Powershot A40 blurry or poor flash

[abitbent]

I've about had it with this A40. I'd probably have a little more patience, but one thing I do know, is I can take my crappy 35mm with 200 speed film and get way way way better pictures than this.

If someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong (without telling me to TRY this or TRY that) it'll save my faith in this crappy digital camera. You can't tell me that the FM (f*cking magic) that goes on in the digital processing can't give me the ability to point and shoot good pictures in the auto setting, without fiddle farting around with manual settings everytime I want to snap a pic.

Everytime I think I'm being impatient about digital photography, I take out my 35mm and shoot brainless shots that always turn out great.


Here's my dilema.... I'm in a situation where I'm indoors, the subject I want to take a pic of, is not 24 inches in front of me, so the flash ends up being completely useless, and I get shots like this:

http://members.rogers.com/abitbent/pic2.jpg

(Auto Mode, with flash, subject about 12 feet away, moving)


It's always too dark, and when I touch it up after by fooling with brightness and contrast, I always get red eye and grainy shots.

So, if I force the camera not to use the flash, I get this:

http://members.rogers.com/abitbent/pic1.jpg

(Auto Mode, no flash, subject 12 feet away, moving)

Unless the subject is completely still, it's always blurry. The brightness, contrast and colour is great, but motion kills me.


This camera is completely useless, unless, I'm either outside on a nice day, or the subject I'm shooting is two feet in front of me.

I still say digitals should be able to get rid of the blur with no flash. They should be able to emulate 400 speed film somehow. GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!

Anyone seem to find the magic combination of settings in Manual or P mode to overcome this problem? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

bent

[atkinson1]

I'm not sure if this will help, you may already know this.

If it is dark, then yes, with any camera the flash will only range for a couple of metres.

If you dont use a flash, then the camera will compensate by using a slow shutter speed and that's why the pics are blurry. Not only will you need a tripod, but moving objects will be blurred.

Are you sure that with a film camera, you are still shooting in the same conditions? The principal would be the same for a film camera too. You may be able to fiddle with ISO settings on your digital (you can change it on the IXUS II model) - this may or may not help.

[stduc]

Not too sure about what the A40 can do - but with an A70 you can up the ISO to 400 which helps, but results are a bit grainy. You could use an external slaved flash to up the flash power. On the A70 with my external flash I can shoot up to 50 feet at ISO 50 at f5.6 1/500 second! Without an external flash the A70 is reasonably competant at up to 2 metres. To stop blur I tend to use flash in Tv mode at 1/250 sec though. With the external flash I use manual mode and generally set the focus manually as well as the A70 is not much good at focussing in poor light. I therefore turn off the Af assist beam which means your subject doesn't get that hint that you've pressed the button. Also, with autofocus off and if the subject is within 15 feet I can use f8, so shots are pin sharp.