s30 difficulties...

[$chlitz]

i bought an s30 about two months ago, and while i haven't used it a lot, whenever i have used it i probably get a 1 to 10 ratio of good to bad pics. outdoor shots tend to turn out ok most of the time. the most notable problem is poor indoor pics. it seems the flash is somewhat overpowering. the subject of my shot is always way too bright. the only way i've been able to get decent indoor shots is to turn the flash all the way down and the exposure all the way down. it's just frustrating that i can't seem to get a decent pic hardly ever with the auto settings--seems something always needs to be adjusted...really starting to think i should have gone with a simpler sony cybershot camera. i don't think the s30 really has the "point and shoot" capabilities i was hoping for. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

[archiebald]

Had my S30 about a year now.

Most of the time I am shooting at ISO 50, on the P setting.

For normal shots, the flash is spot on, I have only ever needed to reduce it a stop or two for close up work where it does cause over-exposure. (less than 1 meter)

[nachi]

Hi,

You are right - the flash is over-powering. I own s45 and have the same problem. I assume that you require flash only for indoor shots. I have a suggestion, though I have never tried it.

Use the "custom-mode" instead of the P-mode. The camera will remember the custom setting. In the custom-mode switch the flash on. Open the aperture fully - that is set it to f2.8 or whatever is the lowest f-number (with this setting you can have a low shutter speed to compensate for camera-shake). You might also want to set the flash-level down and exposure compensation negative. Now only one parameter is to left out - the shutter-speed - which you can decide on-the-fly based on ambient brightness. This i much better than tweaking all the parameters. Now the custom-setting is almost like P-mode.

As for sony-cybershot, I don't think it has as many manual modes as s30 - else I would have bought that ;-)




$chlitz wrote:
i bought an s30 about two months ago, and while i haven't used it a lot, whenever i have used it i probably get a 1 to 10 ratio of good to bad pics. outdoor shots tend to turn out ok most of the time. the most notable problem is poor indoor pics. it seems the flash is somewhat overpowering. the subject of my shot is always way too bright. the only way i've been able to get decent indoor shots is to turn the flash all the way down and the exposure all the way down. it's just frustrating that i can't seem to get a decent pic hardly ever with the auto settings--seems something always needs to be adjusted...really starting to think i should have gone with a simpler sony cybershot camera. i don't think the s30 really has the "point and shoot" capabilities i was hoping for. any help would be appreciated. thanks.

[BigPete]

I found that by backing off at least 5-6 feet and use the zoom for composing the picture works good. You can't get real close or the photo will be overexposed.

Big Pete

[Presidente]

/edit/ sorry i miss posted...

[joking_15]

any had used A620, CAN YOU?,inform me about: advantage/disadvantage

[2obnnelg]

It's kind of cheap and nasty, but when I know I"m too close for the s30 flash I put my finger over part of the flash. It's tacky, but doesn't work half bad.