s230 Manual focus mode?

I just got my s230. I have never really owned a nice camera. I do not know much about photography, so a lot of things in the manual dont make since to me. I think I would rather use the manual focus, where it focuses in the center of the LCD. I have noticed that when I try to use Auto Focus some times the green boxes that appear are not even over the subject that I am shooting. If I switch to Manual mode and use the manual focus, will I have to manualy adjust every thing else. (ie exposure compensation, light metering, AE, FE .) The manual seems vague to me, on how all this goes together to make good pictures. Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Chris Chandler

At the risk of sounding like a know-it-all (which I'm not; I just have a little experience with an older fully manual camera), the S230 really doesn't have a manual focus mode. It has two auto-focus modes - the artificial-intelligence auto focus, and the center auto focus. In the artificial-intelligence (AiAF) mode, it looks at 9 parts of the picture and chooses several "zones" from among them. These are the squares that you see. It may not use all 9 of them. In the point focus mode, the automatic focus looks only at the center square of the picture and focuses strictly on that.

If your target is centered, this will work fine. It may have trouble, though, if you are taking a picture where there are objects of various distances within the picture. For this, you may find better results with the AiAF system.

As for putting the camera in manual mode, it would probably have been more accurate to call it semi-automatic mode. It will still automatically set exposure, but the manual mode does give you some control over equivalent film speed and those kinds of things that can come in handy in various lighting conditions. The camera still takes care of the mechanics of taking the picture, but gives you some alternatives for different conditions.

The neat thing about a digital camera is that you can experiment without cost - try the exposure compensation, changing a couple of notches + and - on a few pictures along with the normal "0" setting. The "+" setting is pretty useful if you are taking a picture of a moderate-sized dark object with light behind it rather than shining on its face. For example, you may wish to photograph a house with a covered porch, but the sun has already gone around and is no longer shining on the front of the building. Adding a couple of notches of "+" compensation will increase exposure just a bit, perhaps enough to bring out the detail within the shadows of the covered porch.

I haven't had my S230 very long, but I've been playing with all the features, trying to see just each control does. I have been taking several identical pictures of various subject matter, comparing the differences between various settings. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with your camera as well. Take a few shots, throw them up on your computer and look at the differences when you change compensation, film speed settings, flash modes, and zoom. Look from far, then zoom in and look at the quality of the picture. Spend a little time getting to know it and you'll have very few surprises when you use it.

Tom thank you for the advice. I think you also gave me some advice about my pictures appering darker on my computer than on the LCD. Well you were right on with it being my monitor. I took my CF card today to a photoshop and had them put them on their computer and they were fine. It seems like it is the shadows that are mainley darker on the computer. Example. my son was on a swing and he had a shadow on his face, i could still see his face fine on the lcd , even with the mild shadow. But when I put it on my computer, I can not even see that side of his face due to the shadow. I tried to adjust the brightness on the monitor, and that did not really help. I think this may be a setting tweak i need to do on my 3d accelerator, but not sure how to fix this issue. Thanks again.

Chris Chandler

Good question.
But pay attention, that reference guide for this camera says that AiAF autofocus system is for simple situations, the same with auto exposure.
Actually, I am not using autofocus in my v3, maybe because I think that all my pictures is not easy shooting but focusing in the senter is much more convenient and do not forget that you can use focus locking possibilities so then the sharp object can then stay sharp in any place of your composition, not only in a center! In this case, the camera focuses using the center AF frame. This is convenient for focusing on a specific part of a subject with greater certainty.

You are wrong saying that if you switch to manual mode, you have to fiddle with manual exposure also.

It's separate thing. Exposure stays automatic, and also depends on information from different frames of your viewfinder. And changes automatically depending on the light condition, even if you use your camera on manual mode. I am not sure about s230, but v3 has possibilities to switch exposure control from different squares to a senter of a viewfinder - this is effective when the contrast is too strong between the subject and background or when a subject is backlit.

So, do not worry, if you use manual focus in your camera, do not worry about exposure (if you satisfyed with it), but do not forget that not all situation is so simple for automatic exposure control that it will be OK for a paticular shot. Use exposure compensation and Exposure Locking possibilities.