A95 problems

[ezeerb]

I was wondering if anyone could give me some help. I purchased an A95 a couple of months ago and have been very please with the results. I found (as many other have) that the AUTO mode tends to focus on things I don't want to focus on so I always put it into the P mode to take pictures.

Anyway, recently, all of my pictures have been coming out dark and sometimes slightly out of focus! :mad: My relatives would take pictures with their digital Kodaks of the same scene and theirs came out perfect and mine were dark and a little fuzzy. I've had to adjust all of them with Adobe which is a little annoying. All of the pictures are indoors and I've been messing with the settings but there are SOOO many and I can't seem to correct the problem.

Could anyone recommend basic settings for me for simple point and shoot operations??

Thanks.

[ricjk]

I wouldn't bother with AUTO mode at all. I've found that AiAF is mostly useless, and it's forced on in AUTO mode.

If your shots are coming out too dark, try upping the exposure compensation to see if that helps. Since you say that it's indoor shots that come out blurry, is it actually out of focus, or is the camera using a slow enough shutter speed that it's causing motion blur? Try taking a couple of shots on a tripod or steady surface with the 2-second delay and see if they come out any sharper.

[aparmley]

I too am an A95 owner. Also, I never use Auto mode, never. I have also set my focus setting to center weighted. You mentioned you are shooting indoors, this can be trickey, there a few variables. The amount of light is the biggest I would think as it will dictate which settings you need to use. I tend to not like using the flash because it tends to wash out the subject too much for my liking and casting shadows which I also can not stand. So, if you are shooting in a low light indoor setting I'd recommend bumping the ISO up to 200, I have taken a couple of pictures with ISO at 200 and they were very acceptable, noise is noticable but, it sure beats the flash shot or a blurry photo. I think if you put your camera on P mode it will choose the appropriate exp and aperature for your picture, but in P mode you can change the ISO... and if you must use flash you can also tone down the amount of flash here as well. There is a SCN mode as well and you can select indoor scene and I have used this mode to take some nice pictures. But to fix your problem you need to investigate why you are getting dark blurry photos-- my guess is that its a low light shot, flash is off, ISO is too low and the exp is too slow for a hand held shot...

[Newbie]

Yup P mode is much better than Auto mode simply because you CAN do stuff if you want... Mostly you can change the ISO... But watch out if you want to use Auto ISO in P mode, it will be the same as using ISO 50 since somehow it doesn't vary between 50 and 200 like in Auto mode.

Also, it would surely help us if you'd tell us the EXIF data of one of your blurry/too dark shots.
I personally can't see which that would be, maybe you accidently turned off the AF assist lamp ? maybe you changed the exposure(I might mix them up) and +1/3 would make the shot darker, while -1/3 would make the shot more blurry... Maybe I mixed the effect of numbers, but basicly what one does is pick the next faster shutter speed(so darker shot), while the other the next slower shutter speed(so changes of movement blur). Besides that, maybe the focus wasn't set on the proper thing ? Or that the flash wasn't turned on or that you were too far away when you used the flash(this could be the case specially if u use ISO 50 and your friends use Auto ISO which bumps it to ISO 200 cuz its dark, thus giving an impression of a stronger flash).

So many assumptions, nothing to be sure of until we see EXIF...

[ezeerb]

Thanks for all your replies. You guys/gals have way more knowledge than what I do. I'm an inexperienced user and some of the replies went completely over my head. What is EXIF?--I have no idea.

I've tried adjusting to ISO 200 but my basic point is I don't want to even mess with it. I want to POINT AND SHOOT and only occassionally adjust. Like I said, I have relatives that take beautiful pictures with their Kodaks in the AUTO mode. I realize with the Canon AUTO is worthless.

So, what settings can I use for good overall shooting? Seems like if a Kodak can do it certainly a Canon can.

Thanks.

[Newbie]

EXIF is basicly all of the information of your picture... Like the shutter speed, aperture, resolution, kind of focusing, if flash was used, etc.

[aparmley]

Do you recall when you took the disappointing "Dark" photos, did your flash fire?

[Nikita24]

Is it normal to have a noise in the camera when it finishs the movement of the lenses? Apart from the lenses noise, I heard a small strange noise when the lenses finish to move.

Thank you!

Veronica

[MrSleep]

Is it normal to have a noise in the camera when it finishs the movement of the lenses? Apart from the lenses noise, I heard a small strange noise when the lenses finish to move.

Thank you!

Veronica

If you mean like a click? Then yes, its common, happens to my A95 too.