Canon S230 blurry pictures

[standreamcast]

hello i just got me a s230 i had a sony cybershot 2.1 megpix.. and this cam is 3.1 anyways my old sony took some nice pictures i guess im not use to this camera yet.. but all the pictures i take with them on auto come out blurry inside the house is not that bad but outside is really blurry and fast moving objects are blurry how can i fix my blurry picture problem??
thanks

[klee]

Please have a search of the forums for 'blurry' or 'fuzzy' etc posts *first* as this is usually a photo technique issue - even if, as you say you've owned a prev camera before. If your reading doesn't help u in avoiding blurry shots for ALL your shots then post the picture/link with all the EXIF settings/data for comment/help. Remember pls try to help by doing your own research first.

[JohnMN]

Are your pictures blurry both inside aswell as outside? What are the light levels like? I can understand if they come out blurry (I presume you mean out of focus?) while taken indoors in low light but not outdoors unless you are not holding the camera steady enough or allowing the autofocus to lock onto the subject you wish to record. Do you use the flash indoors? Do you have all the lights on to brighten the room up where you are taking the pictures even if daylight is coming in from a window?

JohnMN

[standreamcast]

JohnMn well the pictures inside look better than the ones out side they are blurry or out of focus like u said outside light levels are sunny inside i have lights on plus i use the flash they look good... out side they dont what is a nice manual setting to take nice clean pictures.. and another nice setting to take fast moving pictures i have a dog want to take some pictures of him running but everytime i try is just a blurr.. and my last questions is there any mode on this camera to shot picture after picture really fast like click click click click 4 pictutes one behind each other etc..

[JohnMN]

The reason IMHO that your outside pictures of your dog are blurry is because you are using a 'normal' shutter speed. It is probably set to 1/60 sec or around that setting. This is your default setting for taking 90% of your pictures. On the other hand if you want to get sharp pictures of your dog running you will have to use a much faster shutter speed. Try 1/250 or 1/500 and see how you get on, I can't guarantee what the results will be like, but as this is digital you have can shoot and experiment as much as you like. Also, make sure you are taking the pictures of your dog on a bright day as increasing the shutter speed closes down the aperture which means less light is entering your camera (you see everything is a compromise). Do you use the manual settings on your camera all the time? I get pretty good results using the Auto mode most of the time on mine and only change to manual if there is difficult lighting or the subject is behind a wire fence or something similar. The only mode I know of is Continious (I think that's how you spell it) Shooting Mode, where the camera lets you take pictures more quickly than in 'Normal' Mode.

JohnMN

[standreamcast]

thanks for everything john lets see if i can take better pics now

[Voltus V]

There is additional efforts if you don't want your picture blurr, you can use tripod so your camera will still and not shake.

[Tom W]

JohnMN wrote:
The reason IMHO that your outside pictures of your dog are blurry is because you are using a 'normal' shutter speed. It is probably set to 1/60 sec or around that setting. This is your default setting for taking 90% of your pictures. On the other hand if you want to get sharp pictures of your dog running you will have to use a much faster shutter speed. Try 1/250 or 1/500 and see how you get on, I can't guarantee what the results will be like, but as this is digital you have can shoot and experiment as much as you like. Also, make sure you are taking the pictures of your dog on a bright day as increasing the shutter speed closes down the aperture which means less light is entering your camera (you see everything is a compromise). Do you use the manual settings on your camera all the time? I get pretty good results using the Auto mode most of the time on mine and only change to manual if there is difficult lighting or the subject is behind a wire fence or something similar. The only mode I know of is Continious (I think that's how you spell it) Shooting Mode, where the camera lets you take pictures more quickly than in 'Normal' Mode.

JohnMN

I have an S230 and have not experienced focus problems with it. Your post prompted me to look at some of my indoor and outdoor pictures to see what shutter speed the camera chose. It seems that when in auto-flash, it will choose 1/60 whenever it activates the flash, or at least all the times that I've shot flash in Auto flash mode. In manual flash (flash always on) mode, it changes shutter speed based on conditions. In "slow-flash" mode, you can have very slow shutter speeds and still get a flash - I've seen 1/2 second in my limited experience.

Now, when outdoors and in Auto-flash or in No flash mode, the camera tended to choose somewhere between 1/250 and 1/640 (yes, 1/640) second depending on the exposure needed. I also noted that aperture varied to higher than f-2.8 - 4 which I didn't expect. I have, for example, a picture of the back of my house at 1/320 sec, f 7.1. I'm pleased with that.

As for the overall mode of the Camera, I have mine set in "manual". The camera will still choose its own exposure based on the ASA setting I choose (which gives me de-facto control over shutter speed, within a narrow range). I tend to use 50 and 100 outdoors, and 100 or 200 indoors (400 does start to get grainy).

I'm still experimenting with it, learning its various features, so I am far from the S230 authority. :^) I'm just pointing out some observations I've made.

To the original poster, i suggest going back to default settings, then use the "set" button to go to "manual" and change your ASA to 100. I know this sounds silly (and hopefully not condescending), but due to its size, make extra sure that your fingers aren't covering any of the "holes" on the front of the camera as it could affect autofocus. If you do all this, as well as the other techniques suggested and it still takes bad pictures, take it back. There may have been a run of bad S230 cameras out there.

[standreamcast]

thanks for all that info i try that..

[onleo]

actually I have the same problem . I had a Kodak 3.0 digital camera several monthes ago. now compare with the pictures, i found the Kodak's pictures are much clearer than s230 even i use the same function to take a picture.

[peterkoh71]

i have similar problem and most of the time, it is macro shots that blur. really admire those close-up and very clear shots submitted by others of their aquarium fishes and plants. sony s8x seems to do a great job. i'm starting to wonder if it's limitation of the v3 due to the size of the lens and small body (trickier to steady ?).

will try to AE lock on a bright subject before taking fast moving objects like fishes. will try the AF lock and see if it's useful for indoors people shots.

outdoors so far not an issue. i believe it's the stronger lighting thus faster exposure setting selected by the cam.

cheers,
peter

[klee]

one must understand some basic photography techniques to understand why the camera chooses its shutter and aperture values and thus 'behaves' this or that way. generally for pin sharp picture with a hand held camera (ie not tripod mounted), the shutter speed must not dip below 1/60 secs. on the V3, you can't specify a shutter speed so that is why canon (& the camera) has made that decision for you when flashing in poor light condifitions in the interest of avoiding a blurry picture. when slow sync is used, by definition, the software will use a slower shutter speed than it usually will choose so that the ambient light gets a chance to hit the CCD thus capturing 'natural' light - giving WYSIWYG. in macro mode, peterkoh, you will need to have stealy steady hands to get a pin sharp picture holding the camera! So use a tripod always or practice lots, otherwise expect a blurry picture - that is user error, not the camera. the only caveat here i think being if excellent lighting can be had on the subject whilst in macro. and remember, in macro you may think the captured picture is sharp on reviewing on the LCD but until you load in to a 14" screen you cannot be sure due to the size of the LCD - less pixels show less detail, fooling us into thinking its sharp. the only other influencing factor I know of but have no experience with is under the same light conditions that prove difficult for most cameras to set faster shutter speeds (to avoid shake), the cameras attached to 'faster' lenses aka brighter lenses ie having ~ f2.0 specs vs the majority of f2.8, would capture a sharper picture due to it being able to let more light in. am i correct in this last point?