zoom and lighting

[mgriff]

I recenly purchased a 10x zoom Kodak Z650 and have had a problem with zoomed in pictures not looking good, in fact just awful pictures. This past weekend, I used the max zoom at my daughter's graduation to try to catch a closeup of her receiving her diploma. The picture turned out extremely dark.

I'm new to this "megazoom" camera and am just trying to find general info on what is the best way to capture an indoor zoomed in picture. Any general rules on light and distance, etc. Also noticed that when looking through LCD or view finder, colors looked off which made it hard to find the subject. Reds looked like a faded orange.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Rob]

Unfortunately I can't really think of an answer which doesn't involve camera limitations.

Far away and dark (indoor) are the two most difficult combinations - you need the best light gathering ability possible. Many of the cameras on the market today are designed to have the most impressive numbers, rather than engineerined to take the best picture possible in a small chassis. Therefore they have mega impressive sounding zoom lenses, but unfortunately they just plain won't work indoors as they aren't wide enough to get sufficient light to expose the sensor adequately. Set the aperture manually to the widest it can go as well and this will allow the shutter speed to be shorter.

The short answer is that at long zoom, even wide open, if there isn't enough light, you're going to need a longer exposure and therefore a tripod or similar steadying device. You can try increasing the ISO number, but the higher it is, the grainier/noisier the shot will be and this may not produce a pleasing image.

Rob

 

[mgriff]

Rob

Thanks very much for the reply. I'll do some experimenting with the settings and will try the tripod also. You've expalined a lot to me, I'm pretty new to digital and very much appreciate the advice.