Canon S500

[OwenR]

Looking for help with my new camera. I want to be more than a "point and shoot" photgrapher. Been doing research and learning much, but still not sure about some of what I've learned. First, I want to understand more on setting depth of field and aperture settings on this particular camera. I've played some, with a few good results. But looking for more answers on how to change these settings. Thank you.

[zipart]

check your library to see if they have any books on digital photography. that is what i did. i also spent a lot of time at borders reading what they had. another thing i learned was to read the manual. i can not believe the number of people i know who buy cameras and never read the manuals. when i first got my camera i read the manual several times the first week. i have had my camera for over a year and this week i pulled out the manuel to read it again. using the manuel, go through all the functions of the camera. experiment. as you use your camera, you will see what works and what doesn't. good luck. zip

[OwenR]

Thanks Zip. I have read the manual (and keep it close at hand) and also found a good e-book. I know how to change all the settings, but picking the right ones is my problem. After this weekend, I've realized I wasted my money on this camera. A polaroid would have taken better pictures than what I took with this one. I'm going to set everything to automatic and leave it at that. Thanks for taking time to reply.

[S45_fornow...]

Looking for help with my new camera. I want to be more than a "point and shoot" photgrapher. Been doing research and learning much, but still not sure about some of what I've learned. First, I want to understand more on setting depth of field and aperture settings on this particular camera. I've played some, with a few good results. But looking for more answers on how to change these settings. Thank you.

Unfortunately, you can't manually set aperture or shutter speed with the S500.....

[OwenR]

Not sure about aperture, but YES, you can set shutter speeds.

[S45_fornow...]

Not sure about aperture, but YES, you can set shutter speeds.

Yes, but only for long exposures (1-15 sec). Night scenes, or intentionally creating a blur effect such as waterfall, car lights, etc... Very, very limited.

That also won't help control DOF. If you had more control of the faster shutter speeds (under 1 sec) you could "force" a larger/smaller aperture.

Don't get me wrong, I own an S400 and I carry it everywhere I go. It takes fantastic pics, but I also own a G6 for those times when I need total creative control of my settings.