Help using a Canon A70

[degrassi]

I was wondering if anyone else uses this camera and can give me some good settings to try when using mine.Like how would i go about changing the shutter speed everyones keeps talking about when taking pics of fish?As you can tell i'm not very camera savvy [smilie=biggrin.gif]

Right now i have only really been using the macro mode and the auto setting.

What is good to try when taking pics of fish?

[Molino]

Ok, it doesn't look like anyone one has a Canon A70, so I'll give this one a try.

If you're taking shots without the flash and want to try and get as fast a shutter speed as possible turn the camera to Aperture priority (Av on the control dial). Increase the aperture (lense opening size) to it largest setting (larger apertures = smaller numbers) and this will allow more light into the camera and thus faster shutter speeds. The camera will then chose the proper shutter speed for correct exposure. Use your tripod because unless you have a lot of tank lighting the shutter speed may still not be fast enough for hand-held photos.

You can also increase the ISO setting which will also allow for faster shutter speeds, but a higher ISO will result in much more "noise" in your picture. I always try and keep the ISO setting as low as possible.

Hope that helps.

[grego]

I actually have this camera and I usually use the manual setting. I will start posting pics soon, I just have to take the time to upload the new ones. I find that ISO 50, F stop of about 3.2 and shutter speed at 1/8 works pretty good with the light in my tank. My pics are usually a little darker than I would like them to be, but that is something I can work on later. Try these settings though and see what you think. A problem with tank phots is that there is glass deflecting some of the light and so the settings need to be different than if you were taking a regular picture.

[degrassi]

OK thanks,

What do yo umean by "noise" in the picture?I alwys hear people talking about that.

[Molino]

"noise" in the picture is when it looks grainy. Here are cropped sections of two identical photos, 1 shot at 50 ISO the other at 400 ISO:

400 ISO:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/molino/Misc/400ISO.JPG

50 ISO:
http://www.members.shaw.ca/molino/Misc/50ISO.JPG

See how the one at 50 ISO looks much nicer without the noise.

The one at 400 ISO however was shot with a shutter speed of 1/40th whereas the other one needed a shutter speed of 1/5th, both using the same aperture.

[benny]

That's a very good illustration on that point.

This reply should be extracted into some form of FAQ for future reference.

Cheers,

[degrassi]

Thanks for explaining "noise" that really helped.

I guess i will have to figure out how to fiddle with the aperture. The manual explained how to change each feature but didn't explain what each feature really does.

[mjprather]

I have this camera as well. I like to bracket my pictures because it never meters the aquarium lighting the way I like it. Its easy enough to get exposures ranging from -2 to +2.

[degrassi]

What do you mean by bracket your pictures?

[mjprather]

Set the camera to P, Av, or Tv mode. Click the [Func.] button on the back. The top-most option says +/- (Exp.) and you can move the green cursor anywhere between -2 and +2. I guess the term bracketing pictures is when you take a picture at -2, -1, 0, +1, +2 so you can basically choose which is the best exposure later. This is also nice because some parts of the picture might expose at different settings, so you can blend the two layers together in Photoshop.