Could this be my problem?

[Dagwood56]

I have reposted my question below -- I realized this was s very stupid question so I deleted it ---think my best bet would be to wait till spring to learn this camera. sorry to take up space here.

 

[TwoRails]

No stupid questions (but I have seen a lot of stupid answers! ) - Hope you figured out whatever it was you wanted.

 

[mrodgers]

I'll second the there's "no stupid questions."

Never delete stupid questions. Someone else may have the same "stupid question" but they are afraid to ask.

 

[Samanax]

The problem here is that when someone asks a beginner's question they get flamed by a small handful of immature members who don't even try to answer the question, they just make snide, condescending remarks.

This is the Beginners Forum so you think it would be safe to ask beginner questions (and it should be) but the few who are just looking to make fun of others makes it harder to help people who are just looking for some help.

Doesn't this forum have a moderator?

 

[DavidElliot]

I'll second the there's "no stupid questions."

Never delete stupid questions. Someone else may have the same "stupid question" but they are afraid to ask.

definitely agree. there have been many times when i find myself pondering what i figure is a stupid question, but someone beats me to the punch in posting a thread about it. we're all in this together because we simply love taking photos and want to learn how to get better. why else would we be on a forum if that weren't true?

The problem here is that when someone asks a beginner's question they get flamed by a small handful of immature members who don't even try to answer the question, they just make snide, condescending remarks.

This is the Beginners Forum so you think it would be safe to ask beginner questions (and it should be) but the few who are just looking to make fun of others makes it harder to help people who are just looking for some help.

Doesn't this forum have a moderator?

of course there are, but i guess with the amount of traffic that this site gets, it must be very difficult to sit through and moderate each and every thread that pops up every five minutes or so. i know i have difficulty sitting through and reading some of these threads myself.

 

[Dagwood56]

OK - you've shamed me into coming back LOL! Basically what I wanted to know was would the downloader used to transfer the photos from the camera to the PC have anything to do with clarity of the photo. I've been having a very difficult time getting clear crisp shots with my Sony-100.

The first shots I took weren't bad and I was willing to agree the shots that were blurred were that way due to camera shake - I've been sick this past year and am just getting back on my feet - add a windy day to that and its hard for me to stand real stable. That aside, it was windy when I took the first sets of shots that came out clear and crisp. The camera was on auto for a time then on program mode.

THEN the photos began coming out a bit blurred or when I would zoom in for a close crop on the subject in photo shop the picture was really blurred and just a mess. I've only had the camera for a month, tried different settings, different lenses, weather conditions and the ONLY thing I changed recently, was I started using the Windows Vista downloader to transfer the images to my pc instead of the one provided with photo shop. THATS when the problem began.

I checked back on my first clear & sharp shots and I noticed the files had been saving as medium 5 in photo shop and now suddenly they are all saving at large 10.

I don't shoot RAW because I do not have the funds to purchase more memory cards and when I get to go out [once a week] I like to make the most of the trip and take as many photos as possible. I also do not feel I have the patience for the extra post processing work for raw images. I shoot jpeg-fine L:10 which according to the manual should proudce excellent images. And in the beginning it did --till I changed the downloader......SO - would this make a difference? I've run out of other logical answers.

Thanks

 

[Dagwood56]

bump

 

[Samanax]

Are you connecting the camera to the computer or are you using a card reader?

I don't use a specific downloader, I just open Windows Explorer and manual move the image files from the memory card into the appropriate folder, but I think I may have heard somewhere that the downloader in Vista can cause problems and many people have stopped using it.

If you don't want to manually move your image files then use the software that came with your camera.

 

[AlexColeman]

Just drag and drop from camera in windows, use image capture from mac.

 

[TwoRails]

... Basically what I wanted to know was would the downloader used to transfer the photos from the camera to the PC have anything to do with clarity of the photo. ...

As mentioned above, it is best to use a card reader. They do a simple file transfer with no modifications, just like reading a file from your hard drive or CD. I've discovered that price doesn't matter much in these little devices. They make them to go inside the computer, or external ones for use on multiple computers, such as a laptop you may be using.

Here's the one I put in my computer:

Newegg.com - BYTECC U2CR-318/Hub 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Card Readers

And I also have an earlier version of this external one:

Newegg.com - BYTECC U2CR-520 BLACK 52-IN-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Card Readers

... Doesn't this forum have a moderator?

That's a question I've often wondered but never asked. Before the buyout, I have seen exactly one moderator, and I believe that's the ex-owner of the site. Since the new owners, I've seen one more and I've read at least 3 - 4 times more threads than I've replied to.

 

[Dagwood56]

Samanax - I use the USB cable to download from camera to PC. A card reader at the moment seemed a waste of money. I have already enabled the downloader in photoshop and will try it again the next time I take photos. The only reason I disabled it, was it seemed to save so many copies of the same image and I like to keep a relatively clean hard drive. So I post process in photoshop, save the photos to a CD and then delete all but a few from the hard drive. Unless I was doing something wrong, this seemed a tedious task getting all the photos out of pse5's organizer. Plus I had them save also to the "zoom browser Exec", [which I see no way to disable,] that came with and I used for my canon 570is P&S camera [ by the way the shots from that always turned out excellent and also saved at 5 medium in photo shop.] So guessing then, I might be right about the windows downloader being the problem?

AlexColeman - I have an IBM not a mac computer, but thanks anyway.

 

[Dagwood56]

TwoRails - I will check out a card reader, I had originally thought about getting one, but changed my mind. I know I've seen them for as little as $12 at WalMart, so I'll check into one. Thanks

 

[xtort-]

Actually not a terribly dumb question.

The way you transfer photos from your camera to your computer will generally not effect the photo quality unless you are using software that is going to reduce the resolution of the photo to save storage space.

I NEVER install software that came with a camera, because I don't want it touching my pics. Windows explorer's drag n drop is generally safe to use, and if you use that with a card reader or just usb cable between your computer and camera makes no difference. It is the same procedure over almost the same medium.

I suspect you are not using an adequate shutter speed. No matter how steady your hand is, with a low shutter speed (set by the camera in lower than optimal light), you will get blur. It getting worse when you zoom also lends itself to the problem being shutter speed. If you get a program called an "exif reader", you can see the data your camera stored in your photo about the photo, such as shutter speed, aperture, flash type, etc. 1/30 is about the minimum speed you can shoot without having to worry about blur.

 

[Dagwood56]

xtort- Thanks for the input. I never use a shutter speed below 125 and usually its at 1\250 or 1\500 and I use an ISO of 200. According to the viewfinder info, my camera shake only shows one bar or none at all...but I know my hands do shake some and as I mentioned above, sometimes I am not real steady on my feet, but the bars would show in the viewfinder if camera shake was the main problem. I'll look into "exif reader" Thanks.

 

[xtort-]

If you are shooting at 1/250 and higher, you would really have to have some serious zoom (8x or greater maybe?) before camera shake should become an issue, even if you are unsteady on your feet.