Free: Contests & Raffles.
gkowen, I reread your post. The ISO and flash work exactly opposite of how you think they do. The flash is adjustable on this camera.The flash level is set according to the ISO the camera uses. The brightest flash is when the ISO is set on 3200. When the ISO is set on 100 the flash is VERY WEAK. This seems exactly the opposite of the way I thought it should be. This is how you test the camera to see what I am talking about. Place the selector knob on the camera to the "P" setting. ( The P setting is for manually programmed settings) (The green camera icon is for using fully automatic settings). Go to the menu and set the ISO to 3200. Do this at night, and then take the camera into a dark room. Hold out the camera and take a picture. You will see that the camera uses a VERY BRIGHT flash on ISO 3200. Now go back to the menu, and set the ISO on 100. Then take the same picture. You will see that the camera uses a very weak flash setting on ISO 100. Now compare the pictures. It took me about a year to figure out how to use the ISO to get the best flash setting, and I just figured that out in October. Before then, I always set the camera on the green camera icon and used the camera on fully automatic settings. On this setting the ISO is on automatic. In daylight, the camera uses ISO 100 to 400 depending on whether is is a sunny day or overcast. But on this setting, the camera always uses ISO 800 for night time flash pictures. On this setting, the flash level is only about 50% of the flash available in this camera. If you place the selector on the P setting, you can leave all other settings on auto and manually set the ISO to any of the available settings. But as you raise the ISO level, the night pictures become grainy, and the day pictures are washed out. You can't even set the ISO to 800 on the P setting because this hurts the quality of your day pictures. There is no way to use the bright flash on these cameras when the camera is used in a trailcam. So I ran my cameras on auto for a year. I decided that I needed to build external slave flashes for the cameras since I could not utilize the brighter flash ranges of these cameras. I bought two Vivatar 2800 flash units on ebay. I planned on ordering two slave flash control boards from bigfoot outdoors.com, and also two 1020 Pelican cases to put these external slave flash units in. But in October, I learned how to use these cameras. The camera has the amazing ability to take sharp high quality pictures in low light conditions with very little flash. I now use ISO 100, 200 and sometimes 400 depending on the distance I expect the animals to be from my camera. These cameras come with a CD that has a manual for the camera and also photo editing software. This software is called Picture Motion Browser. This software is designed for these cameras, and it allows you to add the flash to your pictures on your computer. I knew this all along, but if you add flash to the higher ISO pictures it destroys them. You never want to use an ISO setting above 400, and 100 or 200 are the best choices. I will post more on this later, and I will also post examples of pictures before and after the flash is added. Sometimes, you don't get this CD with cameras you buy on ebay. I have several of these CD's, and I can send one to anyone that needs it. After you install it on your computer, you can send it to someone else that needs it. You really need this CD for editing your night pictures.Bones
My ebay camera didn't come with the CD, PM me if you could send me one. I'll return it or send it on to the next ebay buyer. Thanks Hds[/quoteIf you look on eBay for the cameras with no CD most of the sellers have a link to the free download for the software. Next time I'm on there I'll copy and post it. Maybe someone can make it a sticky for those of you who don't have it.Shawn
Quote from: div4gold` on February 04, 2009, 02:19:57 PMMy ebay camera didn't come with the CD, PM me if you could send me one. I'll return it or send it on to the next ebay buyer. Thanks Hds[/quoteIf you look on eBay for the cameras with no CD most of the sellers have a link to the free download for the software. Next time I'm on there I'll copy and post it. Maybe someone can make it a sticky for those of you who don't have it.ShawnThis is what I get when I click on the Drivers and Software at that site. I've got XP sp2, I don't have the camera yet but I'd guess that it will recognise the camera and download pictures. I was just wondering about the photo program that is on the CD?The following is from the Sony site:Driver information for Microsoft® Windows Vista® and Windows® XPThe drivers needed to connect most Sony® cameras and camcorders to a computer are already included in the Windows Vista and Windows XP operating systems. With these drivers, you should be able to connect and transfer files to a computer.Note: If the your camera or camcorder is not recognized by the computer when connected, you may need an updated driver. Detailed Windows Vista compatibility information is available for Sony Cameras and Camcorders. The Windows Vista Starter edition and Windows XP 64-bit operating systems are not supported.
