Sony Cyber Shot

[christopher_nisperos2]

I humbly come before this forum admitting that, for the moment, I'm a

digital dinosaur (actually, a friend gave me a Canon D30, but due to weird

flash and shutter delays --and the fact that I'm not a big user of small

SLR's anyway-- I just put it aside and have never studied it). At the same

time, my family thinks that because I can use a view camera, I MUST know

about digital too

 

Thusly, my niece in Hawaii just sent me an email this morning, begging

for help in understanding the new digital camera she just bought for her

family. I have never really handled or looked closely at digital cameras(!),

so I don't dare even to GUESS at answers to her questions (for example,

("5M" could be 5 meters, but Im not sure). Even the term "image size"

seems risky to give an explanation of.

 

Can anyone please help me help her? Perhaps you can give me the

address of websites to recommend to her in the style of "Digital for

dummies" (which includes me!). Here is her email, cut and pasted:

 

 

Aloha Uncle Chris!

 

Since you are the MASTER picture taker I am hoping you can help. I

bought a Sony Cyber Shot, 3x optical zoom, 5.1 mega pixels, Mpeg movie

VX DSC-W5, and I canﾒt seem to find the right setting just to take regular

pics.Can you tell me in laymanﾒs terms what these mean?

ﾠ

Image size?

 

5M?

 

3:2?

 

 

3M?

 

1M?

 

VGA(E-MAIL)?

ﾠ

AF Mode is set to Single?

 

Digital Zoom is set to Smart (others are precision and off)?

 

AF Illumnator is set to Auto (this is Auto Focus right?)

ﾠ

 

ﾠ

THE MAIN ISSUE I AM HAVING IS THAT WHEN I PUSH THE BUTTON TO

TAKE A PICTURE, IT DOES THIS PAUSE THING AND DELAYS THE

FLASH so then of course the picture is screwed up.ﾠ I bought this because

itﾒs supposed to be easy but the CD that came with it isnﾒt all that helpful.ﾠ I

want to push the button and the flash should go off immediately.

ﾠ

ﾠI am about ready to go back to my good old tried-and-true FILM Pentax

because I ALWAYS get great pics with that!

ﾠ

Anyway, can you help?

ﾠ

Many mahalosﾅﾅﾅ.

Love--Andrea

 

 

 

Obviously, I'm going to suggest to her that she join this forum so she can

post future questions like this herself! Meanwhile, anyone with helpful

information about this is welcome to email me directly, as well as posting

here. chrisnisperos at yahoo com

 

Thanks, in advance!

 

 

Christopher Nisperos

.

[chris_accetta]

Hmm...I use the same camera, maybe I can help.

 

Numbers with an "M" refer to the camera's image/file size. "5M" means the camera will record a 5 megapixel image. "3M" and "1M" are 3 and 1 megapixel, respectively ("3M" setting should be fine for most vacation pictures printed at 4x6 or 5x7 inches). "3:2" is a regular 5-megapixel image cropped to a 3:2 image ratio so that no parts of the image are lost during printing.

 

AF mode at "single" means the camera will calculate focus when the shutter button is depressed. The "monitor" setting means the camera is calculating focus all the time (this setting will drain the battery much faster).

 

The AF illuminator helps the camera auto-focus in low light.

 

Most importantly, to eliminate the "picture-taking delay" your niece should learn to "pre-focus" the camera. This is easy to do and will improve her photos ten-fold. When getting ready to snap a photo, press and hold the shutter release half-way. The camera will lock focus and calculate the exposure. She will see confirmation of this on the camera's LCD (the focus brackets will turn green). Then, without removing he finger from the release button, she should depress the shutter fully and record the picture. Most digital P&S cameras benefit from pre-focussing.

 

It sounds like your niece broke two cardinal rules: never buy a new camera right before a trip and always read the manual!

 

I hope these tips help improve your niece's trip. The Sony W5 is a fine camera and quite speedy once you learn to use it properly. I carried mine to France and Holland last month and was very pleased with the output.<div></div>

[marbing]

On an Autofocus/AutoExposure digital camera, the process of setting aperture and shutter speed and locking the focus point does not happen until the shutter button is pressed. This takes time and results in the delay that you experience. Also, the under-powered built-in flash takes longer to recharge as the camera batteries drain...which adds significantly to the delay.

 

However, you can account for that delay by changing the way you take pictures. The more work you take away from the camera processor, the faster the shots will be. If you lock focus and exposure by half-pressing the shutter button, you will cut the time lag significantly.

[christopher_nisperos2]

Dear Merle and Chris,

 

You guys --and this forum-- are great! Thanks for the quick

answers. I'm going to forward the link to this web-page directly to

my niece so that she can read your advice for herself.

 

By the way, Chris, great shot. I recognized the scene right away

because it's a few kilometers from where I live. Too bad the

weather isn't as nice right now!

 

Merle: Regarding recycle time, do you think it would help to carry

two sets of rechargeable batteries and rotate their use, as

wedding photographers do?

[christopher_nisperos2]

...sorry....Meryl, not Merle!

 

cn

 

.

[michael s.]

