Got the A95 this week, now have a few ?s

[FAUguy]

So far, the camera is working nice. Had it for 2 day, but have not had a lot of time to try it out. Last night I tried
taking some pictures inside of the Christmas tree and
outside of decoration lights.
When using the flash inside, you could not even tell the
tree had the lights turnd on. Outside was better since the
flash was further away from the subject.
Without using a flash, it was saying I'd need a 2-3 sec Exp,
which is no good without a tripod.
Today I took some pics outside and found myself having to adjust the White Bal some. Is that normal?
When inside Ihave had to also adjust it from Auto to
Tungsten, or the pictures's colors look off.

I am leaving on Sat for a week up in Orlando, so I've only
got 1 more day to know all about the camera.
When taking night shots (and unable to use a tripod)
what's the best thing to do? I can have it at ISO100-200
with 1/50sec F2.8 seems to be OK. I've also gone into manual mode and adjust the flash so it wasn't as bright.

Durring normal outside pics, I guess it's best to leave it set
to "P" and have the ISO set to 50, since Auto moves it to
100 for some reason.

When I use the Manual mode, and press the button half
way, it shows a red -2 in the top left corner of the LCD.
I'm not sure what that is.

How exactly does the AIAF work? When I use it, and press
the button half way, it will show a few green squares, wich is
what it is focusing on. However, if you press and release
the button a few times, you will notice that each time it
chooses a new focusing point. Is it better just to use the
Center or FlexiZone focus?

Thanks for any help or advice.

[FAUguy]

Anyone? :confused:

[ReF]

So far, the camera is working nice. Had it for 2 day, but have not had a lot of time to try it out. Last night I tried
taking some pictures inside of the Christmas tree and
outside of decoration lights.
When using the flash inside, you could not even tell the
tree had the lights turnd on. Outside was better since the
flash was further away from the subject.
Without using a flash, it was saying I'd need a 2-3 sec Exp,
which is no good without a tripod.
Today I took some pics outside and found myself having to adjust the White Bal some. Is that normal?
When inside Ihave had to also adjust it from Auto to
Tungsten, or the pictures's colors look off.

I am leaving on Sat for a week up in Orlando, so I've only
got 1 more day to know all about the camera.
When taking night shots (and unable to use a tripod)
what's the best thing to do? I can have it at ISO100-200
with 1/50sec F2.8 seems to be OK. I've also gone into manual mode and adjust the flash so it wasn't as bright.

Durring normal outside pics, I guess it's best to leave it set
to "P" and have the ISO set to 50, since Auto moves it to
100 for some reason.

When I use the Manual mode, and press the button half
way, it shows a red -2 in the top left corner of the LCD.
I'm not sure what that is.

How exactly does the AIAF work? When I use it, and press
the button half way, it will show a few green squares, wich is
what it is focusing on. However, if you press and release
the button a few times, you will notice that each time it
chooses a new focusing point. Is it better just to use the
Center or FlexiZone focus?

Thanks for any help or advice.


well fauguy, I would've helped out sooner but I didn't notice this thread till now. I have the A80 - very similar to A95 so I can help you out quite a bit.

1. if you are close to your subject, it is common for the flash to overpower many types of light sources, even light bulbs.

2. Auto white balance seems to work just fine outdoors on sunny days. what was the "outdoor" conditions that you shot in? it's quite normal to adjust the white balance, after all that's what it's there for, and it's on almost every camera being made.

3. when using long exposures, I usually leave the flash off. if shooting in low light without a tripod, you'll just have to crank up the ISO and set for the longest exposure that you can hold steady. for me that's down to 1/25 most of the time, and 1/10 on occasions where I can reshoot several times and check in between shots. different for everybody though. what is an acceptable ISO? well that's your call. on two occasions where picture quality mattered AND I had two use ISO 400, it turned out surprisingly well in one case and horrible in the other. Usually 200 is the highest acceptable ISO.
you'll probably have to learn how to use the manual focus in dim conditions as well, since the cam probably won't be able to lock focus. Choose a smaller aperture whenever appropriate in these situations, you are only guessing where the focus distance is and the smaller aperture will allow more room for error. you do know what different aperture settings are used for right?

4. outdoors, P, ISO 50 works just fine. I personally like to use Av/aperture priority with ISO 50, as I like smaller apertures. When I first got my camera, I screwed up a bunch of shots outdoors using shutter priority. The camera's LCD shows pictures as being brighter than it really is, so I assumed the shots were okay til i went home and saw many blown out highlights.

5. in manual mode, that little red number is telling you whether the camera "feels" you are taking a proper exposure, or under or over exposing your shot.
A "proper" exposure does NOT mean you will always get a better shot though.
For example, sometimes underexposing will give you dramatic shadows while a "properly" exposed shot would look plain and boring.

6. I really don't know how the AIAF works either. I assume it just picks out an area that stands out/shows more contrast. I just set mine on Center focusing as that is usually where my subject is anyways. I don't like the way the AIAF works. if my intended subject isn't in the center, I just adjust the aperture or the focus distance. It's much more accurate and a lot faster than waiting for the camera to choose the right subject to focus on. I don't have Flexi-zone on my cam (nor do I feel i need it) so i can't tell you how well that works.

feel free to ask about anything else.

[noujwas]

My advice to you is this:
Don't waste your time trying to find out what settings you have to use for indoor shots. Just set your camera to SCN>Indoor and see the result. Most of the times you will never get a good result in Manual Mode unless you use a tripod.
It's written in the manual of the camera -> Use Indoor Mode for Indoor shots.
The results are really good.

[ReF]

I don't have the "indoor" setting on my cam so I wouldn't know. Indoor photography in difficult and sometimes frustrating, yes, but when you have confidently learned what settings, techniques, etc to use indoors in different indoor situation, well you'll have learned quite a bit about photography (what works and what doesn't), and quite a bit about your camera. I personally feel that taking good indoor shots is more difficult than night shot/long shutter pics. after all, have you seen how much equipment there is for shooting indoors?

[ReF]

allow me to add something to my previous post:

If you are unsure about which setting to use indoors at first, by all means use the "indoor" mode if it works well. wouldn't want anybody to miss any good shots because of what i said now. All i'm saying is that learning how to shoot indoors in different indoor situations goes a long way towards experience/knowing how and exactly what to adjust or "tune" (as someone else put it) when you need to.

[FAUguy]

I got back from my vacation last night. The A95 worked just fine. I ordered a Lexar 80X 1GB card for it. It held 465 pictures taken at the 5MP setting at Superfine mode.
Each night in the hotel room I would hook the camera up to the TV and view/delete any pictures that I didn't want to keep.

All the pictures taken outside durring good daylight conditions I used the "P" mode with ISO set to 50 and the AF set to Center. They came out just great.
At night, when taking a pictures of somone, I used the flash and ISO was 50-200 depending on how far the flash was from the person.
When taking pictures of fireworks and electrical parade, I used the Tv mode and had the shutter set to 1/15sec and ISO 200 with no flash. (Flash made the fireworks, osborne lights, electrical parade come out too dark.)
I only had to use ISO 400 and 1/15sec for one picture taken at MGM at night of the sorcerer's hat.
I only used the Av setting for a few pictures taken at the Polynesian's waterfalls in the loby. It gave the water a nice effect.
Also a few times at night, when I had someplace to sit the camera, I was able to use 2-4sec shutter speeds with ISO 50.

So far I am very impressed with the camera. However, for some odd reason though, the very first picture I took it saying the data is corrupt. I'm not sure why. All the
other pics were fine.

I'm printing the good ones on my Epson R200 photo Printer.