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S404 Questions

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ed kohl

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A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures with the camera.

Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot of pictures at a wedding in a large room.

1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?

2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
 
1- If there isn't a lot of light or variation in color/tone in a shot- jpeg can compress a lot more information. I did a bunch of sillouettes - where 50% of the image was pretty much black and I could get almost double the number of shots on the same card-- the number the camera gives you is a rough average (and a little on the conservative side). The biggest range I've seen of highest qual jpeg has been about 2200KB for a pic with a lot of color and about 1100 for some sillouette shots.

2- I set my sleep mode up to 5 minutes- you should just be able to tap the shutter button and have it wake back up fairly quickly.

3- Not sure- big room? Flash is good to about 12 feet (I think the book says 9 or 10) - if the camera is setting exposure based on the assumption that flash will be used, anything outside the flash range will be dark. You might be able to use an editing program and rebalance the shot get some detail to come out. Someone may have a better explanation- most of my indoor shots have been portraits.
ed kohl said:
A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is
great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures
with the camera.
Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot
of pictures at a wedding in a large room.
1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk
flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?
2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a
few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper
and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
Click to expand...
 
whittonj said:
2- I set my sleep mode up to 5 minutes- you should just be able to
tap the shutter button and have it wake back up fairly quickly.

3- Not sure- big room? Flash is good to about 12 feet (I think the
book says 9 or 10) - if the camera is setting exposure based on the
assumption that flash will be used, anything outside the flash
range will be dark. You might be able to use an editing program
and rebalance the shot get some detail to come out. Someone may
have a better explanation- most of my indoor shots have been
portraits.
ed kohl said:
A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is
great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures
with the camera.
Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot
of pictures at a wedding in a large room.
1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk
flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?
2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a
few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper
and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Actually, I have had some complex shots (in a forest) that were as large as 2.8 and 2.9 MB.
--
Brian
 
whittonj,
Thanks for the answers.
1- I'm going to set my sleep mode to 5 minutes.
2- The "rough average" answers the picture number question.

3- A friend told me today that digi camers don't have the same power flashes that 35 mm cameras have and that I should compensate for that. Does this sound right to you?
Ed Kohl
whittonj said:
2- I set my sleep mode up to 5 minutes- you should just be able to
tap the shutter button and have it wake back up fairly quickly.

3- Not sure- big room? Flash is good to about 12 feet (I think the
book says 9 or 10) - if the camera is setting exposure based on the
assumption that flash will be used, anything outside the flash
range will be dark. You might be able to use an editing program
and rebalance the shot get some detail to come out. Someone may
have a better explanation- most of my indoor shots have been
portraits.
ed kohl said:
A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is
great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures
with the camera.
Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot
of pictures at a wedding in a large room.
1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk
flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?
2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a
few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper
and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Ed,

I'm not a big flash user, but I have seen quite reasonable flash performance on my S404. (Although I have seen threads discussing poor flash performance on the camera.)

I have attached a sample I took in my family room tonight. The room is approx 22' x 15'. I stood at one end to take the pic. I left on one 100W light, so the autofocus could work.



The pic was taken in auto-landscape with fill flash. The original pic looks a little grainy, so I'm guessing the camera pushed the ISO setting to the max. However the pic does appear to well illuminated.

One thought - I remember from my 35mm days that the flash took some seconds to recharge for the next flash. I'm wondering if this might also be the case with the S404? I'm wondering if the camera lets you take the next shot even though the flash isn't quite ready?

Good luck,
Richard.
ed kohl said:
whittonj said:
ed kohl said:
A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is
great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures
with the camera.
Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot
of pictures at a wedding in a large room.
1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk
flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?
2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a

few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper
and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Richard B.
S404 gallery http://www.ericksonbird.com/samples
 
Basically the flash isn't horrible- all digicams have a fairly weak on-board flash. I think the 404's is good within 3 meters officially.

This is thw way I understand it: If you're standing in a large room say 30 ft by 60ft using the onnboard flash in auto mode the camera makes the following assumptions- whatever you're taking a flash picture of is within the 3 meter range of the flash and sets exposure, ISO, etc. with that assumption. Anything that is not within the flash range will not be properly exposed (most likely underexposed) because the camera will back off on the long exposure time needed to take pictures in dark situations- because it's assuming that the object that you're taking the picture of will be adequately lit by the flash .

The camera can't adjust for an object at 6 feet hit by the flash and something 20 feet away lit by a candle in the same shot-- either the background is going to be black, or the object at 6 feet is going to be bright white due to the flash- it has to choose one or the other. If you have the flash on- the camera assumes there' something within the 3 meter range.

I'm hardly an expert on flash, so I can only say what I've observed-- as far as I can tell the camera uses contrast/sharpness to focus on objects- so it doesn't really know how far something is away from you.
 
Richard,

Thanks for your comments. I believe "One thought - I remember from my 35mm days that the flash took some seconds to recharge for the next flash. I'm wondering if this might also be the case with the S404? I'm wondering if the camera lets you take the next shot even though the flash isn't quite ready?" is accurate. I'm going to look into this.
Richard B. said:
I have attached a sample I took in my family room tonight. The room
is approx 22' x 15'. I stood at one end to take the pic. I left on
one 100W light, so the autofocus could work.



The pic was taken in auto-landscape with fill flash. The original
pic looks a little grainy, so I'm guessing the camera pushed the
ISO setting to the max. However the pic does appear to well
illuminated.

One thought - I remember from my 35mm days that the flash took some
seconds to recharge for the next flash. I'm wondering if this might
also be the case with the S404? I'm wondering if the camera lets
you take the next shot even though the flash isn't quite ready?

Good luck,
Richard.
ed kohl said:
whittonj said:
ed kohl said:
A few questions about my Minolta S404. Initially, the camera is
great, convenient and easy to use. I’ve taken many great pictures
with the camera.
Background: this is the first time I used the camera to take a lot
of pictures at a wedding in a large room.
1- Why on the fine setting I got 74 pictures using a Sandisk
flashcard when the camera indicated I could take 61?
2- When the camera “went to sleep” after I had not used it for a
few minutes it took several seconds to “wake up”. What’s the proper
and quickest way to wake up the camera?
3- Why did the general wide-angle shots in the room come out dark?
Thanks,
Ed Kohl
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
Richard B.
S404 gallery http://www.ericksonbird.com/samples
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for taking the time to answer..
Ed Kohl
whittonj said:
Basically the flash isn't horrible- all digicams have a fairly weak
on-board flash. I think the 404's is good within 3 meters
officially.

This is thw way I understand it: If you're standing in a large room
say 30 ft by 60ft using the onnboard flash in auto mode the camera
makes the following assumptions- whatever you're taking a flash
picture of is within the 3 meter range of the flash and sets
exposure, ISO, etc. with that assumption. Anything that is not
within the flash range will not be properly exposed (most likely
underexposed) because the camera will back off on the long exposure
time needed to take pictures in dark situations- because it's
assuming that the object that you're taking the picture of will be
adequately lit by the flash .

The camera can't adjust for an object at 6 feet hit by the flash
and something 20 feet away lit by a candle in the same shot--
either the background is going to be black, or the object at 6 feet
is going to be bright white due to the flash- it has to choose one
or the other. If you have the flash on- the camera assumes there'
something within the 3 meter range.

I'm hardly an expert on flash, so I can only say what I've
observed-- as far as I can tell the camera uses contrast/sharpness
to focus on objects- so it doesn't really know how far something is
away from you.
Click to expand...
 
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