eos 400d

hello everyone!!
we just got a canon eos 400d.
the problem is, when set to full auto, the pictures appear darker than they should.
we are currently living in germany and the instruction manuals are all in german so i cant figure out the problem.
can anyone help?

thanx

steve

You should be able to download the manual from here:

http://www.usa.canon.c​om …odelid=14256#Ne​w%20Window

thanx for the reply mate!

by the way, just to clarify, i cant use the lcd screen as a viewfinder can i?

#if not it means that i`ll have to grow up and actually look into the REAL viewfinder like i used to do in the olden days.

then i have to learn how to take pictures.
yep, im a pretty useledd bugger me!


steve

No you can't use the LCD, you have to look through the viewfinder. Unlike point & shoot cameras, there is a mirror and shutter in the way.

WELCOME to the forums by the way

steve1000 wrote in post #2319050
the problem is, when set to full auto, the pictures appear darker than they should.

Where do they "appear darker". Is it on the camera viewing screen, or on your computer monitor after you download the images?

The camera viewing screen isn't that good for judging exposure. Also.. Your monitor might not be calibrated correctly. You'd have to post an example for people to know what's going on....

try printing the picture that way you can see how it looks.

hmm, still too dark on both computers...
heres the pic anyway:

as i said, this is on the full automatic setting, the picture was taken at 14:00 so it should appear to be much lighter than this.

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Do you have the EXIF info for the file - Do you have any exposure compensation set for instance?
White Balance looks off as well.

You sure thats on Auto???

its exposing for the background and not your subject... maybe a change of metering mode? Either that or shoot it in manual!

Even the background looks under exposed to me but I'm not on a calibrated monitor. I didn't shoot in Auto much but my results with my XTi came out better than that. :/

Kurt

yea, its auto, i`ll try again tomorrow after ive reset to factory settings.

cheers

steve

the 400d apparently has a habit of slightly underexposing images, i'd be willing to bet this is a combination of the wrong metering mode and a bit of underexposure. Whack a bit of exposure compensation on and it should sort it. In a picture like that, though, you're gonna end up blowing the background out to get the subject correct - which is something the metering gets confused with now and again.

bright sunny morning shot...
camera was reset to factory defaults too..definately on full auto, checked and double checked.
i think should i take it back to the store?

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I'd suggest to take it back to the store and compare pics taken with another 400D in the shop.

Its well known that the 400D exposes very conservatively (does not like blow outs) which is good.
While many of the reported "under exposure" issues were user error, there have been cases of cameras under-exposing noticeably more than others.

I found that I like "Center Weighted Averaged" metering mode the best (see manual how to change Metering method)