Canon Powershot SX40 HS washing out shots

A good starting point for one who is not camera and photography savvy, is to suggest, enter the menu options and select ‘Reset.’ This will return the camera to factory defaults as you are probably aware.
--
Quote hhgttg: Life is wasted on the living.
filibuster (Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK)
http://picasaweb.google.com/scenic.filibuster

A good idea. She does tell me that she has never changed any of the settings though, so it should be at factory default. So I'm not sure that's the problem, but reasonable enough to try.

She does swear that she isn't manually adjusting anything, and all are on auto. I can see it take one shot at a low ISO, and reasonable shutter speed, and the very next shot do something similar to what I posted above. Which I find bizarre.

Looking further, it does look like the camera is not shooting at full quality, but that isn't enough to account for the problems I am seeing.

TAM63 wrote:

I'll apologize in advance for not having all pertinant information possibly - this is my friend's camera, in another state, so I can't try it out myself. But basically, it's a brand new camera and she's having quite a bit of trouble with it often taking pretty bad shots.

Often, usually in a situation with sunlight, it really washes out the photos, overexposed, and completely blows the highlights. I've seen it happen from 18mm to 150mm, so it's not just at the far end of the zoom. These are so bad they can't really even be fixed in PP. All the detail is gone, and they aren't even sharp.

Looking at exif data, I often see something like this:

Shutter 1/2004 sec.
Lens aperture F/5.8
Focal length 150mm
F-number F/5.8
Exposure Time 1/2000 sec
ISO Speed ISO-1600
Metering Mode Pattern
Exposure Comp +0.3 step

For starters this comp should be -0.3 or even -0.6

I agree with other poster that she should reset it

I suggest the following settings:
iContrast on Auto
Continuous IS
Auto ISO
Ev at -0.3
Set it on 'P' mode

Hope this helps, i.j.

I am not discounting the reset, I will tell her to do that.

I think the exposure comp would have had to have been about 3-4 stops - the photo was so incredibly washed out. But the thing is - rather than that, it should have had a reasonable ISO and shutter speed, and not needed such exposure comp. I just find it selecting such a high ISO and shutter bizarre, aside from the fact that the exposure is a mess.

Are we saying that Auto doesn't work well on that camera? It seems to not handle a reasonably bright scene - usually.
I have copied down your setting suggestions, thanks.

Shooting at an angle where the sun is striking the lens, and the said lens has juicy thumb-print on it, has a similar deleterious effect
--
Quote hhgttg: Life is wasted on the living.
filibuster (Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, UK)
http://picasaweb.google.com/scenic.filibuster

TAM63 wrote:

I am not discounting the reset, I will tell her to do that.

I think the exposure comp would have had to have been about 3-4 stops - the photo was so incredibly washed out. But the thing is - rather than that, it should have had a reasonable ISO and shutter speed, and not needed such exposure comp. I just find it selecting such a high ISO and shutter bizarre, aside from the fact that the exposure is a mess.

Are we saying that Auto doesn't work well on that camera? It seems to not handle a reasonably bright scene - usually.
I have copied down your setting suggestions, thanks.

I never use the fully Autos on cameras as they are too hit or miss. The P (preferred auto) mode usually works quite well. I find that Canon does a good job of selecting SS and Ap combos in this mode.

On this camera, I also find the auto iContrast does great for highlight blowouts...especially at ISO 200 or higher.

best, i.j.

Haha re. the sun and juicey thumbprint! I don't think she's doing that, but ya never know. For what it's worth though, she does just fine with all her older cameras, so I don't think she's doing something ridiculous with this one. But I'll have another look and see where it looks like the sun is.
I will suggest she try those settings, instead of auto.

It just blows my mind - what it chose might be good for photographing a racecar, but I can't think what else. Wierd.

TAM63 wrote:

Looking at exif data, I often see something like this:

Shutter 1/2004 sec.
Lens aperture F/5.8
Focal length 150mm
F-number F/5.8
Exposure Time 1/2000 sec
ISO Speed ISO-1600
Metering Mode Pattern
Exposure Comp +0.3 step

She says she's shooting it on auto, not sports mode or anything.

As others have pointed out, she should reset the camera. If that doesn't work, try a hard reset.

Without seeing the images, it seems very strange that the camera would select ISO 1600 and + EC in bright light. Are you sure she is shooting in Auto Mode and not P mode? I always suggest using P Mode so you can adjust a few things such as focus point (I think using single area focus is much more accurate than multi-area, the default for Full Auto Mode), EC, white balance.

If resetting the camera doesn't change things, I'd call Canon Tech support.

I'm not sure of anything, since I'm not looking at the camera. But I did ask, and she swears it is always on auto, and that she doesn't even know how to change any settings yet. I specifically asked if it was on sports mode, and she said nope, always auto.

About 1/3 of the time, it picks reasonable settings. 2/3 of the time, it's something like I posted. And those are interspersed as she's walking around shooting in what appear to me to be fairly similar conditions.

The thing is - not only is it picking a high iso, it's also picking an extremely fast shutter speed to go with it. So it doesn't seem like it's pushing up the ISO because it thinks there isn't enough light. Sounds like some sort of extreme sports mode, but she says that isn't the case.

If it was my camera, and resetting it didn't make that stop, I'd be calling tech support too - I agree entirely.

Reading your description, I'm willing to bet (pretty much anything) that there is no problem with the camera and it is not responsible for these strange settings.

My guess would be, possibly, that she thinks it's in AUTO but it isn't. And that she's inadvertently pushing or turning the sides of the Control Dial when taking her pictures (accounting for the weird EV and ISO, as well as the fact that they change). Also be sure she is focusing correctly (holding the shutter down halfway, holding still while getting the green "in focus" square, and smoothly pressing the rest of the way).

Returning to "reset all" sounds good to me. Since I think she may be adjusting the CD, I'd say "put it in AUTO" first (although, after she solves her problem, P will be a better choice for her).

If the camera had a problem, I don't think it would be like what you're describing. So unlikely. I think it's the shooter (which is good news, really. Much easier to fix. :))

Actually, the one thing that IS ok is the focus - that's not a problem.

Anything is possible, and I'll check to see what she's doing. But she's taken pictures since the old film SLR days, and had quite a few point and shoots, and never had any problems before. So she is a point and shoot gal, but usually manages just fine. Not to say she couldn't be doing something silly (I'm not going to talk about what I just did with my digital SLR haha), but she's usually not too bad.

Checked the sun angle - a lot of these are mid-day, sun is pretty overhead. But generally the sun is to the side or behind her, it should not be hitting the lens. And she's usually shooting level or down, so I don't think the sun hitting the lens is the problem.

I had a similar problem shooting in Program mode.  All photos were overexposed on in Program mode.  When I used Auto or selected Landscape from SCN, the exposure was correct.  I like to use Program mode so I can use fill flash for people standing in the forground.  Even when I used exposure bracketing and underexposed, the images were way overexposed.
I went into Menu and Reset All.  It appears to be okay now.