Camera Labs

@Ruben123

I think I tried too different modes..I will also try your suggestions particularly..thanks..

@Bob Andersson

Every photo was actually at auto mode, I have also given information about modes at the top of each pic..ISO was also at auto..so now I would take some pictures with particular settings as suggested and then post them, thanks.

I would also appreciate if you suggested me some settings that would give acceptable results.

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

.
By shooting information I meant focal length, f-number, shutter speed and ISO actually used. The other stuff is pretty useless I'm afraid.

Bob.

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OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Thanks for the welcome Bob! I have been lurking for a while and thought I would sign up.

@Bob
I know thats why I was just telling that there were random settings as I used Auto.

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

Here are some sample pics from my camera for comparison.

@svt wylde

very nice photography there!
give me the settings information for these pictures please!

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

Er, I guess you have to set the camera to P(rogram) first. Fixed ISO will help a lot.
You just have to learn the camera, you have to learn the settings and what you can do to get the most out of the camera.
Here you can learn something, YouTube has some other great videos.
Video Workshops and tutorials

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Ruben

Panasonic DMC-FZ18, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Canon G5, Canon 350D, Canon 50D + BG-E2N
Tamron 17-50 2.8, Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM,
Canon 18-55 II plus lots of Minolta MD/M42 lenses and bodies

@Ruben123
When I take photos in P mode they appear very good on camera screen but average or below average on computer screen, thats the biggest problem.

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

Hi Canon Guy,

I'm getting a sense, and please forgive me if you think I'm wrong, that you are still near the bottom of the learning curve in getting the most from your camera. As a starting point try some of Gordon's very accessible Video Workshops and tutorials. Bear in mind that compact/superzoom cameras generally need brighter lighting, without too many extremes of contrast, to ensure the best results. Take time to learn the software that came with your camera - that software should (I hope) allow you to find out what focal length, aperture etc. each shot was taken with. And for anything more than the most basic image processing it's worth investing in some photo-editing software. PhotoShop may be the gold standard for many but it costs an arm and a leg but there are some excellent free programs out there such as the GIMP. Free in cash terms, at any rate, but it is definitely worth investing time in learning how to use it effectively. Even a spot of colour tweaking and sharpening can work wonders!

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

@Bob
I have photoshop, gimp, imageready and many more but I was just wanting the standard raw image....
here is the information for the following blurred pictures...

Camera Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Exposure 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture f/5.6
Focal Length 60 mm
ISO Speed 80
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
X-Resolution 180 dpi
Y-Resolution 180 dpi
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
YCbCr Positioning Co-sited
Related Image Width 4000
Related Image Height 3000
Custom Rendered Normal
Exposure Mode Auto
White Balance Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio 2.5
Scene Capture Type Standard
Compressed Bits Per Pixel 3
Max Aperture Value 5.6
Metering Mode Multi-segment
Color Space sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution 40983.60656 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution 40983.60656 dpi
Sensing Method One-chip color area
Compression JPEG (old-style)



AND HERE IS THE IMAGE...




AND HERE IS THE PHOTOSHOPED VERSION

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

@Bob

Here is another blurred picture


Camera Canon PowerShot SX130 IS
Exposure 0.01 sec (1/100)
Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 11.3 mm
ISO Speed 160
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash Off, Did not fire
X-Resolution 180 dpi
Y-Resolution 180 dpi
Orientation Horizontal (normal)
YCbCr Positioning Co-sited
Related Image Width 4000
Related Image Height 3000
Custom Rendered Normal
Exposure Mode Auto
White Balance Auto
Digital Zoom Ratio 1
Scene Capture Type Standard
Compressed Bits Per Pixel 3
Max Aperture Value 4.0
Metering Mode Multi-segment
Color Space sRGB
Focal Plane X-Resolution 16393.44262 dpi
Focal Plane Y-Resolution 16393.44262 dpi
Sensing Method One-chip color area
Compression JPEG (old-style)

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!

