My Canon Rebel XS is slow and blurry now, please help!

apride · Mar 20, 2014

We have had the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS camera for a few years (~5 years) and it has performed well with taking photos of my little kids. However, it's been acting slow and the pictures it take are usually blurry even if the object moves a little bit. Can someone tell me what is wrong? Is there some setting I need to check? Or perhaps something is wrong with the camera that I need to fix it with some new firmware or something? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

NedM · Mar 20, 2014

It looks like your shooting with rear curtain sync flash.

Go to your menu (settings) and make sure your flash is set to first curtain sync.

NedM · Mar 20, 2014

It looks like your shooting with rear curtain sync flash.

Go to your menu (settings) and make sure your flash is set to first curtain sync.

What program mode did you use an if manual, what were you exposure settings? (Aperture, and shutter speed?)

KmH · Mar 20, 2014

That is motion blur and ghosting from ambient light and flash, and likely to slow a shutter speed.
The ghosting is from the ambient light exposure.

It's also about time to have the camera serviced (clean and lube).
The auto focus module is on the bottom of the camera. the secondary mirror and the window between the mirror box and the AF module are both likely covered with dust and need to be cleaned by a qualified camera repair shop.

table1349 · Mar 20, 2014

1/10 of a second shutter speed is pretty slow even when using flash. What mode were you in, AV, TV, Program?
Read this if you are going to use flash. http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/