best shooting mode for sd300?

[Spiegs1106]

in the sd300 which shooting mode have people come up with the best quality pictures? thanx!!

[S45_fornow...]

in the sd300 which shooting mode have people come up with the best quality pictures? thanx!!

I don't own an SD300, but if you told us what type of conditions (indoors, outdoors, low-light, people, landscapes, etc...) you like to shoot under, you'd get some good responses.

For starters, I'd turn off the AiAF focus on your camera and learn a little about white balance and exposure compensation (in the manual).

[Spiegs1106]

could anyone else help me?

[roadrider]

I own a SD300 and always shoot in M mode, ISO 50, AiAf off, Vivid color, Superfine quality. Hope this helps. :)

[information]

I own a SD300 and always shoot in M mode, ISO 50, AiAf off, Vivid color, Superfine quality. Hope this helps. :)
I had the same question and appreciate this response. Is the reason you turn the AiAf off to speed up the shutter lag? What are the downsides to this and switching to Vivid? Does the switch from the default Fine to Superfine slow the camera down any?

Sorry for all the questions, answer whatever you like or have time for. Thanks!

[lafester]

i have been playing with setting for a few weeks now and have not come up with "perfect" settings for the camera yet.

it seems like i almost always have to lower the exposure setting a little when outdoors. this will help with fringing also if you are having problems with that. vivid setting would be a user preferance, but it does add more color which isn't usually a bad thing. i have always turned the beem off just because it is annoying, but have never turned off the aiaf mode. maybe i will play with that a little more.

as far as speeding up the camera goes... i just played with it and i think aiaf does slow down the camera, and really doesn't help focusing anyway. fine to superfine will only slow down the camera if you have a slow memory card. depending on lighting iso50 can be slow... if you are going to pick a setting though this would be the one. i usually just leave this on auto unless i am having problems getting a good shot.

chris

[Jon]

in the sd300 which shooting mode have people come up with the best quality pictures? thanx!!

The "best" shooting mode will depend on what you're trying to photograph. That may not sound very helpful, but it's true. I could say that shutter priority with pre-flash disabled and manual focus is the best, but if that's because I'm shooting sports while you go for dreamy, introspective landscapes, when you tried it, you'd think I was an idiot!

The only general guidance I could suggest is to use as low an ISO setting, as high a resolution, and as low compression ("Fine") as possible will give you the highest quality pictures, leaving aside issues like long exposure times due to low-light, or blur due to subject motion.

[information]

Hello Jon,
Of course, you are right, it all depends on what one is photographing and under what conditions. I think that the above repies were meant more for general photography, of the type that one would take on auto. Superfine might be a fairly significant improvent over the SD300's default Fine, and turning off the default AiAf might be workable in most situations. The Vivid was also interesting to me.

[foobar]

Is the reason you turn the AiAf off to speed up the shutter lag?

It will reduce lag slightly - but the main reason for turning of AiAF is to gain more control over the image focus. AiAF is good in a lot of situations, but far from perfect - with AiAF off, you can 'tell' the camera where it should be focussing rather than have it guess. Especially useful with the 'half-press' of the shutter button...