I have the setting of 4 – 1/1000sec for a shutter speed range on the forthcoming digicam.
What does this do?
It let’s you adjust the time your camera can “see” the object to be photographed. Longer times can be used for static objects in darker places. It let’s more light in and the picture will be brighter and sharper.
I don’t know much about cameras. That’s just what I think I know. Someone with more experience can correct me.
As Joona said… too short an exposure will give you a dull photo; too long will give you a blurred photo that is too bright to the point of looking bleached.
The “right” setting depends on what you’re taking a photo of. Shorter for fast moving things; longer for slower things or in poor light.
Phil
It might well be that the camera takes care of optimal lens opening when you use the shutter speed preset option. That gives you some freedom as in that there is not a single ‘right’ setting of the shutter speed in any given lighting condition.
My Canon Ixus V3 (Powershot S230 in US) does this. (I think. I usually leave both shutter speed and lens opening to the camera.)
Klaas Bil
the automatic mode on the camera will select the best exposure most of the time but there are those situations where the camesa is not as smart as the operator and it does something really stupid. being able to adjust the exposure time gives you more freedom on what you want to do and makes it operate more like a LSR camera. that said the 1/1000 shutter speed would allow you to take a photo of something (like a unicycle;) ) moving very quickly on a very bright day and it would not be blurred. on the opposate end of the spectrome haveing a very slow shutter speed like 4 (secods i am assumeing, either way 4 anything would ne slow) would allow you to take pictures of stars or get some interisting effects with fireworks and headlights or any moving light source at night (assumeing that the camera is on a steady tripod)
gotcha, thanks
when would one want to alter the ISO settings?
ISO if i remember correctly is the same as ASA, which is a rating for the film, the lower the ISO rating the more light is required for expose the film, so if you have a ISO 50 film it would require twice as much light as a ISO 100 film and it goes like that till you get to something like an ISO 800 film. on an SLR camera you have to tell it what kind of film is in the camera so the light meter can adjust which shutter speed and aperture combination to use, if you forget and select the wrong one all your pictures will either be too light or too dark but consistency so. you may be wondering why not use the film that requires the least amount of light. that would make things simple and you could take pictures anywhere with any amount of light. well he classic problem is that as ISO ratings get higher the quality of the photo goes down (basically the pixel size becomes larger to put it into digital terms, it is a little different than that but you get the idea) so an ISO 50 film would be very high quality (and hard to get) but it could only be used on sunny days. generally something in the middle ranging from 100 - 400 is used these days, but the quality of the higher ISO stuff is getting better so its not as big of an issue. now for your digital camera you i am not totally sure when you would want to change it because there is no film and such quality changes could be made by selecting the highest quality rating. the only reason i can think of is that your is set up so that it can be set up to operate to be very similar to a SLR camera simply for people who like the classic SLR and want the convince of a digital camera. but that said setting it higher should allow you to take pictures with less light but the megapixel rating should be the same. just play around with it and let us know that the different settings do.
will do, i should have it by friday
ps, before you go buying something electronic, check out ebay, as there is often stores selling their wares at a discount, my camera package was $100 cheaper (with the ‘buy now’) than the distributor I got my last one from, which was already far cheaper than the stores.
And with a user rating of 99& with over 4500 items, i feel pretty safe. (as it is a store, I’m still quite leary about sellers being individuals)
Changing the ISO setting can allow you to get a proper exposure in tricky lighting situations.
You may be on a trail under tree cover or on a cloudy day trying to take pictures of a muni ride. You can up the ISO setting to make the “film” more sensitive so you can take pictures in less light. You may be taking action pictures of a muni ride or bike ride where you want a fast shutter speed to stop the action, but there may not be enough light for the fast shutter speed. You can up the ISO setting to compensate so you can use a faster shutter speed.
This works in reverse too. You may want to take a shot that has intentional blurring to show movement. But it’s a bright day out and you’re unable to use the slower shutter speed without over exposing the photo. You can compensate by lowering the ISO setting to make the “film” less sensitive. That will allow you to use a slower shutter speed without over exposing the picture.
This feature doesn’t come free though. When you increase the ISO setting you are turning up the amplification on the CCD (the light sensitive circuit). That can degrade the quality of the picture a bit (create more noise in the photo). Digital cameras typically have a native or optimal ISO setting around 100. ISO 100 will generally give you the best quality. Bumping it up to ISO 400 can make the photo a little bit more noisy.
ISO 100 is considered slow. It’s good for things like landscapes and snapshots when there is good lighting.
ISO 400 is faster and is good for action shots like sports event or for taking pictures on an overcast day.
General rule of thumb would be to use ISO 100 for stills and landscapes. And use ISO 400 for action shots like muni.
One feature that my camera doesn’t have is the ability to change the ISO setting. I miss that feature when taking muni pictures under tree cover or in low light.
Incidentally, if you want excellent information on a specific digital camera, I would suggest checking out Imaging Resource. I’ve used this website extensively when researching different brands and models, as they will tell you more than you probably want to know about your camera.