Hit and miss with the Canon Powershot SD550.

[HalfPintHippie]

Hi,

A while ago I asked about digital cameras and which one would suit my criteria. I ended up going with the Canon Powershot SD550 Digital ELPH. When I first got it, I was extremely happy with it. That was at the beginning of May. Since then, I've taken 2000 pictures, and kept 1000 of them. I'm still very happy with it, but I do have a few questions for photographer buffs, who could perhaps help me (even though you may not possess this camera).

1. When making movies, on "standard" mode, I get 15 seconds on a 32 MB card. However when I put it on "high frame rate" mode, I can get almost double that time. In standard mode, the movie is 640x480, and somewhat grainy, but not much for what I use it for. On fast frame rate mode, the movie is a smaller res, but it's noticably cleaner and I can get a lot more time out of it. Why is this?

2. On the max resolution for my camera (3072x2304) I can get 15 or so pictures on a 32 MB card, and about 52 when I make the resolution 1600x1200. Now when people get printouts, the printout is only 5x7, or when I personally view the pictures on a computer, the resolution is 1024x768. So is it worth it to always have my camera set at the highest resolution setting, or would it make a noticeable difference (when not zoomed in) to just keep my camera on a lower res setting?

3. Sometimes with my camera, on any resolution, the pictures are crystal clear even when fully zoomed in. Other times (and fairly often I've found), the pictures are quite blurry. I've found this even when using the flash, and especially when I take a picture in a really dark room. Now I don't shake the camera, and I expect the flash to make the picture clear. The weird thing is some pictures are clear, and other times they're not. Is this just something I have to live with, or is there a reason for it which I can address?

4. I've come to accept red-eye in a fair amount of my photos due to the flash, and when I get printouts, the peopel fix the red-eye for me, so it's not a big deal. However for pictures I keep on the computer, does anyone here know any techniques for removing red-eye convincingly (I have access to photoshop if need be).

Besides those questions, I'm very happy with the camera (besides needing to buy a bigger card) and it's gotten a lot of use. Being so compact and quick to start (1-ish second) I've been able to keep it in my pocket a lot of the time and when something cool happens, I can usually take it out quickly and turn it on and snap a photo.

So if someone has free time to answer my questions, that would be greatly appreciated.

[cyberlord]

I can answer 3 and 4.

3, unless you use a tripod or some other steadying device in a dark room even with flash, you will get blurred pictures. You can not hand-hold the camera steady enough with the long exposure time needed in dark situations. Sometimes you might get lucky and get a decent shot but I bet if you looked closely even at your sharper dark room exposures you'd see some bluriness.

4, most graphics editing programs nowadays have some sort of red-eye removal feature. There are free ones too. Older versions of Photoshop don't have an auto redeye removal, but there are actions you can download that do it. The newest CS version has redeye removal if you have access to it.

Hope this helps,

Tim

[HalfPintHippie]

So when I take pictures, how can I make the image clear when not using a tripod? press the button really quickly, or is it moreso something to do with my exposure settings (in which case, does anyone know how to change them for the SD550)?

[Photo-John]

So when I take pictures, how can I make the image clear when not using a tripod? press the button really quickly, or is it moreso something to do with my exposure settings (in which case, does anyone know how to change them for the SD550)?

The problem is shutter speed. When you take pictures in low light the camera needs to use a slow shutter speed to collect enough light for a good exposure. You can't hold the camera steady at much less than 1/60th of a second - and it doesn't make any difference how fast you press the button. The shutter speed is electronically controlled. The button only triggers it. Your only solutions are to use a tripod or the flash. And there's no way to completely control the exposure with your SD550. You can control exposure compensation, which makes the exposure lighter or darker. But the camera gets to decide how it lightens or darkens the image, not you. A different camera would give you more exposure control and allow you to choose your own shutter speed. But in low light, you still won't be able to make a good exposure without using a very slow shutter speed (and getting blur from camera shake), a tripod, or the flash.

I just posted a brand new exposure guide on the site. Understanding how exposure works might help you understand some of the problems you're experiencing:

Photography Exposure guide >>

Hope that helps.

[HalfPintHippie]

Hi again.

Anyway, I've played around with different shots to get an idea of what my problem is. However I'm not a photographer or camera person, so I can't figure out what's wrong, only report what I see.

With zoomed pictures, the quality is GREAT. I'm always happy with it. Unfortunately, at 3x zoom, there's not much you can fit in the photo unless it's taken from way far away.

Today I sat across a table from some of my friends, and I was taking pictures, and when just sat there and snapped a shot of a friend about four feet away, she was blurry. So I took another one. This time she was mostly clear.

I took another, and this time, even though was aiming at Kelley, when I reviewed the picture and zoomed in on the picture post-shoot, Kelley was blurry, but the pen of my friend (which was maybe a foot closer to me than her) was absolutely frickin' clear.

So even when the flash is on, even though I hold the camera as still as possible, far away (over 3 feet) objects are fairly blurry, while any objects closer than that are quite clear, even though they are not the objects I intend to be clear.

In my inexperience, I cleaned the lens in the event that maybe the shots were blurry due to a dirty lens. I also suspect, but I don't know, that maybe the camera itself might be damaged? I mean, it doesn't look damaged, but I do carry it in my pocket when I'm using it. So might that have something to do with it?

If it would be better, I could post some pictures on a website and describe the conditions if that would be of more use.