The bird on a wire pic has a Digital Zoom Ratio of 2.5.

go into the menus and disable digital zoom as it's a waste of time. You get better results using the max optical zoom and cropping in on the PC. Photoshop's interpolation is usually better than the cameras.

The leaves against the bright background/sky pic as mentioned before is asking too much of the camera (and many DSLR's too). Detail and texture is created by the eye's response to shadow. Try lighting your subject from the side to create shadow and hence maximize detail.

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Canon EOS 400D, EF-S 18-55mm, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM, EF 50mm f/1.8 MK I, EF-S 10-22mm, EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM, EF 28mm f/1.8, EF 85mm f/1.8
Canon 430EX II, Manfrotto 055CXPRO3, Arca Swiss P0
Panasonic GF3, Panasonic 20mm f/1.7, Olympus 45mm f/1.8

MY FLICKR!

Hi Canon Guy,

Great stuff, now we have some good information to work with.

I'll just restrict myself to the pigeon shot. As the aspect ratio of the image posted is the same as the sensor I'll assume that it isn't cropped.

The shot has set the lens to a focal length of 60mm and this is equivalent to a full-frame equivalent focal length of 336mm. But you have also told the camera to apply a 2.5x digital zoom so you are effectively working at a focal length of 840mm. The exposure time of 1/400th is only good enough provided you have allowed the IS to do it's stuff as one would normally expect a steady hand to need an exposure time of about 1/1000th of a second to avoid the effects of camera shake. But let's assume that isn't a factor here.

That 2.5x digital zoom has told the camera to extract a full frame image (4000 x 3000 pixels) from the central 1600 x 1200 pixel area of the sensor. Each of the pixels on your sensor has an area of approximately 2.2 μm² with a width and height of about 1.6 μm.

At f/5.6 the Airy diffraction disk width is of the order of 7.5 μm so, being charitable, the lens can resolve details no smaller than the width of about four pixels. And we aren't even considering the effect of any anti-aliasing filter that may be in front of the Bayer sensor. So the lens, at f/5.6, has effectively reduced the picture resolution down from 1600 x 1200 to 400 x 300 pixels.

Maybe in the light of the above it's no wonder that you are seeing fuzzy pictures, even at the 500 x 375 pixel resolution in the sample above.

I hope that helps you understand some of the limitations you have to work with when using your camera. I don't understand what the technical issue with the "leaves" shot is but maybe that's because I'm seeing it at a size well within our forum limit of 1024 pixels maximum.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

All of my pictures were shot in P mode with ISO set to 100 in daylight and 400 inside or on cloudy days. Most of them were shot in Vivid picture style but I have changed it to Positive Film because some of the bright colors were washed out. The pictures look a lot better on my computer uncompressed.

Low light photography with this camera is challenging. I never use Auto in low light because of the automatic ISO settings. Indoors, I leave it in P mode with the flash up and I dial back the flash intensity if I noticed the subject is "flashlighted" in the picture. You have to watch the white balance indoors because the Auto setting can get confused. Most people use Tungsten but I think the Fluorescent setting looks more natural.

If I was going to take a lot of low light shots, I would trade it for a Powershot G12. I considered it but my wife loves the camera so I'm going to get a T2i and use it for indoor shots and other special events and use the SX130 as a vacation and general purpose camera.

@Bob

so it was the limits of this camera that caused such results, I hope to get better results using photoshop...

I won't mind trying other modes either...if none works its not getting late for the warranty as its been only 3 days ...

@svt wylde

I have used P mode lately but the ease of Auto lures me in...

your picture quality is far better than mine using the same camera!

Did you use photoshop for these images or are those raw images?

seems like you prefer sony cybershot to canon powershot as you took most images of your truck using sony cybershot dsc I noticed..

_________________
A disappointed owner of a Canon Powershot SX130 IS!