Uncle Chris, <a href=http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?z=y&ath=Christopher+Nisperos>this is you</a>, isn't it ? <p>

 

I agree with what has been said. Moreover, some p & s cameras -- not sure about hers -- can be preset for fast snap shooting, eliminating both autofocus and autoexposure lag. This can be done because the small sensors provide extraordinary depth of field. Hence, *if* a manually focused distance and aperture can be preset, and in essence "locked," your niece *might* benenfit from a set-up <a href=http://albert.achtung.com/cameras/A80/index7.html#SNAP>like this</a> (on a Canon). Probably not so helpful if your niece needs/wants flash on most of her photos, though. <p>

 

Good thing your niece has an Uncle Chris who knows "everything" about photography :-)

[michael s.]

'benenfit' was supposed to be 'benefit'

 

Initial search suggests to me that she *can* preset a manual focus distance on that camera. Might be worth a more careful look.

[christopher_nisperos2]

Michael S. said: "Good thing your niece has an Uncle Chris who

knows "everything" about photography :-)"

 

LOL... Hey, Michael ... don't forget, I came here

"hat-in-hand"...don't kick a dumb man when he's down !

 

Yes, I co-wrote the Hollywood Portrait book. I imagine that

George Hurrell would be quite surprised at the advances made

in digital point 'n' shoot photography. I call my 8x10 camera a

"Schlepp 'n' Shoot"!

 

Thanks a lot for the useful idea. If my niece reads this (as I've

asked her to ...hint, hint), maybe she will chime-in and tell us

how it's going.... and post a couple of photos of my handsome

grand-nephew (2nd hint).

 

.

[michael s.]

A number of the pictures I took on a recent trip were taken with a 5 megapixel digital point-and-shoot, though not the one she has. On <a href=http://flickr.com/photos/74058404@N00/sets/72057594112506026/show/> this set of shots</a>, I often pre-focused, pre-set, etc., to try to have my camera ready for the instant I wanted to take the photo. <p>

 

If your niece looks at what we've said here, she should also know that this business of presetting the p & s digital cameras to minimize lag (I really should not have used the word "eliminate" above) is certainly not a practice limited to amateurs, as <a href=http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-6468-7844>this article about the famous photojournalist Alex Majoli explains</a>. <p>

 

She also asked about "digital zoom." As a general matter, I would recommend turning the digital zoom to "off." If she needs to crop more than the optical zoom range permits, that's better done later on computer. <p>

 

Speaking of the computer, if she's particular about her photos, she'll probably want to consider something along the lines of Photoshop Elements (now up to version 4.0), which is surprisingly well-featured and powerful and costs about $80. Many digital snaps need at least a little adjustment -- contrast, brightness, colors, sharpening, or something -- before they "look right." <p>

[jcuknz]

Why do you not suggest to her that she reads the manual becuase the manuals are well written these days and take the user through the steps to take good pictures.

 

The days of reading the manual when all else fails are long gone, even though she appears to be in this position.

 

This has been reccommended as a good book on the subject in previous threads, although most books are written by DSLR users, they are the experts of course, and they occasionally seem to miss the advantages of the simple digicam.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0789733099/ref=wl_it_dp/102-0953521-0296129?%5Fencoding=UTF8&colid=39M6GC4UXJ259&coliid=I1CUUFAWCTDC4E&v=glance&n=283155

[marbing]

Extra batteries are always a good idea...even better is a separate flash unit (if the camera supports one) because 1) they are more powerful flashes and 2) they carry their own batteries and so don't drain your camera.

[christopher_nisperos2]

Hi all. Thanks again for the great answers, links and

suggestions which are making this thread so interesting.

 

JC:

(Re: my niece reading the manual) I think when she said, "the

CD that came with it isn't all that helpful", she was referring to

the'instruction manual' of the 21st century, readable on a

computer. Also, I really appreciate the book link you gave. In fact,

I recommended that she get a good book, but I had no titles to

give, so thanks again.

 

Meryl:

A seperate flash is a good suggestion but unfortunately, after

looking at the camera on the web, there is apparently no

accessory shoe (curiously, Sony does offer a slave flash

designed to sit on a bracket next to the camera, but obviously

this doesn't reduce the problem of battery drain. It IS a great idea,

though, for a bit more output, isn't it?)

 

Michael S:

Looked at your extraordinary photos (are you "sandbagm?").

Really excellent and motivating. Bravo. You wield a mean p&s!

 

Also, your link to Alex Majoli's photos. Wow. You risk to change

the thread topic! Great photojournalism from a point-and-shoot

camera. Takes the wind out of the typical excuse of debutants

who think that they need a zillion dollars of equipment before

thay can take "real" photos.

 

Reminds me of an early Nikon p&s I used to have ... I took TWO

friend's weddings with it. Both brides were super-pleased with

the results (only one drunk at a reception complained, yelling

"Hey, where's the 'real' photographer!). I still get some great

black and white street shots with a little p&s autofocus.

Good idea to show us the link.

 

Hey, niece? You taking all this down? LOL

[michael s.]

Thanks, Christopher, for the very kind words about my photos. (Yes, I'm 'sandbagm')

[neil s.]

Christopher,

 

Interested in selling that D30? If so, I'm looking for one. Send me an email at

neil_shane@yahoo.com. Thanks-

 

Neil