So fed up!

goosey · #1 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 08:37 AM

I am so fed up, all the photo's I have taken using the zoom with my Canon Power Shot A700 in the last few days have been very grainy. Last Sunday I was tking some really good (for me) clear detailed photo's.I haven't changed the settings. If I take photo's using the Macro option there is no problem - it's just the zoom. I have a 6x optical zoom.

I bought 2x 1GB cards last August and swap these around, do these card loose quality with use?

Any ideas please - I am so annoyed at missing the chance to record with photo's all the new chicks being fed in the garden with every day that passes they are changing. I can't afford a better camera.

StuartDH · #2 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 08:52 AM

Could you post one of the images in the Gallery for us to take a look at. It sounds like it might be your ISO settings

goosey · #3 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StuartDH

Could you post one of the images in the Gallery for us to take a look at. It sounds like it might be your ISO settings

Thanks Stuart. I have put it in forum images

http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ga...-03wabtest.jpg

glsammy · #4 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 09:39 AM

Thanks Canon! So far as I can see there's no ISO info with the exif data. Very helpful.

Unless I'm half blind that is, which is quite possible!

How dark was it? I imagine it was quite dull, purely because the shutter speed was quite slow at 1/125sec with a wide aperture of F4.8.

goosey · #5 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by glsammy

Thanks Canon! So far as I can see there's no ISO info with the exif data. Very helpful.

Unless I'm half blind that is, which is quite possible!

How dark was it? I imagine it was quite dull, purely because the shutter speed was quite slow at 1/125sec with a wide aperture of F4.8.

It was sunny and bright, not a cloud in the sky.

mrs fish · #6 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 09:58 AM

Join the club Goosey

eeyore · #7 (**permalink**) 03-06-2007, 07:45 PM

it looks to me like you might have engaged the digital zoom - this function is as much use as a chocolate fireguard as all it does is crop the image and thus reduce resolution thus the grainy effect

ive never used an a700 but on some cameras if you keep pressimg the zoom when it is at maximum optical extension it engages the digital function - no idea if this is the case with yours but the fact that you only have problems at the tele end suggests it quite strongly to me.

WestLothian · #8 (**permalink**) 04-06-2007, 12:09 PM

I agree with Eeyore's diagnosis. I have an H1 Sony that produced this sort of image when at the 24x zoom. I changed the menu setting to disable the "digital zoom" which literally spreads out the pixels and then fills in the gaps with averaged colour and noise. It has to do all this as the photo is taken and the jpeg file is written to the camera memory, so you can imagine the low quality processing that they been forced to use.

matt_xyz · #9 (**permalink**) 04-06-2007, 03:39 PM

yes, I would say this is caused by either the use of digital zoom or a high ISO setting.

To rule out digital zoom turn it to 'off' via the menu.

The high ISO might be being selected if you are shooting in Auto. Perhaps once the camera is using the largest aperture it will start increasing the ISO to increase the exposure rather than lowering the shutter speed below 1/125 which might cause camera shake. Just a guess. I don't know whether f4.8 is the camera's largest aperture. To prevent this from happening you should select Aperture Priority (rather than auto) and shoot at the largest aperture unless the light on your subject matter is very bright. You should also select an ISO setting of no more than 100.

I think it has to be one of these 2 problems.

Matt

goosey · #10 (**permalink**) 04-06-2007, 07:21 PM

I am totally confused now, I have changed so many settings I dont know if Iam coming or going. When I shoot a flower or insect I always use 100 ISO, for everything else I had it on auto and for a year this method worked including night vision.

I have checked that I have not activated the digital zoom by mistake and I haven't.

This is a photo I took last week and all I have done to this image is crop it.

So I checked on the image information for this particular photo and re-set the camera to those settings, but every photo was grainy again. This is one of those photos.

Actually you can see it better on forum images.http://www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk/ga...est3-6-072.jpg