T3i portrait shots blurry.

rmanncobb wrote in post #16806423
Oh ya, One more thing there you smart guy you, Did i fail to mention that am a member in good standing with 2 different honor societies??? I'm going to just assume that you know how thats done since you are the "SMART" one in this conversation.

Good Day again,
rmanncobb

Wow, your stay here on POTN will be a short one. I tried to help, nothing I said was evil or mean-spirited, and if you read it again, you would see some helpful tips. I even reformatted your text so that others could read it more easily so they can help. Also your honor society standings don't really add much to the synopsis, do they?

Regarding your "semesters" comment... Either you are semesters and therefore well into year 2, or you are on some other schedule. I don't see where anybody actually said "2 years" either? As to "stupid sense", a fortuitous misspelling, perhaps?

Regarding your other comments, we don't know you from a rock on the ground, but we know Canon products here on this board. So before we can draw conclusions about the equipment being faulty, we have to assess you. The way to do that is by first impressions, and your experience, etc. Your first impression was not a good one, so one logically draws the conclusion that the person is faulty, not the equipment. Without proof to the contrary, and your continued attacks, what would you expect others to believe? Provide some examples of failed shots, and that becomes the basis for help.

rmanncobb wrote in post #16806509
I can see its just a lot of old men that think their opinions matter anyway.
As for you. You need to make sure you know and understand what you are talking about before you jump in with your opinions! They were not accurate.

I WILL NOT RESPOND TO ANY MORE POSTS JUST SO YOU KNOW> TIRED OF WASTING MY TIME!!!

and no need to sign on this one lol

A good Proverb comes to mind: Mockers resent correction, so they avoid the wise. I expect also we have a mix of folks that indeed older than you, but many that are not. Not sure what age has to do with the topic at hand though?

When you are ready to take some better shots with your T3i, please come back in a nice calmed down manner, and post a new dedicated thread with some examples, and we are more than willing to help point out the issues and how to correct them.

Oh my that was hard to read .

dpds68 wrote in post #16806703
Oh my that was hard to read .

I originally tried to make it better to read.

In a nutshell, here is the paraphrased version:

After all of that, the spearing began, it turns out the dagger was a butter knife, bandaids came out to fix the superficial wounds inflicted, and the person has basically said "I'm outta here" after 5 posts here on POTN.

Wow.

Rmanncobb, I don't know if you are still reading this but this is intended as a helpful reply.

Firstly, the electronic sizzling sound is perfectly normal, it is simply the camera not having enough light to focus and so using a rapid burst of flashes (one flash does not last long enough) to add light to the scene whilst the camera focuses. This is not a fault. If you keep the shutter button pressed down it will do the "sizzling" bit as it focuses, then take the shot. If you hear the sizzle and take your finger off then it will just have to start again when you press it again. A quick glance in the manual where it describes the onboard flash function would have clarified that, and you could have used the camera just fine.

The blurriness could be down to many things, but it sounds like you were using one of the basic modes, which all default to "all AF points active". This means the camera uses all the autofocus points and focuses on whatever it thinks may be the subject. Very often this is not waht YOU think is the subject. There are also many other ways that blur can occur and they are normally due to user error in one form or another.

Yes, blurriness can be down to faulty equipment, but 98% of the time it is just down to user error. As your initial post (rant) showed little understanding of the camera you were using, it is natural for people to think user error is far more likely than a faulty camera. Nothing you described that camera doing is a fault, it is all normal behaviour which is explained in the manual, had you read it.

You complain that, when you used an external flash, the camera made you miss the "good" shots because it wouldn't shoot and said "busy". Again, that is normal, flashes need to recharge, the image buffer gets filled and needs to be emptied etc. When the camera says "busy" all the time you are simply shooting too fast, slow down and wait until the good shot comes along, THEN take a shot and wait until the next good opportunity. Blazing away at the poorer opportunities, then complaining because the camera is busy when the good ones occur, is (and I hate to say it) user error again.

You need to be aware that a DSLR is a much more complex beast than a cheap point and shoot, but that does not mean that it will give better results automatically. In fact, the opposite usually applies as P&S cameras have much greater depth of field, which makes focus issues far less significant and so reduces blurriness from missed focus, especially at wide apertures. P&S cameras are usually aimed at doing everything for the user, where DSLR cameras tend to need much more user input to get good results. If you just stick a DSLR on full auto, or in a basic mode, then it will quite possibly not do as well as a P&S in the same situation. Take control of the DSLR yourself though and, with a little practice, it will blow the P&S out of the water. You do need to learn how to use it though.

This forum is a great resource and many people find "issues" like yours when they first get a DSLR. They come on here and ask for help and quickly get taught what they are doing wrong and how to correct the problems they are having. Many go on to become very accomplished photographers who then help out the next generation of newbies.

I know it isn't what you want to hear, but the problems you had are typical for a new DSLR user, had you come on here a year ago and asked for help, and not insisted that the camera is faulty and it can't possibly be user error, then you would have been able to take good pictures and not lost all that time taking bad ones. If it WAS the camera at fault, then people would have looked at the issue and your pictures and figured out what you needed to do.

