having problems with blurry photos...

[smnornes]

Hello!
We are gearing up for our next WDW vacation and I really wanted to leave my digital Rebel at home and opt for my much smaller, much lighter Olympus Stylus 790SW. However, I've used it to take some photos lately and am noticing that many of them are coming our blurry. I tried the setting on portrait, indoor, available light, and landscape (for the indoor shots I've taken) and one doesn't seem to be better than the others. What am I doing wrong? Anyone with experience with this camera or problem?
So, now I'm really worried about WDW and think I should take my Canon so I won't be disappointed with my photos, but I really dread having the camera hanging around my neck all week! I wanted to "go light" this year. Thoughts?

 

[mom2janda]

Can you show some examples?

 

[smnornes]

I've deleted most of them, but here are a few I found...

 

[Alztybrn]

Well...in your last 3 the Shutter Speed was very slow. 1/15 and 1/13 of a second. Those are way to slow to hand hold the camera and get steady/focused shot. Also, the ISO was at 200 in those pics. Is there a way to bump up the ISO so that the shutter speed can get a little faster?

In the first one, SS was fine, maybe just camera shake while taking the pic?

Are most of your other blurry pics ones that are indoors or with low light? If so, try to find a way on your camera to bump up the ISO or increase the aperture to get faster Shutter speeds. It may or not be possible with your camera.

 

[Anewman]

In the first one, SS was fine, maybe just camera shake while taking the pic?

If the SS is fine, tis not camera shake. The second and last photos look like they exhibit a bit of camera shake, but the other two look like a focus issue.

When the foreground, subject and background are large distances away from each other... the photographer has to choose one to focus on, while understanding that the other two maybe out of focus.

 

[smnornes]

Are most of your other blurry pics ones that are indoors or with low light? If so, try to find a way on your camera to bump up the ISO or increase the aperture to get faster Shutter speeds. It may or not be possible with your camera.

Yes, it is usually indoor or low light. The camera is just point & shoot, but it gives me many different settings. If I use a setting made for better light, the shutter speed should increase, right?

 

[podsnel]

And I have an Olympus fe-340. I am actually waiting for them to get back to me on what the cause is, whether it's me or the camera. Can any of you tell me what you think this is?
In this one, can you see distortion with squares on my nephew's face?

Can you see lines around my son and DH?

This is one of the ones I emailed to Olympus- she said I was shooting into the sun, but that's wrong- The sun was making them squint-

And then what about this one- sun is to the side,-

And what is with the faces here? The rep told me the lighting was too low-

I have never taken photos that were this blurry before with any of my other cameras, other than the occasional oops- am I doing something wrong? Or is it the camera or both? I want to buy the sw850 for my upcoming cruise (it's waterproof), but I'm a little nervous to buy another Olympus-

Thanks for any help you have to offer-

Ellen

 

[Michele]

And I have an Olympus fe-340. I am actually waiting for them to get back to me on what the cause is, whether it's me or the camera. Can any of you tell me what you think this is?


I have never taken photos that were this blurry before with any of my other cameras, other than the occasional oops- am I doing something wrong? Or is it the camera or both? I want to buy the sw850 for my upcoming cruise (it's waterproof), but I'm a little nervous to buy another Olympus-

Thanks for any help you have to offer-

Ellen

I have this same camera and am having the same results with blurry pictures for no obvious reason. Sorry, I don't have an answer but I experimented a bit and found that if I use the image stabilization setting (not sure what it is called exactly, the little shaky hand symbol) it makes any picture blurry and noisy. So I avoid that. I wouldn't say it is a general Olympus problem. I had two previous Olympus p&s's, no problem with them.

 

[podsnel]

I have this same camera and am having the same results with blurry pictures for no obvious reason. Sorry, I don't have an answer but I experimented a bit and found that if I use the image stabilization setting (not sure what it is called exactly, the little shaky hand symbol) it makes any picture blurry and noisy. So I avoid that. I wouldn't say it is a general Olympus problem. I had two previous Olympus p&s's, no problem with them.

Thank-you! That helps, to know you are having the same issue- not that I'm happy for you OR me, but at least I know I haven't totally lost it! I'm going to hunt for some other opinions of the camera online, I think-

 

[GrillMouster]

smnornes, as previously stated, the images inside the cruise ship are due to camera shake. A faster shutter speed would have reduced the problem. The very first may have been a focusing problem.

podsnel, the pixelization in your pictures (squares and lines) are commonly known as mosquito artifacts or compression artifacts. They are caused by file compression. The data in a jpg file is compressed, making the file size smaller, allowing you to fit more images on a memory card. However, higher compression means lower image qualitiy (and more compression artifacts). Whenever you re-save a jpg, you're re-compressing the file that was already compressed to begin with. It's like making a photocopy of a photocopy or a photocopy or a fax of a fax or a fax...each new generation looks worse than the previous one. Make sure your camera is set to the highest image quality and maybe a higher resolution. The trade-off will be that fewer images will fit on a card, but memory cards are really cheap.

