Newbie Here and to Canon G6

Hello All: I just bought my first Canon Camera the PowerShotG6. I am not happy with results with it. My little Sony took better pics than this camera seems to take. I am posting a piece of the top portion of a family pic, with results that were none to good. Note the white glare which spread down into faces of people in the picture.

Now, please keep in mind I am new to this camera and all settings. I am just using the auto mode and took a few in the P mode as well.

Right now I am struggling with the settings I think as it will only take a few pictures at a time then it says memory card full.I bet the resolution is on highest setting I am about to read booklet now, but I do not do well learning this way!Also I tried to download the few pics on the card and they do not show up for download but do show on the camera card as being there. Can someone please suggest what might be going on?

I am a senior citizen.....and that might be part of the problem!! Thanks Neb

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judging from the top of the picture, it seems overexposed as you shot towards the lights from a low angle. Best to have your back to lights (if possible) and the subjects well illuminated.
As far as the memory card goes, it is the supplied 32MB card and if you are shooting at max resolution you can only do about nine shots in JPG. If you are shooting it in RAW format as well that gets cut down to about three.
Welcome to the forums, congrats on your first post

why don't you try shootin a pic with the old sony and your new canon side by side... and see how that goes. when I first got my G6, I was alittle disapointed too cus I thought, "hey, I just spend a few hundred bucks for this camera and the pics didn't get better, it might have gotten worst." Then after I've read some books and help from the nice folks here... i realized that because the camera is so much more detail than just a plan old point and shoot... you have to know what to do to get those amazing pictures. It's like having a fancy sports car.... unless you know the car, it's easy to loose control. A auto honda civic is always a better driving expierance than a Cobra for most people.... untill you get to know the Cobra, then life changes. Oh god, i'm rambling.

Yes, cards could be different size - I think G6 comes with 32 mb card with it. I have bought 2 gigabait for my G6, so I do not usially see that message about memory card.
Invest a little bit more money, if you use jpeg, you could be OK with 512 mb card I think.
And keep your settings on highest resolution.

Welcome nebgranny! The G6 in my experience has a bit of learning curve. Try to use the P mode first in well lit conditions and try not to point it at light sources at first. You will slowly get a feel for the camera, and later on you can move to other modes.

nebgranny wrote:
Hello All: I just bought my first Canon Camera the PowerShotG6. I am not happy with results with it. My little Sony took better pics than this camera seems to take. I am posting a piece of the top portion of a family pic, with results that were none to good. Note the white glare which spread down into faces of people in the picture.

Now, please keep in mind I am new to this camera and all settings. I am just using the auto mode and took a few in the P mode as well.

Right now I am struggling with the settings I think as it will only take a few pictures at a time then it says memory card full.I bet the resolution is on highest setting I am about to read booklet now, but I do not do well learning this way!Also I tried to download the few pics on the card and they do not show up for download but do show on the camera card as being there. Can someone please suggest what might be going on?

I am a senior citizen.....and that might be part of the problem!! Thanks Neb

Welcome,

I got a G6 back in March and went from a Fuji 2600. There is a bit of learning curve as stated here. I was eager to learn and sharpen my skills. It sounds like possibly that is not what you want to do. If you were just looking to get better pics from a point and shoot, maybe another camera such as the A95 might be a better choice.

nebgranny,
If your not seeing the pictures on download, you are shooting raw and need to use a card reader to download them.
There is a bit of a learning curve with the G6.
Without seeing the whole picture it is hard to tell why it came out the way it did.
________

Welcome nebgranny! When i first got my G6, I had to read the manual for a few days yntil i fully understood what it was fully capable of. And I'm still learning stuff now. You just have to play around w/ it a bit, and in no time, you'll be taking pictures of everything w/ it. I have a 512 mb card for it, and i can fit about 222 pictures on it in the highest resolution and setting. When you're starting out, try to shoot portraits w/ the portrait mode, the results wil come out pretty nice. Like when i did a wedding back in May, i used that mode for some of the shots, they came out pretty good. You'll get used to the camera soon enough. Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who has posted a response.
Several thoughts ..First, my card is a 128MB small in comparison to some yet bigger than what came with the camera.