The professors who taught you how to use the camera should have said straight away that the sizzling flash is just normal AF assist working, and how to get out of the basic zones and into the creative modes and take control over what your camera is trying to do. The fact that they did not is astounding if they actually teach photography. Surely, they can't teach photography and let you leave it on auto.

Coming along and ranting about faulty equipment, then slagging off those who try and help you by pointing out your errors will get you nowhere in life. It was pointed out that, if you thought the camera was faulty you should have got it exchanged or asked for help at the start. You chose to carry on with something that either wasn't working, or you needed some help in using, without dealing with it. Now you blame your grades on the bad camera. At some point in your life you will need to accept responsibility for your own actions / decisions and accept that you aren't so smart that you cannot be doing things wrong. You blame your bad photography on a "bad camera", then your bad grades on the "bad camera", then you come here and say that everybody is working for Canon because they say the "bad camera" sounds normal and maybe you were just doing something wrong.

People on here are normally very polite and he;lpful and go out of their way to diagnose problems and whether they are due to faulty equipment or user error. People helped then go on and change the faulty gear or learn how to use the perfcetly good gear that they had all along. Sure, some people were less than their normal polite selves to you. Once again, you cannot see that this was caused by your attitude, because you cannot be at fault it must be a faulty forum and so you leave.

If you stick around, and take a more humble attitude and show a willingness to learn how to use your camera then sure, post up some pictures with the exif intact and I am sure that people will be willing to help you out. Continue with the same attitude though and it will just be bounced back at you again.

WhyFi wrote in post #16806636
Wow. This guy's a peach.

+1 I hope he comes back. He's very entertaining.

"I screwed up, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT"

TeamSpeed wrote in post #16806730
I originally tried to make it better to read.

In a nutshell, here is the paraphrased version:

I am a multi-honor society student at a photojournal school where I am failing, and my career hangs on a thread. It is all because sometime in the last 2 years (I am not sure whether we are on semesters, trimesters, or quarters here), I paid $1200 for a Rebel T3i, beating out all my friends that bought cheaper equipment, but it just doesn't create results I expect.

Since day 1 it gave me fits with flash sizzling/strobing as I would focus, give me busy indicators as I took pictures, and images were all blurry. It cannot be the equipment because I had better pictures with point and shoots.

I took it my shop, and they were going to send it off under warranty to repair it. I chose not to due to the length of time, and continued with school. After a period of time (again uncertain as to whether it was a semester, trimester, or quarter), I tried to take it back, and now it will cost me (probably because it was now outside the 1 one year warranty period, and somehow that "semester" took alot longer than it should have).

I cannot believe that Canon makes crap and won't stand behind their product, even though I could have had it covered under warranty and chose not to. My life is ruined. It cannot be me, it has to be the equipment, just trust me on that. I found that everyone else has problems too. I found this 4 year old thread and dredged it up so that you could commiserate with me, and can follow what I went through, despite my seeming lack of grammatical structure, punctuation or proper spelling. I am sure you could read past all that to glean out the important parts.

I now go off to sharpen my dagger to spear the first person that says "it's me" or that "I need to show proof" or generally says anything not against Canon.

After all of that, the spearing began, it turns out the dagger was a butter knife, bandaids came out to fix the superficial wounds inflicted, and the person has basically said "I'm outta here" after 5 posts here on POTN.

Excellent synopsis.

$1200 for a T3i?...??? WW, I hope he got lots of extras with that package. I don't think that those Honor Societies would include the Economics Honor Society.

sandpiper wrote in post #16806755
Wow.

Rmanncobb, I don't know if you are still reading this but this is intended as a helpful reply.

Firstly, the electronic sizzling sound is perfectly normal, it is simply the camera not having enough light to focus and so using a rapid burst of flashes (one flash does not last long enough) to add light to the scene whilst the camera focuses. This is not a fault. If you keep the shutter button pressed down it will do the "sizzling" bit as it focuses, then take the shot. If you hear the sizzle and take your finger off then it will just have to start again when you press it again. A quick glance in the manual where it describes the onboard flash function would have clarified that, and you could have used the camera just fine.

The blurriness could be down to many things, but it sounds like you were using one of the basic modes, which all default to "all AF points active". This means the camera uses all the autofocus points and focuses on whatever it thinks may be the subject. Very often this is not waht YOU think is the subject. There are also many other ways that blur can occur and they are normally due to user error in one form or another.

Yes, blurriness can be down to faulty equipment, but 98% of the time it is just down to user error. As your initial post (rant) showed little understanding of the camera you were using, it is natural for people to think user error is far more likely than a faulty camera. Nothing you described that camera doing is a fault, it is all normal behaviour which is explained in the manual, had you read it.

You complain that, when you used an external flash, the camera made you miss the "good" shots because it wouldn't shoot and said "busy". Again, that is normal, flashes need to recharge, the image buffer gets filled and needs to be emptied etc. When the camera says "busy" all the time you are simply shooting too fast, slow down and wait until the good shot comes along, THEN take a shot and wait until the next good opportunity. Blazing away at the poorer opportunities, then complaining because the camera is busy when the good ones occur, is (and I hate to say it) user error again.

