WHY ARE MY FISH SOOOO BLURRY?

[brbrown]

Hello to all,
This is my first post here and I NEED HELP really bad. I am using a Canon EOS Rebel G loaded with Kodak Max Versatility 400 film. I also place the camera on a tripod. I have been turning out all the lights in the house except for the aquarium lights. I am also NOT using any flash to avoid the reflection off of the glass. The problem is when I get the film developed, the pictures which have fish on them are extremely blurry. The fish are what is blurry while other non-living(still) objects in the pictures are not blurry. I was wondering if I need to us a film with a higher ISO or if I need to turn some background lighting on? You can tell when you push the button, the shutter speed is extremely slow.

I have to be totally honest, this camera has a whole lot more buttons and settings than I know how to use. I normally just put the camera on automatic, point and shoot. I know this camera has a lot more capabilities than I am using I just don't know anything about using them.

In the past I have mainly taken pictures of still objects with plenty of light and made great pictures. I just had about $50 worth of film developed and I will be lucky if I can use 10-12 pictures out of ALL of them.

Can you please give me some tips on making pictures of the fish, as well as, tips on using the settings on my camera?

Any help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated,
Thanks again,
Bryant

[ccplim]

Hi bryant, welcome to APF! From your description, I assume that you are facing te following problem.

1) low shuttle speed,
2) insufficient tank lighting.

For taking fish pics, you will need to have lots of tank light and you will need a minimum speed of at least 1/60. We always try not to use the auto mode as they will always give you a low shuttle speed. Try putting your camera to manual mode to overwrite the camera's setting.

How big is your tank and what type of lightings are you using (number of tubes, wattage)? All these info will aid in figuring out your problems.

[CDM]

Put more light on top of the tank and better close the room light, that would give you better autofocus and higher shutter speed. Be honest, though I've been into aquarium photography for 3yrs, I quit film camera at the very beginning, and dare not to use it again on aquarium. Even now, I still have delete half more of the shots to get just ok ones.