Anyone with a Olympus C-720 digital camera?

[Tuffcookie]

I have had mine since Jan and am very happy with it, for the most part. I'm having difficulty getting night-time pictures. What camera settings do you use when shooting at night, outdoors? I've played around with the flash setting, the aperture, and f stop settings...what am I doing wrong? The pictures are turning out too dark. Thanks

TC

 

[Dan Murphy]

I don't have that camera, TC, but I can say that for almost ALL night pictures, unless you are taking a close-up subject, like a person 10 feet away, you need to leave the flash OFF. When on, your camera is setting aperature and exposure time to a good amount of light anticipated from the flash, BUT, the light available from theflash is insufficient to reach your more distant subject. You need to use manual settings to legthen the expousre time and use a large aperture setting. Hope that helps a bit.

 

[Shadeaux]

I've had a C-700 since August and haven't had any problems with indoor night shots when using the flash, so I don't have any helpful advice, but there's a wonderful Olympus C-7x x series group on Yahoo; I'm sure someone over there will have some suggestions for you. There are members with 700's, 720's and 730's.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Oly_C-700/

 

[KathyTX]

I also have a C-700 (wish I had the C-720!).

The best night shots I've gotten have been with the automatic settings and no flash. In very low light, the shots will be pretty grainy. With the C-700, there's a real problem with blurred images on long exposures if you're not using a tripod, but I think(?) the 720 has the image stabilization feature, so that shouldn't be as big an issue for you.

I LOVE my Olympus C-700.

 

[MarkRG]

We have a C-720. One thing you need to do is increase the brightness!

What you need to do:
-Turn the wheel on top to the setting after auto(It's a mountain with a candle in front of it).

-Then if you look in the viewfinder, the top right will have a +0.00 on it. Using the navigation buttons on the back, you can increase or decrease this number. Higher the number brighter the pictrure, lower the number, darker the picture

 

[Tuffcookie]

Mark, Thanks. I actually tried playing around with the flash brightness and did see some difference. And Dan, I did not use the flash for far away subjects. I guess I'll continue to play with it till I get satisfactory results.


TC

 

[KathyTX]

Just for grins, here are two shots I took in the MK with my C-700 in very dark conditions on the walkway through Frontierland, near the riverboat. (I'm no Dan Murphy, but this is fun!)

The first one is at a distance of, I'd guess, 25-30 feet. I used automatic settings with the flash. It shows a little friend who really should not be inside the MK! The flash was powerful enough to wash the subject in light at this distance, but there's lots of graininess (I guess due to the long exposure?) I had to brace the camera on a post to hold it still enough not to blur too much.

This one shows another little friend who entertained us on the walkway. He was much closer, maybe 6-8 feet away. Again, auto settings with flash. Notice the photo is much cleaner, and the subject is lit while the background is not.

I wish I understood as much as Dan Murphy about photography. Sigh. But I find the automatic settings on this camera very smart, and I enjoy looking at how it handles different conditions.

 

[MarkRG]

?? That's not flash brightness. It's a digital brightness setting. Works the same, flash or no flash. I usually go no flash and turn it up to +2.0, but you need to experiment to judge light levels.

 

[Tuffcookie]

Mark, Thanks I didn't realize that. I will keep that in mind!

TC