Why does my P.S. give better results than Dslr

Im looking at last years holiday snaps taken with my now broken A40 powershot. They are so sharp and exposure always seems to be good. Now I have my dSLR i am wondering if I will be able to achieve better results. Naturally I have better lenses but....man im worried

Why do the powershot pics looks so good and i struggle with exposure settings on my Dslr.

I am going to the same destination as last year so I will be albe to compare, but I am wondering if I should just use the automatic settings to be safe.

Well, using the automatic setting is the safe route. But that route bypasses learning more about your camera, which will, eventually, allow you to up your game.

Yes thats the dilema. I have just bought a 2gb card (to add to my 1gb card) so I hope it will give me more space to experiment with the exposures on long hikes.

I would at least suggest to shoot in a mode that enables .raw like the P mode, if anything you can adjust the image settings afterwards. Personally I would learn to use the other creative modes, it's the only way too learn and grow. Try at least the AV mode, shutter speed will be determined by the camera, you just have to know what apeture to set. give a try before you leave.

Good luck!

Welcome to the world of DSLRs

The first thing you have to realize is the LENS makes the picture, the camera only records it. The A40 probably has a better lens than your EF-S set... It's easier to build a small high quality lens than it is to build a large high quality lens. That's why you can pay $1000.00 or more for top of the line EOS lenses. They do make a difference.

The other thing is that DSLRs don't apply as much sharpening and saturation as point and shoot cameras.. If you shoot JPEG, you can bump up these paramaters in the menu.. Of course it's always better to use RAW and process your images in a good editor like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Jim_T wrote:
Welcome to the world of DSLRs

The other thing is that DSLRs don't apply as much sharpening and saturation as point and shoot cameras.. If you shoot JPEG, you can bump up these paramaters in the menu.. Of course it's always better to use RAW and process your images in a good editor like Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.

Oh so PS cameras add the sharpness. I was wondering why I sometimes have problems with my DSLR.

My main problem is when the sky it soo bright that everything else looks dark in comparison, and I struggle to get rid of the blincking highlights

You can increase the sharpness and saturation settings on your XT, that might make them more to your liking.

Otherwise can i achieve the same in the RAW converter?

For some people, the best route is to take a good photography course that emphasizes the camera and the hardware (other courses emphasize composition). Barring that, then hang out in this forum and read everything that goes by. Experiment for about six months. Now see if anything is improving.

For beginners, point and shoot cameras tend to be a little more foolproof. Bear in mind that there is a fool who can overcome any foolproof scheme.

---Bob Gross---

Can't be helped in-cam. The sensor just doesn't have the range to record everything it's seeing in that situation. There are work-arounds. Graduated ND filters, shoot RAW & post processing in PS, etc.
There's a lot of info in the "Sticky"s at the top of the Post processing and printing section.

Syburn - Yes you can control the amount of sharpness and contrast that your camera applies to your shots, but.....

DSLR's offer you the opportunity to do this AFTER you transfer the images to your computer. This gives you the ability to "tweak" each image separately as opposed to a "blanket" setting for all shots in camera.

P&S cams are targeted at a very broad market segment - many of whom are just occasional "picture takers". This goes way back to the film P&S days, when you took your roll in in and got back an envelope of 3.5x5 (later 4x6) prints. Very sharp and very saturated. If this is what you are used to seeing most of your life, then that is what your mind says is "normal".

Serious 35mm and Digital shooters enjoy the ability to fine tune their images to personal standards. How, how much, and when is considered a disirable option.

Why do some digital images 'pop' and some look soft and dreamy - simple, the shooter made the changes to achieve the effect they wanted.

If you set the camera up to do all shots sharper or more saturated - you might be cheating yourself out of a lot of personal satisfaction down the road.