What causes this?

I’ve always found these extra modes aren’t worth using. It’s either full auto, shutter or appeture priority modes, taking note of any red (out of range) warnings.

Propellers or rotors require a slower exposure, otherwise you end up with a photo of a plane that’s just about to crash!!!

Jets are easier, no moving parts, so full auto and panning works for me (usually).

Hello again chaps, thanks for taking the time to reply. 3 out of 3 opinions that the ISO is too high, pretty conclusive then!

So my follow on question is this- as I understand it the ISO is measure of sensitivity to light of film. As a digital camera has no film does the processor then ‘pretend’ that it is shooting onto a certain film depending on what it deems the amount of available light to be? And furthermore, as a bigger ISO rating means more sensitivity to light, then why didn’t the setting chosen by the camera work in the particularly gloomy conditions on Tuesday?

the ISO rating, with either film or digital, is a rating of its sensitivity to light – the lower the ISO number the more exposure is required to take a picture in any given situation (slower shutter speed or bigger aperature) – the higher the ISO number the less exposure (longer shutter speed or smaller aperature)is needed to take a properley exposed picture in that same situation.

The drawback is that with both film and digital, the higher the ISO number, the more speckly the picture (know as “grain” with film and “noise” with digital)

So in the old days you had to carefully choose the lowest ISO number film you could get away with for that days filming. In the digital age, you can adjust a cameras ISO rating up or down as you shoot and you balance ISO rating (and potential “noise” in your pictures) against the shutter speed or aperatures that you want to use.

As a benchmark, a doubling of the ISO rating is the difference of one prime shutter speed or aperatue stop in any given suituation.

i.e for a given situation lets say
ISO 100 = 1/125 sec @ f8
ISO 200 = 1/250 sec @ f8 OR 1/125 sec @ f16
ISO 400 = 1/500 sec @ f8 OR 1/125 sec @ f22

Some cameras adjust the ISO automatically, holding it as low as possible, but raising the ISO number in low light conditions – this leads to a noisy picture, but you get a shot that you wouldnt have otherwise.

I suspect that is what your camera did here.

Hope this all makes sense and wasnt too long winded ! 🙂

Regards

Micheal

Exif data shows a very fast setting of 1/1000s – are you sure you had your Canon S3 in auto mode??

It looks like a dullish day, too – so the camera was fighting for light on two fronts.

Actually, now I come to look at the order of the shots as they are on the camera I suspect that it may have been in ‘sports’ mode (I tracked the aircraft all the way to the runway) so that would explain the speed. Obviously that feature is only going to be a useful under certain conditions…

It was a grey old day too, but it was the only day of the five day forecast that wasn’t calling for rain which was I decided to make the trip (only an hour each way so no big deal really). This was my first time at the fences and I’ve certainly learned quite a bit, unfortunately through bad results rather than good ones but what the heck.

So the homework is-

RTFM (Read The F—-g Manual) again and perhaps pay a little more attention this time.

Practice with the manual settings.

Learn a bit more about what the software can do.

That’s a lot to be getting on with for a bloke who’s still learning to hold the camera steady…Just out of interest, on the bad light issue, at what point do you decide “Oh, sod this, its a waste of time. Let’s find a Little Chef”?

Exif data shows a very fast setting of 1/1000s – are you sure you had your Canon S3 in auto mode??

It looks like a dullish day, too – so the camera was fighting for light on two fronts. Speed too high, and lowish light levels. That would have raised the ISO, but I can’t see what that is from the Exif data.

I had a quick play with it, and I managed to get something not too bad – but I had to sacrifice size in order to make it presentable.

PM me your email addy and I’ll send it to you.

I’m fighting this with my own camera so I will take a stab at it. The Camera, depending on just which “AUTO” setting it is on is just doing its best to make sure you are not getting a blurry shot. As the light level drops, either the shutter speed has to drop, thus treatening to get motion blur from either the camera moving or the subject moving, or it has to bump up the “ISO” or the sensitivity of the CCD-light collector thingie and opening up the aperture to let more light in.

The camera’s settings got you your shots, granted a bit grainy. If you choose to go with manual settings, and I have no idea of what your camera allows, but if you can set your shutter speed to the slowest you can hold it to while tracking the A/C and let the camera adjust the other settings on the fly, you may get better shots with less grain, or you may get blurred shots. Experiment with it, play with it. find out your best settings for conditions. Shoot moving cars in low light, it’s good practice and you are not missing those rare A/C shots!

Don’t know if any of this helps, but in case of last resort, read the instruction book:D

Hello again chaps, thanks for taking the time to reply. 3 out of 3 opinions that the ISO is too high, pretty conclusive then!

So my follow on question is this- as I understand it the ISO is measure of sensitivity to light of film. As a digital camera has no film does the processor then ‘pretend’ that it is shooting onto a certain film depending on what it deems the amount of available light to be? And furthermore, as a bigger ISO rating means more sensitivity to light, then why didn’t the setting chosen by the camera work in the particularly gloomy conditions on Tuesday?

It really does look like too high an ISO setting. The outo modes can drive one to drink! Shot most of an airshow and then found the silly thing had somehow “jumped” the ISO to 800…..Grrrrrrrr!!!! got some great shots an most of them way too grainy. Loose nut behind the eye-piece I’m sure!
Manual mode is the way to go, more control of these annoying, day-wasting glitches.

If its anything like My Fuji S5600 then if you leave it on auto mode it likes putting the ISO right up which is what I am certain has happened here.

Could you please let us know the settings you used? Grainnyness can come from a lot of factors. My first impression was that this may be related to the ISO rating.