Hello all first time posting.

Hello everyone my name is Donte and I am a first time poster to this forum. I live in Vista Ca which is part of San Diego County.

I guess I should give you guys and girls the 411 on my camera knowledge. I owned a Panasonic FZ30 for two years. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wanted, but I did manage to learn a minuscule amount of info about photography in that time. I know I have a great deal more to learn thus the reason for me signing up for this forum.

I also decided to step it up a couple of notches in the camera department. Or should I say a lot of notches compared to my FZ30. I ended up getting a 40D. Well it’s really my second 40D. My first one was getting the dreaded ERROR99 left and right. So I went back to Best Buy and got a new one. I haven’t really had much time after that to take any pictures. I’m hopping to get out some time tomorrow during lunch to get some pictures.

I have been shooting some pictures in the house though. I have noticed a lot of them come out blurry. I think it might just be me though. But I have heard about the 40D focus problems on this forum quite a bit. To tell you the truth though, it’s got me moderately worried. I know low light high iso picture normally produce blurry pictures. So I hope some day time pictures will help me alleviate my worries.

Well that it’s for now. I think I have talked long enough. I will leave you with a picture I took with the first 40D…..My beloved dog Tyosn.

HOSTED PHOTO
please log in to view hosted photos in full size.

Welcome to the forum! Congrats from one southern California 40D owner to another. By the way, your dog photo doesn't seem blurry at all.


.

Donte,

It looks to me like your pic is sharp around the dog's eyes, then softens -- that would inicate that you used a wide aperture/low f-stop number. Try a simalar picture, but upping the ISO. You don't say what lens you used, and I can't get your image data, so that would help. If you were close to the dog with a large aperture opening that would account for most of the image being soft.

Try: a longer lens, farther from the dog, using a smaller aperture (larger f number) and, if necessary, a higher ISO setting. Then get back to us and include the above data.

You have a good camera, although some have reported a tendency to focus in front of their desired focus point. I think that with you, though, there are some settings that you could use to get more of your subject in focus.

Hope this helps,

Tony

---------------

Several Canon cameras, too many lenses and stuff to list

Tony Long Photos on PBase

AperturePriority wrote in post #4138618
Welcome to the forum! Congrats from one southern California 40D owner to another. By the way, your dog photo doesn't seem blurry at all.

.

What part of Sothern California are you from? Plus that picture is from the first 40D. It’s the one that had error99 on it. The new camera is the one that’s got me worried.

Tonylong, I have the 40D with the kit lens 28-135. I will take more pcitures but I will be at work so I will be shooting out side around 12 or 1pm. So should I keep those same settings? Also what should I take a picture of since I wont have my dog with me.

Welcome to the board neighbor. Try shooting with the middle f stops for a while. f/8-11 will give you a good depth of field.

Welcome to the forum, looking forward to seeing more pics.

Welcome to the Forums, you're in the best place to learn everything. Re your blurry problem, are you applying any post capture sharpening? You're old camera probably had in camera sharpening and you may not have set it in your 40D.

Nice doggy pic too

Anke wrote in post #4141219
Welcome to the Forums, you're in the best place to learn everything. Re your blurry problem, are you applying any post capture sharpening? You're old camera probably had in camera sharpening and you may not have set it in your 40D.

Nice doggy pic too

So should I change that setting? What does everyone else run. Right now everything is set to factory setting. What should I change if anything?

Donte wrote in post #4138663
Tonylong, I have the 40D with the kit lens 28-135. I will take more pcitures but I will be at work so I will be shooting out side around 12 or 1pm. So should I keep those same settings? Also what should I take a picture of since I wont have my dog with me.

Donte,

When you are outside in good light, you have more latitude with your settings. If you are taking a picture similar to the one with your dog, you will want to consider the possibility of its moving.

So I would suggest setting your camera for speed to stop motion but at the same time get some decent depth of field (depth of acceptible focuse): set your ISO to 400 to allow you a faster shutter speed, then try putting your camera into the Av mode (aperture priority) and setting the aperture to, well, try 8 for reasonable depth of field, and then push the shutter button half way down and check the shutter speed. If the shutter speed is, say, 1/500 or faster to stop motion. You should be good to hand-hold as well, but since you have IS with your lens, I believe, you can also work with that -- when you keep the shutter button pressed half way for a brief period while looking through the lens you should see the Image Stabilizaion kick in. It won't help with subject movement though!

These are settings for good daylight, aimed to freeze motion but get a good range of focus, taking pictures of kids, dogs, etc. Other situations call for other combinations. So, say, if you want to take a picture of a flower relatively close up and with a soft background, try setting the aperture to f/4 or f/5.6. This will allow a relatively fast shutterspeed and will also keep a tight focus on the flower. Be very careful, though, to hold the camera still: close-up shots (as well as long telephoto shots) are quite succeptible to camera shake. I've taken a monopod with me a lot of times when I'm likely to take such shots.

For faster moving subjects, you have to juggle the depth of field I mentioned with the need for speed. You can up your ISO to, say, 800 but you'll have to deal with some noise in your image. Or, you can put your aperture setting down to f/4, and, if you're shooting at a distance, you could get enough focus. I say f/4 rather than f/3.5 because most lenses are not at their sharpest "wide open" (lowest f-number).

Well those are some things to play with. Have fun, and experiment! Oh, and I might add that part of your experimenting could be to play with P (program) mode: set the ISO to something reasonable, and shoot away for a bit, then you can compare what the camera does to things you might do in, say, Av mode.

Hope this helps a bit!

Tony
---------------
Several Canon cameras, too many lenses and stuff to list
If you want to see pics from a recent day trip to Mount St. Helens, an active volcano in Washington State, with a 5D, click here
Tony Long Photos on PBase

Welcome Donte You picked a great place; there is tons of knowledge on this board. Nice pup, keep posting! Tony has given some excellent advice

Welcome. Come on in and learn, and share what you know with us.

Mark

Donte wrote in post #4138663
What part of Sothern California are you from?

Orange County (Huntington Beach). As you can tell from my portfolio, the HB pier is one of my favorite subjects.

.