Canon S1 IS blurring pics?

[Pixie]

I posted in another area of the forum about some blurry pictures. Someone replied saying they always have random ones under different conditions and that is was a repair issue.

I noticed I had some blurry pics last night and the lighting and my hand movement seemed to be a non-issue. Now I am worried now that something might be wrong with the camera or if it's a camera-specific issue, I don't want it anymore.

Any other owners out there with experience in this area?

[John_Reed]

I posted in another area of the forum about some blurry pictures. Someone replied saying they always have random ones under different conditions and that is was a repair issue.

I noticed I had some blurry pics last night and the lighting and my hand movement seemed to be a non-issue. Now I am worried now that something might be wrong with the camera or if it's a camera-specific issue, I don't want it anymore.

Any other owners out there with experience in this area?That would help others to be able to tell if you're experiencing something "normal," or "odd?"

[thebac]

Pixie,

can you link to some of your blurry pictures?

If not, do you know how to check your Exif data? If you do, please post it for your blurry pictures.

Even if you think that it wasn't camera shake, it's possible that was the cause. Sometimes taking two pictures in the same room, but focusing on two different spots a foot or two apart can already make a difference.

[camerafreak707]

It was me who posted about blurry pics, well I just sent it in yesterday, but I am planning on selling mine just because it was too high mantience. Like I said the camera craft represenative said the picture blurring was the camera's fault, not mine. I personally hate this camera, and dont think it was a worthy buy. Good luck with your problems, i hope you have better luck! :)

[Rhys]

It was me who posted about blurry pics, well I just sent it in yesterday, but I am planning on selling mine just because it was too high mantience. Like I said the camera craft represenative said the picture blurring was the camera's fault, not mine. I personally hate this camera, and dont think it was a worthy buy. Good luck with your problems, i hope you have better luck! :)

Yes... I have occasionally had out-of-focus photos from the S1. It bleeps and shows me the green focus-ok square and the photo is clearly out of focus. Flash balance seems to be variable too, leading to some overflashed photos and some underflashed. It won't take a photo until the flash is fully charged so I don't know what's going on there. Having said that, failures are definitely in the minority.

[Pixie]

Hopefully these show up.... Like I said, could be that I am using the wrong setting and need to change something. Could be my unsteady hand I suppose but I thought the IS would aid that?

[Rhys]

Some of those look like the camera's focussed in a silly place. Others could just be too slow an exposure. Yes - I have used IS to cope with a slow shutter speed with great success. What's the exposure info on those photos? The enclosed photo was taken with flash on an S1 IS at 1/60th indoors. I'd say 90% of the photos taken at that location were good. That was a poor exception. Having said that, I had several poor exceptions.

[Pixie]

I don't know what exposure, it was something I let the camera do I guess.

Because of all the "stuff" in the deer pictures particularly, I couldn't see one spot in to focus on but rather wanted to capture the whole scene. Is that not possible?

[thebac]

Pixie,

let me comment on each picture individually:

deer2:
First, I agree with Rhys, there was a focus problem. The autofocus of the camera was confused (too much in the picture, at varying distances). Second, the lighting was pretty bad, as your shutter speed was only 1/15 s. Even with IS, there will be blurring, as you were at full telephoto.
Now what can you do about it? One, you could try manual focus and get to the deer (you won't be able to focus on the branches, either or, since they're quite a bit apart). Second, I can't tell from the Exif data what your ISO value is, but increase it, if you haven't put it at the max yet. You'll have more noise, but it's better than what you have right now. You could also deliberately underexpose your picture to get a higher shutter speed and brighten it up in post-processing. Realististically, it's just near impossible to take a picture as you did through all the branches in a far away distance with less than ideal lighting at full telephoto.

deer3:
Here, same problems arise. You did not go all the way out to full telephoto, but your shutter speed is 1/8 s, so lighting was even worse in this picture. Again, IS helps, but it doesn't work miracles. Same advice and same conclusion as deer2.

apple blossom:
Here, lighting was much better (shutter speed was 1/100 s), but if you increase your aperture (it's at 4.5, but max at the focal length is 3.1--use aperture priority), you can get even higher speed--it does make a difference, though it's not absolutely necessary. Again, there's too much in the picture to confuse the autofocus unless you have it set for spot focus if available (don't have the S1 IS). It's preferable if you pick what you want to focus on (the blossom?) and have that in focus, maybe use manual focus or spot autofocus if that's available. You used digital zoom (ratio shows 1.28), which inevitably leads to image degradation--turn it off.
This picture could be made better if you try the above.

A note about all three pictures:
To put a positive spin on all this--the above pictures do NOT indicate that you got a defective S1 IS. Those are pictures that would be hard to take with any digital camera as conditions were rather adverse.

[Pixie]

Phew! Thanks for the advice... I am glad that it's not the camera but operator error. If I haven't said it before, I am definitely not an expert, barely even an amateur really LOL!

I am considering signing up for a class to be able to reap the full benefits of a camera like this. I'd like to take more than your average pictures and to be able to do that, I have to know all that stuff you gave me tips on.

Thanks again!