AAAAHHHHH-- this blurriness is killing me!

Hi Everyone,

I am simply in love with my Dimage 7HI -- that is, of course, when the photo is NOT BLURRY. I have a very steady hand, and have always achieved crystal clear shots with my other digital camera. For some reason, I can't get a clear shot with my 7HI. And truthfully, its starting to get on my nerves! I will not lug my tripod around with me to all my functions -- I want to take awesome pics with this camera. And I have seen what this camera could do! Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness? By the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus" blurriness.

Additionally, I am trying to achieve something very simple with my new camera: WHAT I SEE IS WHAT I GET. Why do my pics come out differently then what I see with my eyes????

Thanks for listening... errr... reading

Have a great day,
JGC77

did u try to change ISO to lower one like 200 or 100? when i took my D7i out of box and took a couple of shots they all came out blurry until i discovered that most of the time Auto setting for ISO sets it to 400 and shutter speed is more than 1 second.

Select Single Autofocus rather than Continuous.

Select Aperture Priority and set it above 1/90 for standard shots and 1/250 for telephotos.

If you are still getting blurred shots then there may be a fault with the camera.
Could you post an example here?
John.
Visitors welcome to browse
http://www.pbase.com/johnfr/galleries

Hold on, the higher the ISO the shorter the shutter speed but the greater the noise.
Just stick into auto ISO for now.

I had the same problem with my 7i when I first got it, simply a matter of practice.

I wonder what shutter speeds your having the problem at?

Regards
Dave

Skorp said:

did u try to change ISO to lower one like 200 or 100? when i took
my D7i out of box and took a couple of shots they all came out
blurry until i discovered that most of the time Auto setting for
ISO sets it to 400 and shutter speed is more than 1 second.

Click to expand...

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness?

Click to expand...

Huh? Maybe reading up a little on the fundmentals of photography--digital or non-digital--would help.

This is a problem common to new users of the D7 series - seems to be a function of the relatively light camera weight and fast shutter response.

The best technique I found is to hold the camera firmly in the left hand with you elbow into your stomach. Relax the grip on the right hand a little so as not to transfer motion when you shoot and brace the bottom edge on the heel of your hand. Deliberately wait a split second after focus lock and squeeze the shutter without moving your right hand.

I have farily sharp shots hand held down to 1/15 of a second, so it does work.

Steve

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

I am simply in love with my Dimage 7HI -- that is, of course, when
the photo is NOT BLURRY. I have a very steady hand, and have
always achieved crystal clear shots with my other digital camera.
For some reason, I can't get a clear shot with my 7HI. And
truthfully, its starting to get on my nerves! I will not lug my
tripod around with me to all my functions -- I want to take awesome
pics with this camera. And I have seen what this camera could do!
Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness? By
the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus"
blurriness.

Additionally, I am trying to achieve something very simple with my
new camera: WHAT I SEE IS WHAT I GET. Why do my pics come out
differently then what I see with my eyes????

Thanks for listening... errr... reading

Have a great day,
JGC77

Click to expand...

I believe someone mentioned somewhere on this forum that a particularly bad kind of camera movement for producing blur is a twisting movement. After I read this I noticed that I have a tendence to give the 7i a little clockwise twist as I press the shutter release--more so than with my 35mm slr. As Steve Jacob said, this a function of my not being used to the lighter weight of the 7i and also the far left hand position of the lens which I actually like. As I get used to the camera and more aware of this tendency I've been able to keep the camera steadier during shots. As I think about it, probably the best place for the shutter release button would be directly over the lens.

steve jacob said:

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

I am simply in love with my Dimage 7HI -- that is, of course, when
the photo is NOT BLURRY. I have a very steady hand, and have
always achieved crystal clear shots with my other digital camera.
For some reason, I can't get a clear shot with my 7HI. And
truthfully, its starting to get on my nerves! I will not lug my
tripod around with me to all my functions -- I want to take awesome
pics with this camera. And I have seen what this camera could do!
Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness? By
the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus"
blurriness.

Additionally, I am trying to achieve something very simple with my
new camera: WHAT I SEE IS WHAT I GET. Why do my pics come out
differently then what I see with my eyes????

Thanks for listening... errr... reading

Have a great day,
JGC77

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

First off, stick to safe shutter speeds to keep away the blur. If you are hand holding then keep the speed at 1/60 or faster. Also, 1/lens length. So if you have the lens out at 200mm then shot at something near 1/200 like 1/250th. You should be able to hold the camera still enough for this. Once you get this down, then you can try going to slower speeds and see how well you can do. There are other tricks like monopods or leaning against poles/walls etc to keep it from moving, but get to that later.

The basic rule is you want the fastest speed you can to stop motion. The smaller the aperture the more depth of field, but the slower you will need to take the picture, so go as fast as you can, but your depth of field will not be very deep.

For practice shot you could first start with an outside shot with plenty of light. Shoot with nothing near by so focus is at infinity. If everything is near infinity, then it will all be in focus and you wont need a large depth of field.

