Powershot A520 - JPG help!

[cumi]

I have a 4 Mp camera (Canon PS A520) and my photos are much too soft (having shutter speed at less than 1/100 and correctly set focus)! I think, the size of the jpg-files are also far too small (about 500KB) even at superfine mode. There must be a heavy lossy jpg converting somewhere.

What am I doing wrong?

cumi

P.S.: ISO is mostly on AUTO.

 

[Meysha]

hmmm 500kb is a little small for a 4mp camera. My 2mp camera takes on average 650-820kb jpeg files. But then again, I guess each camera can have their own compression standard.

However, digital photos are notorious for not being sharp.

Has this problem always been there... or is it something that's slowly/quickly appeared? And also are you sure the shutter speed was that fast... 1/100th?

 

[damian5000]

What is your shooting situation? And what mode do you have the camera mode set at? I have the a510 and it take relatively nice pictures. The files are usually a bit larger than 500kb and mine is only 3.2 mp. I doubt these are the problems, but is your resolution set high enough and is your MF/Macro off? Did this problem just start or has it been that way since you got the camera?

 

[cumi]

What is your shooting situation?

Pretty simple: a lot of light, focus set correctly, large DoF F=8, shutter speed c.a. 1/100

And what mode do you have the camera mode set at?

I shoot mostly aperture priority, so Av (I think).

I have the a510 and it take relatively nice pictures. The files are usually a bit larger than 500kb and mine is only 3.2 mp.

I get above 1MB if I increase the ISO to 200 or 400. My files are also about 500KB, but very often even above 400KB.

I doubt these are the problems, but is your resolution set high enough and is your MF/Macro off?

Yes, MF=Off, Macro=Off and the resolution is on maximum= 2272x1704

Did this problem just start or has it been that way since you got the camera?

It's like this since I bought the camera. I realised only now, as I saw pics from my collegues, which are much more sharper.


cumi

 

[Marctwo]

Is there a quality setting on your camera that determines the amount of compression used for jpegs?

 

[Glen C]

It may be your camera if your colleges are fine and yours have been like this since you bought it. I think if your shutter is less then 1/100 you should use a tripod. Try decreasing your depth of field to around 3 and increase the shutter to at least 1/1000. If you want your pictures closer to 4Mps you'll have to set it to shoot in RAW format.

I found a sample gallery here DP Review and those shots look pretty good for a point and shoot camera.

Are you zooming in all the time?

 

[Meysha]

Maybe there's a problem with your zoom.
My P&S started to die after about 8 months (heavy use) and I could only use it at the widest zoom. If I zoomed in at all I couldn't focus very well.