Advice please?

Hi,

I normally live in the Historic Forum, but need some advice please !

I plan as soon as funds are available to purchase a canon digital SLR, but at the moment i am using one of the Olympus £170 pocket type digi cameras ( its the wifes really )

Anyway would some of you experts have a quick look at the following post …… here you will find a a picture of HZ-123 Boeing 707 at Southend, the 1st pic is taken by someone else, and the 2nd by me. Both on simular overcast days but my picture is not sharp at all, does anyone know why?

Unless you’ve cropped that pic then the main subject wasn’t covered by the autofocussing point and the camera will be trying to focus on the clouds in the background. It doesn’t look too far out of focus because of the huge depth of field the small sensor and tiny focal length compacts have. With most cameras if you want the main subject to be off centre then centralize the subject to get focus, half press the shutter botton then recompose.

do point and shoots have a focus capability? never had one you see

Yes many point and shoot have manual focusing ability… But I have doubts as to their effectiveness since I have yet to see a SLR viewfinder design on a point and shoot making it very hard to gauge the focus with only the low resolution LCD. Plus you usually have to scrow in a complex menu to activate the manual. IMHO It is really not practical at all… It’s really less time consuming letting the camer decide. Auto focus have really evolved through the years and can be depended upon most of the time.

Point and Shoot Camera are almost similar in quality. If you look carefully they mostly use the same lens on many different models. For similar price of only a few hundred dollars I wouldn’t expect too much difference between different brand or model. Point and shoot can never compare to the qualities of a SLR.

If your picture are not sharp, it could posssibly because of many reasons. Often of which it may be because you shook your hand when shooting. It is a common mistake for starters to hold out their hands, bend their knee and look through the LCD to frame the picture. You should learn to hold a camera properly. While holding a pint and shoot steadly but can be quite difficult given the small size and the weird shape of these point and shoot camera…but can be done with prectice and experimenting at home.

Generally, even in daylight you would like to have a steady hand when shooting and press the camera to your face for support. Looking through the view finder is still the best way to steady a camera unless you intend to use a tripod. Also make sure your fingers are not blocking the external sensors on the camera. Again given the small size of the point and shoot it is a common mistake. Generally I would only suggest using the LCD to check the pictures you’ve taken and not used to frame the pictures. That’s what the viewfinder is for!

do point and shoots have a focus capability? never had one you see

if its a point and shoot, i think its just the quality of the camera, i doubt you’ll have these problems when you upgrade to a canon

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38974

heres the post….sorry forgot 🙂