I hope some of this helps.

...Gary

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

I am simply in love with my Dimage 7HI -- that is, of course, when
the photo is NOT BLURRY. I have a very steady hand, and have
always achieved crystal clear shots with my other digital camera.
For some reason, I can't get a clear shot with my 7HI. And
truthfully, its starting to get on my nerves! I will not lug my
tripod around with me to all my functions -- I want to take awesome
pics with this camera. And I have seen what this camera could do!
Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness? By
the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus"
blurriness.

Additionally, I am trying to achieve something very simple with my
new camera: WHAT I SEE IS WHAT I GET. Why do my pics come out
differently then what I see with my eyes????

Thanks for listening... errr... reading

Have a great day,
JGC77

Click to expand...

jgc77

Please understand that I am not trying to be funny here, but, have you checked to make sure your lens is clean?

I had this happen to me once with my D7 and shot a whole day's worth of blur before I realized what was happening. Everything looked fine through the eye piece, but back home the PC, I could see the errors of my ways.

Now I ALWAYS check my lens

Just a thought.

Ken Smith
KLS Images
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
Epson 9600 Large Format Printmaking
http://www.klsimages.com

I rest my thumb on the spot button anyway so thought I would start using the spot button to focus then fire the shutter with the forefinger as normal . This eliminates the tendency to get lazy with ( ease ) your grip as you have to keep the pressure on the spot with your thumb resulting in less chance of handshake when pressing the shutter . Still not as happy with the 7i in this area compared to my Casio QV4000 .

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

Click to expand...

Mark Matiash said:

By
the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus"
blurriness.

Click to expand...

handshake blur means you are either:

1- shooting in low light which needs slow shutter speeds - fact of life is slow shutter speeds need a tripod!!! use the already mentioned 1/focal length rule as a good start point - i have successfully handheld 1/4 second shots - leaning against wall, elbows on chest, breath held

2- shooting in decent light but using high fstop numbers, forcing a slow shutter speed - see number one for the rest!!

3-not presetting the camera with a half shutter button push and just doing an all in one shot - the lag between pushing the button all the way and actually getting the shot is quite a few 10th's of a second while it does focus and exposure. you may be moving the camera away from your eye before it has actually taken it!

try holding the camera differently - also try shooting by first pushing shutter button halfway to hold settings before you are ready then

as far as WYSIWYG, what is the problem? colours? contrast?

don't forget you see the world in stereo vision (3d) but camera only sees 2d - makes some "really great shots" look boring! try eyeing the shot with one eye closed and see if it looks different to you.

jgc77 said:

Hi Everyone,

I am simply in love with my Dimage 7HI -- that is, of course, when
the photo is NOT BLURRY. I have a very steady hand, and have
always achieved crystal clear shots with my other digital camera.
For some reason, I can't get a clear shot with my 7HI. And
truthfully, its starting to get on my nerves! I will not lug my
tripod around with me to all my functions -- I want to take awesome
pics with this camera. And I have seen what this camera could do!
Would decreasing the shutter speed help decrease the blurriness? By
the way, this is a "handshake" blurriness, and NOT an"out of focus"
blurriness.

Additionally, I am trying to achieve something very simple with my
new camera: WHAT I SEE IS WHAT I GET. Why do my pics come out
differently then what I see with my eyes????

Thanks for listening... errr... reading

Have a great day,
JGC77

Click to expand...

--
Minolta D7i
http://www.pbase.com/ukbuckeye
http://www.nickyandjeff.dsl.pipex.com/weather/weather.htm

Jeff/UK said:

as far as WYSIWYG, what is the problem? colours? contrast?

don't forget you see the world in stereo vision (3d) but camera
only sees 2d - makes some "really great shots" look boring! try
eyeing the shot with one eye closed and see if it looks different
to you.

Click to expand...

Also a scene will often look different when you cannot see the surroundings in the shot. Very often something looks interesting only in the context of surroundings, and if those surroundings get cut off in a shot then the impression can be very different.

Kenneth Lane Smith said:

jgc77

Please understand that I am not trying to be funny here, but, have
you checked to make sure your lens is clean?

I had this happen to me once with my D7 and shot a whole day's
worth of blur before I realized what was happening. Everything
looked fine through the eye piece, but back home the PC, I could
see the errors of my ways.

Now I ALWAYS check my lens

Just a thought.

Ken Smith

Click to expand...

I just had a similar experience. I was on a cruise ship in the carrabean. My camera became nice and cool while stored in my cabin but when I took it outside where the temperature was 90 degrees with 90% humidity, my lense fogged up.. big time. I did not notice the problem until I uploaded my photos to my laptop.

After that, I made a habit of letting the camera warm up and dehumidify itself before taking any photos and everything was fine.

Bob

Ken Smith said:

KLS Images
Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
Epson 9600 Large Format Printmaking
http://www.klsimages.com

Click to expand...