Canon Power Shot A95

[mgranato]

Is anyone out there taking pics with this camera or one similar? My color is best when the "underwater" setting is selected, even better than custom setting the WB. This true color comes at the expense of being able to manually control the other settings (or at least I think it does). My results are mixed. The SPS pics are okay, but I can't seem to get a fish (a moving fish) in decent focus. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Len]

:welcome:

There is an "underwater" setting on your camera?! Neat

Your pic looks good. I don't really have any suggestions other then the universal advice listed here: http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=29264

 

[mgranato]

I've had the camera for a few years and never thought there would've been an "underwater" setting, those manual things come in handy every now and then. I'm actually having trouble with the moving life like my tangs. I can't seem to get them in sharp focus as they swim. Maybe my sights are set too high with the tools I'm using. Here's an example of a "good" fish pic. How does Bar train his fish to pose like that? Is there one variable that sharpens a moving subject?

 

[bleedingthought]

Nice picture! Did you take the second one, also? If you did, great job! If not, the first one is still good!

 

[mgranato]

Thanks. Yep, both originals. It's a good thing I don't have to buy film anymore, those would have been very expensive pics.

 

[iyugen]

What you need to get your fish in focus is good lighting. The lighting in your tank may look bright to you but it's a bit on the dim side to your camera. To compensate the camera lengthens the exposure time. When the shutter speed begins to to exceed 1/200 of a sec moving obejets begin to blur. 1/200 of a sec sounds really fast but not when compared to the speed of light.
I would suggest turning on all the lights in the room, letting any sunlight in that you can and pointing a couple of lamps at the tank. Also flash can help. Placing the camera lense right up to the glass and keeping it parallel will prevent the flash from bouncing off the glass and back into the camera.

Have fun shooting!

 

[mgranato]

Thanks for the suggestions. You're right, I'm mainly using the tank lights (2 x 250 MH) for my light source. I basically get the same results with the shutter speed set between 1/160 - 1/250. Should I stay in that range, or should I keep creeping up the scale? My ISO has been set a 400 (the max). I'll try supplementing the lights, but I would really like to avoid a flash if at all possible - maybe that wont be an option with this camera.

 

[iyugen]

If your ISO is already maxed you can increase the light getting to the sensor by increasing the aperature. A lower numbered F stop equals a larger aperature. This will allow you to increase the shutter speed while still keeping the exposure value near 0. The draw back to using aperature to control exposure is that you are also changing your depth of field. The lower the F stop value the narrower your depth of field. If you took a close up photo of a fish with a narrow depth of field you might find that the head of the fish is in focus but the rest of the fish gets progressively out of focus as you travel down to his tail. Ideally aperature value should only be used to achieve the desired depth of field you are looking for and not to adj exposure value. Lighting conditions are not always ideal of course. Hopefully your camera will display what the settings were for each photo when you review it on the lcd. Download your photos to your pc but don't delete them from your camera. Review them on the pc and look on the camera at the corresponding picture to see how changes to F stops, shutter speed, flash, ISO etc affect the picture. Take lot's of pictures!

 

[mgranato]

Oh I'm taking lots of pictures! My delete button's getting worn out. Could you offer a baseline to start at reguarding ISO, shutter value, and f stop?

 

[iyugen]

An ISO of 400 should still present a good quality photo so leave it maxed. If you are looking for a shot to show off a fish then leave the F stop value as high as you can while still keeping the exposure value close to zero with the shutter speed around 250. If the fish is darting to and fro then 1/250 will probably be too slow to prevent blurring. Shooting fish in an aquarium is definitely a challenge.