Camera questions!

Lighting, filtration etc
ingg
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Camera questions!

Post by ingg »

Went and got a new tripod, bought this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 8044601803


Question 1: I do a decent thing with the tripod? Only part of it I don't love is the munting plates, but I plan on it staying on my camera all the time, so. ;)

Other questions:

Was playing around shooting some shots, and remembered advice from Kris and Aaron on F-speeds and shutter speeds, the fraction... hope I have the names right.

I found myself getting very dark images, and unable to make them brighter, when using a fast shutter speed, say around 1/100 or 1/125. F goes down to 3.5 on my camera, was still dark.

Does a lens help with this? Is it just a limitation of the camera? Canon S5IS.

If a lens would help... is there any value in getting this lens?

http://www.newworldvideodirect.com/prod ... uctid=2042
What I
Dave
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Aaron
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Post by Aaron »

I usually have to shoot my tanks at a shutter speed around 1/30 or so. To shoot faster shutter speeds you'd be better off investing in an external flash rather than a lense. Correct me if I'm wrong camera gurus?
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Jeff120
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Post by Jeff120 »

OK first it aperture F-stop and shutter speed, but you were close!

That lens you listed is for macro, it wont help with dark images. Did you try raising your ISO? Does your camera have exposure compensation?
Jeff U.

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ingg
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Post by ingg »

Can change ISO, had it at 200.

No exposure compenstion I know of. I'll have to look that one up.
Dave
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krisw
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Post by krisw »

So, to get started, since you have a tripod, initially, let's not worry about the shutter speed. Set your camera to Av mode, with ISO set to 100.

Now, set your aperture to F/8.0.

Chances are, the Av mode of the camera will determine that your shutter speed will be anywhere from 1/4 - 3 seconds. Take the picture, how does it look?

Is the tank overexposed? If so, you should have exposure compensation, which Jeff mentioned. On Canon, that's usually indicated by a series of lines on the screen, like:

|--|--0--|--|

If it's too bright, move it two bars to the left of 0, and shoot again. Better? Fiddle some more.

Now, the tank might look great, but your fish are probably blurry, right? Maybe even your plants if you forgot to turn off all of the flow in your tank.

Now, you have to get the shutter speed down to some less than 1/40, preferably 1/100, but that might be impossible with your camera. (Side note, I doubt any lenses for your camera will make a difference for this.)

So, to get the shutter speed down, you have a couple of options:

1. Add more light over top of your tank.

2. Increase your ISO. The more you do this, the grainier the resulting image will be. You'll likely have to just deal with some graininess.

3. Decrease your aperture. The lower this goes, the more limited your depth of field. This means, that the lower you go, the more likely you are to have the things in the front of the tank in focus, while the things in the back, may not be so focused.

In general, if you can't add more light, you'll likely have to compromise on one of both of these. I would start by pushing the ISO to 400. Adjust as necessary from there.

Report back. :-)
ingg
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Post by ingg »

I can't get the 3 second pics. Too blurred.

I should explain - I can take full tank shots. Yes, I get overexposure on the top from the lights hitting the Angustifolia, but so has everyone who tried shooting the tank. Full tank shots, no problem getting bright pics. Having problems getting the exposure up top out, which I'll tinker with the above for....

Changing aperture seems to make no difference whatsoever when in Av mode. F 3.5, F 8, it looks the same. I see those bars - they make some difference! Never knew how to access them, just read the directions. :)

I'm struggling when I'm zoomed, when I need that 1/100 (this is...shutter speed?) for fish or shrimp - for macro shots. My problem isn't too bright - it is too dark. I can get down to ISO 400 and F3.5, gets grainy, still dark.... take it to 1/8 shutter speed, brightens, but blurred fish.

this is why I asked about the lens I think - I just cannot get this camera zoomed in and get bright pics without being like ISO 600 or 800. If I get closer, the camera doesn't want to focus zoomed. Wondered if that lens'd let me get an easier time of taking shots of a 2" square sort of thing.
Dave
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Jeff120
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Post by Jeff120 »

You need more light my friend, a lens wont help this. External flash or even your flash diffused with some tissue paper will help.
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fredyk
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Post by fredyk »

also don't use the flash, just light.
and take lots of pictures. Your camera must have the ability to take good pictures without flash; using the light from the aquarium. It is a different quality of picture, but gives a bright pic

this has inspired me to get moving and post two pictures taken at the July meeting. This is the automatic setting.

This is without flash. Try all the settings on your camera and all the options.

Edit: btw, I bought the tripod from Best Buy; seems like I need one. :D
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Mark Harnet
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krisw
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Post by krisw »

Nice captures, Mark!
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fredyk
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Post by fredyk »

thank you, Kris: do you agree with the "no flash" idea?
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