Unsure about correct exposure/settings

[wenyao]

Hello, thanks for creating this forum. The gallery is excellent and so are the resources here.

I just purchased the Pro90IS, having upgraded from the EOS 100/Elan I. While I have little trouble getting correctly exposed photos with my old film-based EOS SLR, I am somewhat mystified by the digital realm.

For example in M(anual) mode on the Elan, there would be indicators (be it a green dot or when the - / + signs equalize) to indicate that correct exposure (as determined) by the camera has been reached. However, with the Pro90IS (and G1/G2 I believe as well), the LCD brightens and darkens as I adjust the f-stop and shutter. Upon fully releasing the shutter, the final image captured is not the same exposure as what was on the LCD/viewfinder before pressing. This is very weird and disconcerting as I have no way of determining what is the correct exposure!

Also, the problem gets worse with flash, be it the built-in one or the 550EX. Most of my photos (taken RAW, in P-mode) come out overexposed, the flash being horribly powerful. Most of the time I have to shoot with flash compensation -2 in order to obtain ok exposure on the human faces.

As mentioned in other forums like botzillas website as well, there is no real focus lock mechanism. There are times at any zoom range, the AF refuses to focus correctly on the subject, despite coaxing it with half-shutter presses on the center focussing screen (absent too!) as I had done with my Elan previously. With such a small LCD, the taken photo might appear sharp, but after I downloaded the final image to the computer, it appears that the AF has decided to focus somewhere else, usually the background instead.

Perhaps I'm still stuck with the mindset of operating an SLR, but so far, I have been rather unsuccessful with my Pro90IS yet. Please help me! Thanks and best regards to all!