If this camera is shooting raw, I would have no idea how it got into that mode!! Must have slipped up somewhere.I missed some important events with it this way, a birthday and Hallween pics of my grandchildren!!

As far as a different camera, too late for that, as passed the time to return. I bought it and then my hubby had some tests so it just sat for that time period and now all is well with him I picked it up again..priorities you know!! I hope I can learn this camera as it was not cheap to me, I know people have more expensive ones but this was the one I could afford, really wanted the Rebel..but ya know!!

Again thanks , going to try and read the instruction book now, but how do I get this camera out of raw mode and get the few pics on the card off to see? Neb

Forgot tp add...My computer has a slot to place the various camera cards and they still do not seem to come up when I put it in to try and download. Is this what you mean by a cardreader?? Neb

Have you installed the software that comes with the camera onto your computer? The RAW files have to be converted before you can see or use them on your computer.

The G6 will take some great pictures. Here are a few examples below. When you turn it on it should show the iso, flash and on the bottom left the picture size you are taking along the left side of the lcd screen. If you have the work RAW down there you are taking RAW pictures, what the sensor saw when you took the picture with no processing of it. Point and shoot cameras will sharpen, adjust colors, make sure whites are white etc. when you take a picture. With RAW it just saves what it saw and leaves it to you to do all this work on your computer. If these aren't there press the DISLPAY button until they show up. Pressing the FUNC button will let you change this setting. When you press it a red stripe will show up along the left side of the screen. Use the large round silver button with the arrows to move the red block down until it is on the RAW choice. Using the same arrow buttom move it right to the L setting. This is your largest jpeg setting. A new setting will appear above it which will either look like steps, a quarter slice of round cheese or an S inside that slice of cheese!. This sets the amount of compressin or quality of the picture while the previous setting controls how large it is. I shoot mainly on RAW but would recommend the L setting and the cheese slice with the S. This is the best jpeg setting and can be viewed directly on the computer. This is a start. The G6 is an advanced camera and will take very nice pictures for you. Don't use the AUTO setting. Use P at least. I use AV which is aperature and will give you some control over the depth of field while the camera will set shutter speed. The TV setting lets you set shutter speed while the camera sets the aperature. One other setting that might help you starting out is the JUMP button on the top left of the camera. It controls metering on the camera. Pressing it makes the camera take into account the whole picture when setting exposure (the box with they eyeball in it), or mainly the middle of the picture (the empty box) of a small point in the very center of the picture (the box with the little dot in it). If you want to take inside pictures notice the slot on top of the camera. A Canon 430EX flash will open your eyes to beautiful inside pictures. There is a lot to learn to learn but it is worth the time to get some really nice shots. I had the dirt road with the aspens printed at 11x14 and hung it on the wall. Looks beautiful. Good luck.

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nebgranny,
I bought this book it is very helpfull for the G6:
A Short Course in Canon PowerShot G6 Photography
http://www.shortcourse​s.com …re/canon/book_c​anong6.htm
It is well worth the money IMHO
Ps: If you don't erase the card, the raw files will still be there.
________

cntry wrote:
nebgranny,
I bought this book it is very helpfull for the G6:
A Short Course in Canon PowerShot G6 Photography
http://www.shortcourse​s.com …re/canon/book_c​anong6.htm
It is well worth the money IMHO
Ps: If you don't erase the card, the raw files will still be there.

Did it really give you more info than the manual?
I've heard it was just a reiteration of the manual.
The reason I ask is because I was seriously considering it, but was advised that I could probably learn as much reading the manual and reading on here and other photography forums.

TIA,

Joe

The manual assumes you know the principles of photography; what Av and Tv mode are, the purposes and relationships between film speed, aperture, and shutter speed, general terms, etc... I had a decent grasp on all that, so the manual makes sense to me, for the most part, The Short Course books (from what I can tell from flipping through one) basically just reiterate the manual, but take a little more time to explain the terms and concepts that the manual takes for granted, so they're probably really useful for some people, though any basic photography book(even a pre-digital book from the library), read alongside the manual would probably be just as helpful, though less specific to the particular camera.