Canon SX30is image quality

[Tafia]

Folks,

I bought this Canon a few months ago and am not best pleased with the picture quality.

It seems to struggle to focus sharply and if I use the manual focus on distant objects it takes an age for the bar to move to infinity.

I noticed yesterday that if I took a shot in a field in the Auto setting it was paler than if I chose the P setting with no other change in camera settings. In P the greens were much more vivid.

Close video is very sharp however.

Anyone else got this model and do you have similar issues with focus etc?

Thanks

[14-7]

Is there anyway to turn the IS off? It can cause problem on even the most expensive lenses as it is permanently trying to move the optics around and can mean unsharp images.

[Tafia]

Thanks for your response.

Found this in the manual but don't see an "off " option. Perhaps Shoot Only mode would be be better.

Changing IS mode settings.

Choose [IS Mode], then press the qr
buttons to choose an option.

Continuous
Image stabilization is always on.
You can confirm the effects
directly on the display, which
makes it easier to check the
composition or focus. When
shooting movies, the camera also
reduces strong camera shake, for
example when walking (Dynamic
mode).
Shoot Only* Image stabilization is only active
at the moment of shooting.
Panning*
Image stabilization only counters
up and down motion. This option
is recommended for shooting
objects moving horizontally.

• Setting changes to [Continuous] when

shooting movies.

[LongQ]

Tafia said:

Folks,

I bought this Canon a few months ago and am not best pleased with the picture quality.

It seems to struggle to focus sharply and if I use the manual focus on distant objects it takes an age for the bar to move to infinity.

I noticed yesterday that if I took a shot in a field in the Auto setting it was paler than if I chose the P setting with no other change in camera settings. In P the greens were much more vivid.

Close video is very sharp however.

Anyone else got this model and do you have similar issues with focus etc?

Thanks

Do you see focus problems at all (longer?) distances no matter what the zoom extension is? Or is the problem mainly when on extended zoom?

Are you using digital zoom at all?

[Tafia]

LongQ said:

Do you see focus problems at all (longer?) distances no matter what the zoom extension is? Or is the problem mainly when on extended zoom?

Are you using digital zoom at all?

Hi,

I see focus problems at various distances and zooms but as I mentioned, when I switch to manual focus it seems to take an age for the progress bar to get to the infinity setting by rotating the focus ring. Can't see a way to speed it up.

I have turned off the digital zoom due to possible quality issues though I have an old Fuji F410 which seems to take clear images using the extra zoom provided by digital. I haven't tried the Canon using digital zoom.

Perhaps I should have bought the Fuji bridge camera with manual focus and manual zoom ring.

Cheers,

T

[LongQ]

These cameras have so many customisable settings it's difficult to know what to suggest.

I would be tempted to check the tables in the manual for what settings can be adjusted (and so set as defaults) for each preset and see if that highlights any major differences. That may account for the exposure differences you mention.

Taking the two initial problems of sharpness and manual focus speed ....

It's not imposssible that the lens has a problem. The vary extended range certainly creates some interesting design challenges and there are a lot of control bits in the lens mechanism. As for the manual focus speed - not sure. I have an old S3 IS that has manaul focus but not a focus wheel. It's not fast but then if it was it would be hell trying to focus accurately. As I recall the operatinal recommendation is to set the focus roughly by AF and then use the viewing screen and enlargment area to do the fine tuning.

Realistically I doubt Canon intend that to be more than a tickbox on a features list - most people will just use the AF for everything except, maybe. macro mod if they are into that sort of thing.

My S3 IS can take very sharp images at full zoom (432mm) at 1/10th of a second - but that is when fixed to something sturdy for support. I doubt it would offer the same if hand held being a relatively early development of IS techniques.

[Tafia]

Thanks to all who have responded.

I have now changed the IS setting to Shoot Only , hat tip to 14 - 7 and will see if that helps.

I still don't understand why, when I switched from Auto to P the greens on the screen became much more vivid.

I noticed yesterday that the button which is supposed to begin video recording doesn't seem to do anything though I can shoot video using the large red button.

Odd.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

T.

[LongQ]

Tafia said:

Thanks to all who have responded.

I have now changed the IS setting to Shoot Only , hat tip to 14 - 7 and will see if that helps.

I still don't understand why, when I switched from Auto to P the greens on the screen became much more vivid.

I noticed yesterday that the button which is supposed to begin video recording doesn't seem to do anything though I can shoot video using the large red button.

Odd.

Thanks again for all the suggestions.

T.

Rather than IS check to see if you have the focus set to 'Continuous'. If you have that will mean the lens is constantly refocusing on whatever it happens to be pointing at. If you are pointing at a subject with surroundings at a similar distance it makes little difference. If you are sort of 'waving it around', as the lens sees things, it will be all over the place and potentially moving from one end of the focus range to the other and back again.

As for the vividness or otherwise of the images I would guess that you have different styles set as defaults for the different settings. I think the camera may well be set that way at the factory. Check the size of the files as well. If it is set to use a smaller file size (lower overall resolution after jpg crushing) but you are viewing the files on a larger screen they will look pretty poor if you go full screen (or print them large) for example.

You may know all of this - but with so many things to reset it can be easy to forget what the settings are or indeed change something without realising it.

See pages 182 and 183 of the User Guide for more info - and maybe the pages that follow those as well. It's available in PDF format but may be easier to read in the printed form - the download does some odd things to seemingly 'fix' the format on my PC.