have some setting for color profile like natural, vibrent, standard etc...give it an hour you will find out

kool said:
@sujoyp @nac as per ur recommendations I bought SX150 3 years ago. after 1 year I stopped using it because of slow performance , and slow flash charging etc. Now I don't get time to use this camera.

So my siblings are using it for bday, marriage pics. I just need help here. Just tell me the best settings for taking selfie and low light photography. Can I get desired result like iPhone selfie ?

I never get vibrant color image. Always get kinda dull output in auto or easy settings. I am using YU YUPHORIA mobile which gives better image.

Yeah, tell me about it's slow performance.

Every camera has different algorithm to process. So you can't expect same kind of output from your mobile and compact.
Personally, I don't like that wide angle selfie as it give distorted look. Sometimes funny, sometimes cute but in general I don't prefer. With SX150 you will less likely to have a wider lens as your mobile, still it's too wide for portrait.
I almost always stay in A, S, M modes. If you want more vibrant, select vivid option. I doubt if you can pick in auto modes, only in manual or semi manual modes you can set things. But for portraits don't use vibrant option. For portraits, you can choose light skin or neutral or off or you can choose custom colour. Try and see which one you like. Check manual and see how to change settings and all.
For low light, you can push ISO or you can use flash. Fiddle with settings and see which combination you like.
If possible share some photographs from your phone (the kind you like) and some from your compact (both good and bad). Don't strip the exif when posting.

OP went into hibernation and don't want to go out of topic. So hijacked the post here...

sujoyp said:
2. 17-50 2.8 although is nice for low light but problem is at f2.8 you cant take group pics and less will be in focus...soo you end up shooting at f5.6

That's a nice point. It interested me and I started digging.
With D7000, 17mm f2/.8
Theoretically, from 10' distance you can cover a 9' tall and 13.6' wide subject(s). I guess this is good enough for group photo. This gives a DOF of 5.8m which is good enough for group photo (in paper), but your experience says otherwise. So I guess this theoretical dof, hyperfocal distance and all for landscape only? How about you do a test shoot? Those who have wide (~24-28mm (35mm equiv)) fast lens (faster than f/2.8) can also try and show us the difference.

I will show an example soon...but I can definitely tell you as when ever I shot even 3 people at f2.8 I never got all of them in good focus..there is also crop factor involved....in case of landscape you wont notice much as you will be viewing everything as a combined scene...and wont concentrate on a leaf or a specific flower

sujoyp said:
I will show an example soon...but I can definitely tell you as when ever I shot even 3 people at f2.8 I never got all of them in good focus..there is also crop factor involved....in case of landscape you wont notice much as you will be viewing everything as a combined scene...and wont concentrate on a leaf or a specific flower

Yeah, for 3 people you wouldn't be too far and it's even closer if you're just taking waist level shot. So might not get optimum sharpness across all your subjects wide open.
I am looking forward to that test shoot...

I have Altura Photo AP-UNV1 DSLR Camera Flash. I bought it the first time. I have no idea about it that how can get perfect picture quality or change settings for lights, focus and how to set zoom in or zoom out. Can anyone suggest me and give information about how to setup the configuration for getting beautiful Clicks.

Never heard of the brand before. You could have googled and learned lot quicker than waiting for someone to reply.

Here you go...

It happens when battery is drained fully while you're shooting or viewing photos. Charge the battery and try, it should work.

Did you drop the camera?
Does your camera shows any error message?