Just Bought Canon A620 - Need Start Up Help !

[anne930]

We just bought what we hope is a good multi-purpose, simple to use digital camera - the Canon A620. We want to get good with it before December. In the mean time, we are going to WDW next week for a long weekend trip. This will be our first time to "play" with the camera - but I don't want to spend the weekend reading the book. Can anyone give me some quickie pointers so we won't be disappointed with these pictures? What settings should we use to get started? I'm sure we'll basically stay within the AUTO and scene setting modes. But what about a basic File Size? ISO? And when should we use or not use the flash?

Any help will be appreciated!!

 

[Laura]

Okay, I have an A620 too. It's a great camera and definitely easy to use. I would absolutely recommend reading the Basic Manual that came with it. (You also have an Advanced once for when you have the hang of things.) It's an easy-to-read manual, not a crazy "Engrish" translation. Plus it's really short.

Auto mode is good for starters. I use Program mode now so I can change a few things like ISO setting and such. I've used other modes only a few times, like Beach and Kids and Pets or Aperture/Shutter Priority. When you use flash depends on some situations. You can't use flash on dark WDW rides, obviously, so you're really simply not going to be able to take a good picture of Peter Pan inside the ride. But other indoor areas not near windows, to illuminate something in shadow even if it's bright out, etc, it's good to use flash. You can use it through glass, but either shoot at an angle or put the camera as close to the glass as possible to avoid a big white reflection in your shot. The great thing is that you'll see right away if you messed up!

The camera has a great ability to shoot close-up photos. You can get right up to flowers (or whatever) and take beautiful shots. Just hit the bottom of the circular button so that the tulip icon appears, zoom all the way out, and put the camera right up to the subject.

 

[traces7]

Can you give me more details on it? How do you like it? Does it take good inside shots? I noticed in the store that when you zoom in and out it seems a little noisy, does that bother you? I took some pics in the camera store and they printed them out for me and I thought the quality was pretty good! I am very seriously thinking of getting the Canon A620. This will be my 1st digital camera, so I'm pretty nervous about it, I just want to make sure I'm getting something that I'm going to like and that takes good pictures. Please help me decide! Thanks!

 

[Laura]

It depends on what I'm taking inside. I can take decent indoors shots with flash, but without I have to be pretty steady or prop the camera on something.
Here's an indoor shot without flash (had to hold verrrry still for this one):

One with flash in a room with very little lighting:

And with flash in a room with lots of lighting:

I forgot to add to my previous post that I've been taking 2048x1536 resolution pictures at ISO 50, and it seems to work for me in most places. I really like the camera; it takes very nice photos for the price.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

have you tried higher ISO? go to P mode and change ISO (up) to ISO 400, for lowlight shots without flash, I mean.

 

[Laura]

Yes, I have taken 400 ISO pics without flash. They seem a tad too noisy for me, but they're okay. I'm just not used to being able to change it and generally forget to. It's the next thing to play with.

Here's one that I took without flash, 400 ISO:

 

[Kelly Grannell]

go to http://www.imagenomic.com and download Noiseware Community Edition (freeware) to get rid of the noise. It works remarkably well. It's not just a regular noise reduction, it actually analyzes your picture noise before applying the noise reduction.

 

[Laura]

Excellent! I'll give it a try. Thanks!

Now if I can just remember to change ISO settings more often, I'll be set. After I took that set of photos of the manatees, I forgot I had it set to 400 and took the rest of my shots that day and half my shots the next day in bright sunshine outdoors. Too used to film!

 

[Laura]

Here's a photo I took with 400 by accident:

And here's the noise reduced:

Thank you so much, Kelly!

 

[anne930]

Thanks so much for the advice - we are looking forward to experimenting - just don't want to blow it totally!