Canon A40 Focus

[jonykool]

I recently purchased a Canon A40 and am trying to fugure out how to shoot a pic with background out of focus.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks.

[boogiebill]

Hi Jony,

I'm about to buy this camera, so can't tell you the specific buttons to press. However, its basically about depth of field. The lower this is, the less things can be in focus at any one time. I think the A40 let's you lower the aperture (i.e. make the shutter aperture wider, but lower F stop number). Then, get good and close to your subject, and make sure the camera only focuses on this item. Another way to lower depth of field is to zoom in on the subject.

The problem will be if you have perfect conditions, as the good light will allow the camera to give an improved depth of field. The beauty with this camera, of course, is that you can experiment as many time as you wish.

I wonder if you can now do me a favour? Do you live in the USA? If so, could you tell me the average shop price (not web price) of this camera please?

Regards,

Bill

[vnikic]

I had similar problem.
I have A40 for three months and I took over 1000 pictures. The primary parametars for decreasing depth of field (for bluring background) are:
1) as small as possible f-number (in manual mode you can change it, but only two dufferent values are available depending on zoom),
2) zoom in as much as posible
3) close up to subject as much as posible

But, even then, you probably won't be satisfied. That's because compact digital cameras doesn't behave like 35mm's. Deph of field for digitals is 4 or 5 times longer than form 35mm's. That means it's not possible with A40 to blure background as much as you want.

Im macro mode things are little better.

The best you can do is to be very close to subject and to zoom in as much as possible (for example 2/3 of picture to be a head of portrait). The background will be noticably blured, but not as you want (and as I was trying to achive).

I think even better (and much more expansive) compact digital cameras (like Nikon CoolPix 5700 for example - about 1200$) has the same limitation.

Regards, Vladimir.

[rboate]

This is about the best I could manage in depth of field control, the comments show the EXIF data

http://community.webshots.com/photo/48232922/65143629xvlbcQ

http://community.webshots.com/photo/48232922/65143670FRfZbX

[sanhodo]

Vnikic suggests a small aperture number. In fact that will increase depth of field. You want as large an aperture as possible and also being close to the subject will help. You might try using the "M" mode to achieve this.

[Billb800si]

sanhodo wrote:
Vnikic suggests a small aperture number. In fact that will increase depth of field. You want as large an aperture as possible and also being close to the subject will help. You might try using the "M" mode to achieve this.

And here's where many get confused with APERTURE NUMBERS and ACTUAL APERTURE SIZE.

A small number f/2.8 is actually a very wide open aperture and allows very shallow Depth of Field.

Whereas a large number f/22 is actually very small opening and allows a tremendous amount of Depth of Field.

You can test this your self by taking your lens off your camera. Look thru it while manually moving the Aperture Settings (f/stops).

So remember:
Small number (f/2.8) large opening (Aperture).
Large number (f/22) small opening (Aperture).....

HTH
Bill B. (USA)