Canon PowerShot SX230 HS

[Diane D]

I currently have a Sony CyberShot DSC-W370, with which I get many blurry shots (including just normal indoor shots) and have had terrible luck capturing fireworks, nighttime castle pcitures or electric parade shots, even with trying several different settings so I am trying to find a different point & shoot. I am looking at a Canon PowerShot SX230 HS and was wondering if anyone could give me their opinions. I have read some reviews on Amazon and it sounds pretty decent.

 

[LordAthens]

Every type of shot that you just mentioned, night, fireworks and indoor are all likely to be blurry on any camera with your current technique.

All of those types of shots, including indoor in poor light (just because it looks bright to your eyes, doesn't mean the camera sees it as bright) need to be handled a little differently, they need to be still. A tripod for the outdoor shots is the best way to handle this. For the indoor shots, turn on some more lights, use a tripod (for "still" images, a tripod won't help when you're trying to shoot a 3 year old running around) or use a flash. Other things to try is to not zoom in but get physically closer to what you're trying to capture. The glass on both of those camera's is very similar; f/3.1-5.6 on the Canon and f/3.6-5.6 on the Sony. The Canon DOES have stabilization built into it, but it only works for certain types of images; a 3 year old running around for example, IS\VR\OS will not help.

I really don't think you will be a happy with a new camera, it's not going to change the situation.

 

[Diane D]

Thanks, Brandon! I also get a lot of "orange" indoor pictures. Can you tell me what causes that and how I could eliminate it? As you can tell, I'm a very "basic" photographer!

 

[LordAthens]

The orange indoor pictures would be caused by an incorrect white balance setting. White balance is the way the camera perceives the color white. If you take a white piece of paper and put it under a fluorescent light, it will have a bluish/greenish cast to it. If you take that same paper and put it under incandescent light, it will have an orange/yellow cast. What the camera tries to do automatically is compensate for that and make that paper appear white in the image.

Check in the menu to see if the white balance is set to auto. Most cameras do pretty well in auto, but there are some that don't. If it's set to auto and still producing orange pictures, change the white balance to incandescent. I believe on the Sony P&S's, it's a "light bulb" type of icon (refer to your manual if you need to). The white balance settings are done in the menu under "WB".

It's possible that your Sony just isn't very good for setting white balance automatically, so you might have to change it manually when you're shooting indoors under incandescent lighting. Just don't forget to change it back to auto when you're done, otherwise your outdoor pictures will now have the incorrect white balance setting.

HTH

 

[Diane D]

Wow! Took me a little to find what the WB....needed to go to the menu on Program Auto...did what you said and what a difference! Thank you! Now if I could just battle the blurry shots. Even my daughter tried it taking a picture of her girls with Rapunzel and it turned out all blurry.....no zooming and everyone posing. Any suggestions for me on that?? I do appreciate your help!

 

[LordAthens]

Was it indoor? Outdoor? Bright and sunny? Dark / twilight?

 

[Diane D]

Indoor....and not too bright.

 

[MOmousefan]

I have had the SX230 since October and I am pleased with this camera. I was looking for a pocket-sized camera that had HD video with zoom-while-recording, stereo audio, and RAW. Well, the SX230 does not have RAW but S95 cannot zoom-while-recording, so the SX won out.
I hope that a better photographer than I can show what this camera is capable of.
This image is indoor, no flash, set on P..

TV, 1.6 seconds on tripod.

Cloudy day, fill flash, P.

Indoor, poor lighting, P

The most annoying feature of this camera is that the flash pops up everytime you turn the camera. It also has a GPS function that logs the location of each image that you can open in Google Earth and it will log the route you take when traveling. The logging function is on even when the camera is off, it must be turned off or the battery will die overnight. It was $200 at Walmart which is about half the cost of the S95.
I hope that this helps.