Why so grainy??

cscottlong · Jul 26, 2008

First, I truly apologize for being completely ignorant when it comes to photography. That said, I'd LOVE some help with just a simple point and shoot camera question.

I have an old Konica Minolta Dimage XG that has taken very decent pictures for the past 4 years or so. I have a few exciting trips coming up and decided to get a new camera to capture them all. With my old camera, it truly was point and shoot.... took great pictures and I never really knew why.

My new camera is a Canon SD 790 IS. I've tried using the camera in several different modes (both manual and scene), and every thing I try to photograph turns out very grainy.

I'm not sure if I just have a bad new camera, or if I can't seem to set something right..... OR if the old camera was just way ahead of it's time.

I'll post a picture and if anyone has any ideas as to what may be going wrong, please berate me and tell me what I'm doing so very wrong. I appreciate any advice.

Thanks!!

Scott

If the images don't come through, let me know. Thanks again!

tirediron · Jul 26, 2008

Sorry, but your image links are incomplete; can't see the pictures.

High noise (grain) is usually due to one (or more) of a couple of factors. The first and most common is high ISO; check to make sure that your ISO is set as low as is practical. Shooting into the sun as well as excessive post-proscessing, especially in shadow areas will also induce added noise.

Rachelsne · Jul 26, 2008

If you notice the grain more in lower light than other times, you are most likely having a noise problem. alot of cameras will be set with an auto ISO (the thing that helps control the noise) As soon as your camera senses that it is dark, or there is not enough light it may set the ISO to a high number, a high number allows the shutter to stay open longer reducing camera shake. but at the same time you get a noisy image, noise will appear worse on basic point and shoots, not so bad on middle of the range cameras like the advance point and shoot and fairly controlable on many DSLR's ( I think that is becuase the sensors are small on basic point and shoots, and as you pay more money for better cameras the sensor gets better)

Have a look in your camera manual and see if you can adjust your ISO, keep it as low as possible and that will help.

I am not sure how technically correct my answer is but thats my understanding of noise/ grain

Here is a picture of grain/noise, is that like the problem you are having?
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&sa=N

TamiyaGuy · Jul 26, 2008

OK, little tip for ya here when hosting photos on Flickr

. It's best to post links to Flickr images rather than try and imbed them into The Photo Forum. I right-clicked a failed image and selected "Properties", and I got the following link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/25871782@N04/2703337780/sizes/l/. Basically, if you can, try and upload the images to something like www.tinypic.com or www.imageshack.us, then post the "Direct link to image" in the tags. Right, computer lesson over, photos. :D

I think it is the camera automatically raising the ISO sensitivity when it detects that there is low light and you're not using the flash. A higher ISO value almost always means more "noise" in the image, and this is very apparent on point 'n' shoot camera sensors. In your camera's menu, there should be an ISO option that is probably set at Auto. If you can, set it to between the lowest your camera has (25-50?) and about 200-400. However, bear in mind that a lower ISO will mean much longer shutter speeds, and you may need to use a tripod or use the flash.

Hope that helped, enjoy! :mrgreen: