Canon IXUS 960is question.
Discussion
Im hoping that someone can help.
Ive had the ixus 960is for some months now and stuggle to capture moving objects without blurring.
Unfortunatly when buying, I was seduced buy the 12mp, but understand now that this is unnessasary in a compact and that this may be the problem.
When the flash is on, the shutter speed is much quicker and captures sharp images, but without, moving objects blurr beyond recognition even when set to 'auto'. I have read the manual many times and Im unable to to relate my problems to it, going over and over ISO figures and the +/-2 exposure part which I think may be wrong.
The real problem being that we have a 1yo daughter and as she's moving all the time were missing some great moments that we want to capture, and dont seem to be able to adjust the camera to suit.
I would be very gratful if you could steer me in the right direction, as the wifes grip is tightening. Thank you.
Ive had the ixus 960is for some months now and stuggle to capture moving objects without blurring.
Unfortunatly when buying, I was seduced buy the 12mp, but understand now that this is unnessasary in a compact and that this may be the problem.
When the flash is on, the shutter speed is much quicker and captures sharp images, but without, moving objects blurr beyond recognition even when set to 'auto'. I have read the manual many times and Im unable to to relate my problems to it, going over and over ISO figures and the +/-2 exposure part which I think may be wrong.
The real problem being that we have a 1yo daughter and as she's moving all the time were missing some great moments that we want to capture, and dont seem to be able to adjust the camera to suit.
I would be very gratful if you could steer me in the right direction, as the wifes grip is tightening. Thank you.
Is the whole scene blurred, or just the moving parts?
There ought to be a sports mode on a compact - that ought to help if there is enough light.
But you may be trying to take photographs indoors when it is too dark to get the short shutter speeds required for freezing action. Using less zoom will help a little, and you can also try setting the ISO higher (at the cost of added noise or detail loss). I don't think Canon's auto ISO setting will use the higher modes in order to avoid the large amount of noise, so there ought to be some improvement available there - but you'll want to switch back to auto for well lit scenes.
Only the subject is blurred if moving.
It has a 'kids and pets' setting which i would asume would be for moving objects but has shown little or no improvment. Do you or does anyone know which areas I should be looking at if setting the camera up manually to increase shutter speed as 'shutter speed' is not mentioned anywhere.
Thanks for your comments.
EFA
It has a 'kids and pets' setting which i would asume would be for moving objects but has shown little or no improvment. Do you or does anyone know which areas I should be looking at if setting the camera up manually to increase shutter speed as 'shutter speed' is not mentioned anywhere.
Thanks for your comments.
EFA
Edited by Calitri on Saturday 6th December 20:33
Most compacts don't provide manual control over the shutterspeed, instead relying on the 'scene' modes to control the tradeoff of shutter speed/ISO/aperture.
Do you know what shutterspeed you are getting? You need 1/100 to 1/200 to freeze motion but you won't get anywhere near that with average indoor lighting without flash. In my study right now, I get 1/30th of a second at ISO 1600
A quick google says the 960IS has a ISO3200 scene mode. That might be OK, but you will probably be better off with flash.
Do you know what shutterspeed you are getting? You need 1/100 to 1/200 to freeze motion but you won't get anywhere near that with average indoor lighting without flash. In my study right now, I get 1/30th of a second at ISO 1600
A quick google says the 960IS has a ISO3200 scene mode. That might be OK, but you will probably be better off with flash.
Unfortunately there is no shutter speed control so you have to take steps to ensure as high a shutter speed as is possible, so the steps you will follow are:
1. Set the ISO as high as you can (1600 on that I believe)
2. Select 'kids and pets' or sports mode if you can.
3. As mentioned before, set the zoom as wide as possible (allowing widest possible aperture and most light)
4. Turn on as many lights as you can
5. Give up on P+S for capturing kids as you find the whole thing (shutter/zoom/focusing etc.) too slow
6. Go out and buy Canon 1000D or Nikon D40 (depending on religion) as you can then set things how you want and capture the images you want and it cost about the same as the 960IS did.
