photo help please?

[philm]

Hi All new here, i have registered here in the hope someone can offer guidance.
my camera is a not a DSLR, it is a Fuji S9500, however i am struggling with bird pics and other small / distant wildlife, when i fully zoom the camera so not to frighten birds off, the pics look very grainy when viewed and cropped, any ideas why or how i can stop this? altenate shooting could be with a shutter release cable if i could find one longer than the 100cm that i keep seeing available, say 6M would do, are these available so i could set up the camera on a tripod and shoot from a distance???

[Xia_Ke]

If you are zooming all the way out, chances are it is engaging the the digital zoom which will cause pixelation. To avoid this, only zoom to the limit of the optical zoom.

[Medley]

Agreed. Somewhere in your menu system you should find a way to shut off the 2x digital zoom. You'll find that the zoom doesn't extend as far as it used to, but your shots will be higher quality.

- Joe U.

[mn shutterbug]

It would really be helpful if you could post a photo. Digital zoom may be the culprit. With some, maybe most cameras, you can turn the digital zoom on or off. IMO, it should never be turned on. Digital zoom does in - camera cropping and the results are never good. I believe the only reason manufacturers incorporate digital zoom into cameras is for the extra selling point to beginners. Is it grain or pixelation you are talking about? If it's grain, turn the ISO down to 200. Some cameras show a lot of grain at anything above 200 ISO.

[philm]

HI
Thanks for the repliesI am fairly sure it's not digi zoom, my cam has 10.7 opt zoom manually operated from a twist barrel on the lens, the digi zoom is added by a button on the back of the cam, i usually shot on auto with 80 ISO, but i was trying tio shoot birds in flight so increased the shutter speed to around 1000th and the ISO around 100 / 200, but at the far end of opti zoom there is the same kind of graining as if dig zoom was used when the pic is cropped. I really experimenting with cam settings etc for best results, but cannot over come this grain effect, i have posted a pic in my gallery part of this site showing it.

[Xia_Ke]

I didn't see anything in your gallery here. Is there someplace else that you have a sample photo posted?

[philm]

I didn't see anything in your gallery here. Is there someplace else that you have a sample photo posted?

Hi here is a bird flying from it's nest in our eaves, aprox 8 metres away from me with the opt zoom maxed ISO 100 with 1000th shutter speed click here

and here is a smaller bird on a wire around 4M away, opt zoom max, 80 ISO cam on auto for shutter etc. here

thanks for looking, but digi was not used in either pic, and most of my maxed zoom pics are like this after cropping.

[another view]

I see what you're talking about in both shots mainly in the clear blue sky, which is usually a spot where it's noticable. Looks like noise to me which is common with a high ISO setting, but can happen with that clear blue sky at lower settings as well.

Keep in mind that cropping the shot afterwards is the same as shooting with the digital zoom on. Any noise, sharpness problems, etc that may not be obvious in the original shot will be magnified as well as the subject.