Inexpensive Digital

[popeshawnpaul]

There are a few problems with this shot WAcoyotehunter.  Here are the settings you used to shoot the cougar picture:

ISO-400
f5.2 aperture
1/40th shutter speed

When you look at the photo the color balance is off.  The camera was probably set to auto color balance so there isn't a lot that can be done about it.  Do you see the cold blue color in the whole photo?  It needs warmth.  You can do a bit of that with a jpg but if you had this shot in raw you could just change the white balance and it would be fixed automatically.

The next issue is that it is kind of blurry.  Part of this is the cheap lens on the camera but the main issue is camera shake.  The camera was not at a fast enough shutter speed at 1/40th to stop the action and movement of the camera.  Some of this could have been prevented, however.  The f5.2 aperture isn't the fastest aperture but it's the fastest that camera has for that focal length.  The ISO could have been changed, however.  Had you put the ISO at 800 or 1600, you would have 1 to 2 more stops of light.  This would have changed your shutter speed from 1/40th to 1/80th at ISO 800 or 1/160th at ISO 1600.  Now, any photo at these higher ISO settings would have been more grainy/noisy, but at least the shot would have been sharp.  The camera has image stabilization.  If you had it on it doesn't work well or maybe you didn't have it on...?

This is the problem when you have a P&S camera on auto.  They select the settings for you and they got it wrong.  When I put my cameras on auto they rarely ever set the settings correctly.  This is the reason I like the creative control of using aperture priority and setting the ISO myself.  Some cameras do it, some don't.  It doesn't look like this camera does but I think you can manually set the ISO...

[robodad]

OK I am a bit confused on this cause originally he said that this photo was taken with another camera and just wanted information on the canon and if it could have improved this photo but now it appears that the photo was taken with the canon ?? 

[WAcoyotehunter]

OK I am a bit confused on this cause originally he said that this photo was taken with another camera and just wanted information on the canon and if it could have improved this photo but now it appears that the photo was taken with the canon ?? 

You were right the first time robo- the camera I had along was a cheapo and I was looking into buying the canon model that I posted.  Do you know anything about that model?

The camera I used was a Sony Cyber Shot 8.1 megapixel set at all auto settings and zoomed in.  The cat was probably 20'+- feet away.

Thanks for the info Pope, I wish I would have had a good camera along, i thought this picture had potential to be a good one.   You're right about the jpg being tough to work with.  I can't seem to get this photo much better than it is now.     

[robodad]

OK I am not familiar with that particular model like I said I have the SX100IS and I really like it. Do I think the SX10IS set on the auto mode would have produced a better photo ??  that's anyones guess, that's why they call it auto so it can decide your settings for you and I don't know if it would have picked the right setting for your shot. The more freedom you have in your camera the better off you'll be, like PSP says the raw shot would have been an easy fix so my first thought is to get a camera with that function but if I had to choose between the IS function and Raw I would get the IS because you will get fewer blurry pics !!   blurry RAW pics go in the recycle bin. You have more post processing freedom with RAW but no amount of PP is going to fix camera shake especially when looking down the barrel of a 150# kittykat !!! 

Shawn definitely has more information then I do on this subject so you better wait to hear from him on it but I don't think you would go wrong with the SX10IS, getting one that will shoot RAW is better though if you can afford it !!!

[popeshawnpaul]

I think any P&S would have taken a similar picture. 

As for IS and RAW...?  I like both.  Generally if your camera can shoot RAW it has IS. 

Really, the main problem with this shot is that the camera doesn't have the ability to set the settings manually.  If I were to shoot this scene with my camera and those settings popped up, I would have adjusted my ISO quickly to get a faster shutter speed.  I'm not sure you have that latitude with many P&S cameras.  That is why I like the G9/10 from Canon so much.  It's like a mini dslr, shoots RAW, has IS, and gives you aperture priority to control exposure.

All this being said, my wife has a Canon digital elph, like a 8mp P&S.  It does not have IS or RAW capability.  We take it places and use it but I understand the limitations with it.  Sometimes I get good shots and sometimes I don't.