7. Spend money on nice external flash
8. Buy more lenses to hang on the front
9. Buy expensive camera bag to put stuff all in
10. Start shooting in RAW
11. Upgrade PC/Mac to cope with Photoshop CS4/Lightroom which you now use to process everything
12. Start 'pixel peeping' your images, work out what CA is, realise kit is not up to scratch
13. Buy 50D/D300/D700/5Dmk2/D3/1DsMk3/D3x
14. Buy really expensive glass with red or gold bands round it
15. Buy large NAS drive to store all images on
16. Start whining about 'primes are the only thing' and telling your mates anything less than f/2.8 is cheap and slow.
17. Start dreaming at Manfrotto and Gitzo catalogues
18. Wonder what it would be like to shoot stuff in a studio with proper lights and stuff
19. Realise the only camera you ever really have with you anymore when you want to take pictures of your kids is a nice little Canon Ixus (beacuse all the other kit is too big/heavy, which isn't that bad really...) Hmm... the 870IS looks good...
But then, what would I know...
1. Set the ISO as high as you can (1600 on that I believe)
2. Select 'kids and pets' or sports mode if you can.
3. As mentioned before, set the zoom as wide as possible (allowing widest possible aperture and most light)
4. Turn on as many lights as you can
5. Give up on P+S for capturing kids as you find the whole thing (shutter/zoom/focusing etc.) too slow
6. Go out and buy Canon 1000D or Nikon D40 (depending on religion) as you can then set things how you want and capture the images you want and it cost about the same as the 960IS did.
7. Spend money on nice external flash
8. Buy more lenses to hang on the front
9. Buy expensive camera bag to put stuff all in
10. Start shooting in RAW
11. Upgrade PC/Mac to cope with Photoshop CS4/Lightroom which you now use to process everything
12. Start 'pixel peeping' your images, work out what CA is, realise kit is not up to scratch
13. Buy 50D/D300/D700/5Dmk2/D3/1DsMk3/D3x
14. Buy really expensive glass with red or gold bands round it
15. Buy large NAS drive to store all images on
16. Start whining about 'primes are the only thing' and telling your mates anything less than f/2.8 is cheap and slow.
17. Start dreaming at Manfrotto and Gitzo catalogues
18. Wonder what it would be like to shoot stuff in a studio with proper lights and stuff
19. Realise the only camera you ever really have with you anymore when you want to take pictures of your kids is a nice little Canon Ixus (beacuse all the other kit is too big/heavy, which isn't that bad really...) Hmm... the 870IS looks good...
But then, what would I know...
Edited by Bee_Jay on Saturday 6th December 21:13
Calitri said:
The 'noise' you guys refer to at 3200 means I may as well have taken the picture on my phone.
I never had this trouble with the old 32mm!
I'm sure you meant 35mm. You'll find that Digital SLRs have larger sensors and are much less susceptible to noise than the tiny sensors in point and shoots. I refer you to my previous post, you are already on the road with comments like that... I never had this trouble with the old 32mm!
Unless you use flash or get some extra light from somewhere, I rather think you're stuffed. It's not a Canon thing, it's a too-many-pixels-thing. Your pixel density is 28Mp/cm2 - compare that with the average DSLR at about 3Mp/cm2 and you'll see the problem - basically the pixels are too small to get much light. So unless you want to buy a new camera, I think the only answer is 'more light'. Can you control aperture? If so crank it as wide as possible - but you've really got the wrong tool for the job.
The only real solution is using the flash.
I have a panasonic LX3 which has a faster F2 lense but indoors with poor light its impossible to get a sharp photo of a moving object.
I just did a quick check in my bedroom and at F2 and ISO800 the shutter speed is 1/30 which isnt fast enough to photograph anything moving.
ISO800 is pretty poor quality and I try to stick to 200 as a maximum.
I dont know why these point and shoot cameras have these higher ISO options as they are so noisy that the shots are worthless.
I just did a test at ISO3200 and its so noisy that you can see the noise on the camera screen.
I have a panasonic LX3 which has a faster F2 lense but indoors with poor light its impossible to get a sharp photo of a moving object.
I just did a quick check in my bedroom and at F2 and ISO800 the shutter speed is 1/30 which isnt fast enough to photograph anything moving.
ISO800 is pretty poor quality and I try to stick to 200 as a maximum.
I dont know why these point and shoot cameras have these higher ISO options as they are so noisy that the shots are worthless.
I just did a test at ISO3200 and its so noisy that you can see the noise on the camera screen.
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff