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Powershot S3 and Flash: Best Settings?

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Kevin Roe

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Hello. I picked up an S3 for my wife for Christmas and have been helping her set it up this week. After reading tons of reviews I was expecting stellar results out of the box.

However, I have been unimpressed by the camera's onboard flash and its inability to properly light an indoor scene. I've played around with reducing flash EV in program mode, shifted ISO around and even just left it in Auto everything and it continues to bleach out the subject unless I reduce flash exposure compensation by a stop or more (in which case the subject is too dark).

Any tips from S3 users as to the optimal ISO and flash settings you've used indoors to get decent exposure most of the time? My wife is a point-and-shooter upgrading to this camera from an ELPH so she does not want to fiddle with settings as much as I am used to doing on my DSLRs.

Thanks, and happy holidays.
  • Kevin
 
Interesting - I just got an S3 last week (previously used the S1 and S2), and I ended up with pretty good results over the weekend with the flash. I use P mode primarily, and left the flash compensation alone. Here are a couple of examples:

http://picasaweb.google.com/themitty/Christmas2006/photo#5012967483725758114

http://picasaweb.google.com/themitty/Christmas2006/photo#5012967466545888914

They're on Picasa, so I can't embed them here.

Can you post some examples of the blown out pics? It would help to see the exif info.

--
Keith

Canon Powershot SD300 & Alpha a100 (Sigma 18-200, Sigma 28-70 2.8, Minolta 50 1.7, Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro, Minolta 80-200mm HS G! Minolta 5600 HS(D))
http://www.pbase.com/themitty/
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/themitty
 
I just got my S3 a few weeks ago and the setting I use for exposure compensation is -1/3 and it works well for me. The best thing to do is take a test picture and adjust it as needed.
--



Melissa - aka Catz
PBASE Supporter
Proud owner of a Nikon D2X
Still use the Fuji S2 for backup
Camon AE-1 Program camera
Kodak P880 Canon S3 is
http://www.pbase.com/mnewco
http://www.atncentral.com
 
Keith,

You can imbed images from Picasa. First, select the image, then right click and select properties. In the properties window click and paste the link info.

--
http://www.canons3is.com/
 
Looks like it still doesn't work, unless you know something I don't know. I've tried it a bunch of different ways, and haven't been able to get images from Picasa to show in these messages. Works fine from pbase, flickr, smugmug, etc. - but not Picasa.

--
Keith

Canon Powershot SD300 & Alpha a100 (Sigma 18-200, Sigma 28-70 2.8, Minolta 50 1.7, Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro, Minolta 80-200mm HS G! Minolta 5600 HS(D))
http://www.pbase.com/themitty/
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/themitty
 
It sounds like the light meter is the problem to me. The camera may be trying to compensate for the dark/darker areas of the picture, and over-exposing the subject.

Try setting the light meter to center, or possibly spot metering.
 
I use Canon S3IS. When shooting pictures indoor with flash, I used Tv mode and set the shutter speed at 1/50's. In this way, I got pictures with brighter background, even in areas beyond the reach of the built-in flash. The white balance may not be perfect, yet better than a dark background.
 
If you aren´t familiar with SLRs, the easy and almost safe way is:
ISO 50
TV mode (1/200)
flash strenght between 0..+1
exposure compensation 0..+1
-You are going to have good results between 0.80-3 m.
-Never mind about "mooving targets"
-Try to avoid shooting with the camera, close to white doors and walls.

There no difference using a SLR..DSLR or a compact camera.
The only difference is the image quality, the speed and the limits they have.
But the technique is exactly the same.

Jane T

Canon 400D & Tamron 28-300mm XR Di
Sony R1
Canon S2 IS
 
Thanks everyone for your helpful responses. I'll give these options a try. I am an experienced DSLR user and have had many point and shoot cameras over the years. I honestly expected this camera to be a bit more foolproof out of the box, but all of these machines have their own quirks and one most fiddle with them to get to the right settings in personal use via trial & error.

Happy New Year and thanks.
  • Kevin
Jane T said:
If you aren´t familiar with SLRs, the easy and almost safe way is:
ISO 50
TV mode (1/200)
flash strenght between 0..+1
exposure compensation 0..+1
-You are going to have good results between 0.80-3 m.
-Never mind about "mooving targets"
-Try to avoid shooting with the camera, close to white doors and
walls.

There no difference using a SLR..DSLR or a compact camera.
The only difference is the image quality, the speed and the limits
they have.
But the technique is exactly the same.

Jane T

Canon 400D & Tamron 28-300mm XR Di
Sony R1
Canon S2 IS
Click to expand...
 
It's a "slave" flash - it mounts to the camera via the tripod socket, and fires based on the preflash of the built in flash. I don't have one, so can't say how well it works.

--
Keith

Canon Powershot SD300 & Alpha a100 (Sigma 18-200, Sigma 28-70 2.8, Minolta 50 1.7, Sigma 70-300 APO DG Macro, Minolta 80-200mm HS G! Minolta 5600 HS(D))
http://www.pbase.com/themitty/
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/themitty
 
these type of slaves have an optical sensor which triggers the flash when the camera internal flash fires. The best ones are programmable and learning so that they trigger on the correct red-eye flash and not the preflash, also various power settings and rotation, tilt, zoom, wide settings are an advantage, also diffuser on the more powerful settings.
Jeff Wokker said:
--
jeffwaus

About to buy S3 but top Melbourne retailer could not explain how
aux flash HF-DC1 worked: there is no apparent aux flash socket (and
certainly no hot shoe). Anyone out there have an answer or is
using the HF-DC1 ?
Click to expand...
 
Keith Schmidt said:
They're on Picasa, so I can't embed them here.

Can you post some examples of the blown out pics? It would help to
see the exif info.

--
Keith
Click to expand...
You can embed your Picasa pics, here's how:
in Picasa, open the pic, right click on it,> copy image location
go to your message, paste at cursor...Voila!
--
Gerry
Canon s3 IS
 
Gerry,

I tried the instruction to embed pic from Picasa but it did not work. Unless i am missing a step.

SB
 
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