 

[podsnel]

smnornes, as previously stated, the images inside the cruise ship are due to camera shake. A faster shutter speed would have reduced the problem. The very first may have been a focusing problem.

podsnel, the pixelization in your pictures (squares and lines) are commonly known as mosquito artifacts or compression artifacts. They are caused by file compression. The data in a jpg file is compressed, making the file size smaller, allowing you to fit more images on a memory card. However, higher compression means lower image qualitiy (and more compression artifacts). Whenever you re-save a jpg, you're re-compressing the file that was already compressed to begin with. It's like making a photocopy of a photocopy or a photocopy or a fax of a fax or a fax...each new generation looks worse than the previous one. Make sure your camera is set to the highest image quality and maybe a higher resolution. The trade-off will be that fewer images will fit on a card, but memory cards are really cheap.

Thank-you, Grill mouster for the explanation- so then, on image quality, should the compression be fine or normal? I'm guessing fine? I have the image size on 8M. I have a bunch of mcards, so not worried about less photos on each, I just want sharper photos on each!!

Thanks-

 

[MICKEY88]

If the SS is fine, tis not camera shake. .

isn't sufficient ss relative,

although there are the standard rules to use..{ss being inverse of focal length}. if a person has a very heavy shutter finger can't they still get camera movement even at higher shutter speeds..especiaalyy if using lcd to compose shot rather than a viewfinder..???

 

[GrillMouster]

Thank-you, Grill mouster for the explanation- so then, on image quality, should the compression be fine or normal? I'm guessing fine? I have the image size on 8M. I have a bunch of mcards, so not worried about less photos on each, I just want sharper photos on each!!

Different manufacturers have different names for equivalent settings. All of the cameras that I've used have at least three quality settings. If I had to guess, I'd say that on your camera "fine" is better than "normal". Is there a third setting, like "SuperFine"? You can confirm which is best by doing the following. Take a picture of the exact same subject with the exact same settings at each of the quality settings. Then download the images to your computer. Check the properties of each file. The one with the largest file size would have the least compression, meaning it has the best quality image. View and compare the images at 100% magnification to confirm.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Hello!
So, now I'm really worried about WDW and think I should take my Canon so I won't be disappointed with my photos, but I really dread having the camera hanging around my neck all week! I wanted to "go light" this year. Thoughts?

Take the Rebel and make your SO carry it most of the time.

 

[seashoreCM]

You might not see the difference between superfine and fine but if/when you edit or in particular resize the picture, the superfine choice may start to look obviously better.

I always shoot using maximum resolution and (superfine) minimum compression. This of course means needing more memory cards. If it is necesary to compress the picture for such purposes as web pages, you can add more compression at the very end of editing and the quality loss will be minimal.

Digital camera hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/digicam.htm

 

[Michele]

The specific camera podsnel and I are using, the Olympus FE-340, only has 2 options, Fine and Normal. No Super Fine option.

 

[podsnel]

The specific camera GrillMouster and I are using, the Olympus FE-340, only has 2 options, Fine and Normal. No Super Fine option.

I think you mean me. I've switched it to fine, hopefully that will help. Thank-you all for the advice, I'll let you know how I do....

By the way, MarkBarbieri- OMG!!! Your TR was hilarious!!! Not to mention how gorgeous your photos are- I would have posted on your TR, but it was closed and I couldn't...Anyway, I'm enjoying all your photos and wit tremendously!!

 

[smnornes]

thanks everyone for your input. I appreciate it!
I'm taking the Rebel. I just can't risk it. I need more time to play with the Olympus and get it right. Thanks again!!!

 

[podsnel]

thanks everyone for your input. I appreciate it!
I'm taking the Rebel. I just can't risk it. I need more time to play with the Olympus and get it right. Thanks again!!!

I just ordered an Olympus sw850 for my upcoming cruise, so I'll be trying that out and I think I may bring my old camera- Canon elan 7e- it uses film (GASP!) !!! I'd just like to try to get some decent photos at MNSSHP and from our cabin's verandah- I'll try the other camera for all my excursions. Olympus looked at my photos and said I should send in my other camera for them to look at- a pp's explanation of photos getting fragmented when resizing on photobucket makes alot of sense to me though- the only thing is that the photos I took in HHI were SOOOOOO much worse than any others I've ever downloaded to photobucket, so I'm kind of wondering why-

Anyway- good luck with sharper images and thanks all for the help!

Ellen

 

[smnornes]

we took the Olympus on our cruise in April and loved it for the most part! The underwater photos were great, and having the "shockproof" feature was nice... toss it in my bag and go. I always worry about my Rebel on the beach with sand, water, etc. The Olympus was great for that.