You need to be aware that a DSLR is a much more complex beast than a cheap point and shoot, but that does not mean that it will give better results automatically. In fact, the opposite usually applies as P&S cameras have much greater depth of field, which makes focus issues far less significant and so reduces blurriness from missed focus, especially at wide apertures. P&S cameras are usually aimed at doing everything for the user, where DSLR cameras tend to need much more user input to get good results. If you just stick a DSLR on full auto, or in a basic mode, then it will quite possibly not do as well as a P&S in the same situation. Take control of the DSLR yourself though and, with a little practice, it will blow the P&S out of the water. You do need to learn how to use it though.

This forum is a great resource and many people find "issues" like yours when they first get a DSLR. They come on here and ask for help and quickly get taught what they are doing wrong and how to correct the problems they are having. Many go on to become very accomplished photographers who then help out the next generation of newbies.

I know it isn't what you want to hear, but the problems you had are typical for a new DSLR user, had you come on here a year ago and asked for help, and not insisted that the camera is faulty and it can't possibly be user error, then you would have been able to take good pictures and not lost all that time taking bad ones. If it WAS the camera at fault, then people would have looked at the issue and your pictures and figured out what you needed to do.

The professors who taught you how to use the camera should have said straight away that the sizzling flash is just normal AF assist working, and how to get out of the basic zones and into the creative modes and take control over what your camera is trying to do. The fact that they did not is astounding if they actually teach photography. Surely, they can't teach photography and let you leave

Coming along and ranting about faulty equipment, then slagging off those who try and help you by pointing out your errors will get you nowhere in life. It was pointed out that, if you thought the camera was faulty you should have got it exchanged or asked for help at the start. You chose to carry on with something that either wasn't working, or you needed some help in using, without dealing with it. Now you blame your grades on the bad camera. At some point in your life you will need to accept responsibility for your own actions / decisions and accept that you aren't so smart that you cannot be doing things wrong. You blame your bad photography on a "bad camera", then your bad grades on the "bad camera", then you come here and say that everybody is working for Canon because they say the "bad camera" sounds normal and maybe you were just doing something wrong.

People on here are normally very polite and he;lpful and go out of their way to diagnose problems and whether they are due to faulty equipment or user error. People helped then go on and change the faulty gear or learn how to use the perfcetly good gear that they had all along. Sure, some people were less than their normal polite selves to you. Once again, you cannot see that this was caused by your attitude, because you cannot be at fault it must be a faulty forum and so you leave.

If you stick around, and take a more humble attitude and show a willingness to learn how to use your camera then sure, post up some pictures with the exif intact and I am sure that people will be willing to help you out. Continue with the same attitude though and it will just be bounced back at you again.

Finally a sensible post.

I was thinking the same thing about the $1200 purchase, a T3i is actually quite old now, and was even a year ago. Even with an 18-55 and 55-250 lens, that price is crazy. Even with the marked up ebay kits with kit lenses and 75-300, cheap memory cards, it is only $700. Oh well....

waterrockets wrote in post #16806785
+1 I hope he comes back. He's very entertaining.

"I screwed up, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT"

We should invite him to BF.

When I went out to buy my first DSLR, I ended up on POTN before I made a purchase decision. I ended up with a T2i and no regrets.

Much different than buying what a salesman says, getting a potentially bad unit, not correcting it, then coming on POTN and failing to realize that everyone on POTN is right.

WhyFi wrote in post #16806822
We should invite him to BF.

yeah, he'd love it in the 33. We're having a great argument about shoes and sprint speeds over there, and some new guy is questioning RX's aerodynamics >sigh<

yogestee wrote in post #16806802
Finally a sensible post.

A sensible post?

Yes, Sandpiper's post is very sensible but so are TeamSpeeds. That guy was just ready to explode on anyone that disagreed with him and TS just happened to be first.

rrblint wrote in post #16806975
A sensible post?

Yes, Sandpiper's post is very sensible but so are TeamSpeeds. That guy was just ready to explode on anyone that disagreed with him and TS just happened to be first.

Well I did have some very pointed questions that needed clarified, then offered to help if they would provide some samples, then made some general life observations. It turns out the person is older than I am, and my comments are about 20 years too late.

Sandpiper's actually provided some various items of help, but I feel that person is a bit set in their ways, and has already concluded there is nothing wrong with him, and everything with the camera and the shop that sold it to him, and Canon.

I don't understand how if it was bought just a little over a year ago why it wasn't sent in under warranty instead of waiting til the end, but that boat has sailed.

rmanncobb wrote in post #16806495
Did ANYONE ever offer to take my camera and fix it??? NO.

This is the line that gets me. I still read all of his rants as though he thinks this is an official Canon site with Canon technicians and engineers replying to posts. So when he rants, I think he feels he's ranting at someone at Canon sitting at Canon corporate.

$1200 is steep for a T3i, he should probably just return it.
**This is just the suggestion of a Canon enthusiast as I have a kodak polaroid camera as well**

only one way to fix the camera

use a hammer