Digital Camera Q.....

[ScottyY2K]

I thought of this because of Sergey's photo in Stu's thread. So this Q is directed to him but It sounds like many of you may be able to advise me on this matter.

When I was shooting a normal 35mm camera (I had an Canon Elan II) I could select aperture or shutter priority and the camera would make the other adjustments automatically to compensate. It worked very well with predictable results and great pictures.

I have a Canon G2 (which has all of the same priority features) and when I select shutter priority to give the blurred effect in the picture Sergey posted, I get a picture that is under or over exposed. I have done the same test with a Canon S30 with the same results. The only solution to this may be exposure bracketing but I have not figured out how to do that yet.

I love my digital camera, and am actually considering the Canon Digital Rebel, so I can utilize some fairly nice lenses that I bought for my 35mm. But I am disappointed in this aspect of the two digital's I have used. Any advice that any Digital Photo Experts could lend would be appreciated.

[02_WHITE_TJ_X]

Originally posted by ScottyY2K


I love my digital camera, and am actually considering the Canon Digital Rebel, so I can utilize some fairly nice lenses that I bought for my 35mm. But I am disappointed in this aspect of the two digital's I have used. Any advice that any Digital Photo Experts could lend would be appreciated.

You may want to check into this but I was told that the Digital Rebal will only work with Rebel lenes. I myself am pretty close to selling my Rebel2000 Body and going with the Digital RebelBody. The photo labs are doing a real good job at taking and transfering digital images on Kodak Paper.

[Darrell C]

We picked up a Cannon EOS Digital Rebel a couple weeks ago. Haven't played with the various exposure options yet, so I can't comment about it. So far, however, we really like the camera. Controls seem easy to use, it has a faster "bootup" or startup time than our other digital, and provides excellent quality shots. The autofocus feature is very fast...and so far has been very accurate.

One drawback I have noticed is a lack of flash exposure compensation. It's our first digital SLR and I wish I'd have bought one some time ago. I used to do semi-pro photography years ago (weddings, etc), and it's been some time since I've used a SLR camera. I didn't realize how much I missed it.

Edit: forgot to add that battery life has been very impressive. My wife shot over a 100 photos of us at Calico a few weeks on Saturday alone...just playing around and getting used to the camera. The battery lasted the whole 5 day weekend that we were in So Cal.

[ScottyY2K]

Originally posted by 02_WHITE_TJ_X
You may want to check into this but I was told that the Digital Rebal will only work with Rebel lenes. I myself am pretty close to selling my Rebel2000 Body and going with the Digital RebelBody. The photo labs are doing a real good job at taking and transfering digital images on Kodak Paper.

I hope that is not correct. I will check some other sources also...

Below is a review of the Digital Rebel.....no mention of not being compatible with Canon EF lenses. It does note that the lenses designed for the digirebel are EF-S though.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/ca...ew/index.shtml

[02_WHITE_TJ_X]

Originally posted by ScottyY2K
I hope that is not correct. I will check some other sources also...

Below is a review of the Digital Rebel.....no mention of not being compatible with Canon EF lenses. It does note that the lenses designed for the digirebel are EF-S though.

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/ca...ew/index.shtml

It looks like it does support the EF and the wider EF-S in your link so you should be fine. Shows you what the Best Buy people know.

[TObject]

That image was taken with a film camera.

Let me think. I am sure I am not going to say anything new here, but anyway. One of the nice features of a digital camera is that you can almost instantly see the picture right after you take it. The little LCD monitor may be sufficient to make a determination if exposure was somewhere where you wanted it.

The most basic way cameras measure scene for exposure calculation, is by assuming that the measured area consists of 18% gray. Why 18% gray? Because it's considered the most abundant, this is roughly what you get from grass or tree leaves. So, not counting the special tricky algorithms today's sophisticated cameras may apply, if your scene is lighter or darker than the theoretical 18% gray, the exposure suggested by the camera is going to be off. One of the ways to combat that, is by bringing an 18% gray card with you to the shoot, and read the reflected light information from that card. I almost never do that; sometimes I take a reading off my photo equipment bag, as I have one that is made out of 18% gray material.

Now let's get back to the digital cameras. One of the downsides of the sensors usually found in today's digital cameras, is that they don't really like long exposures that much, unfortunately. Said that, I am sure with some experimenting you should be able to achieve good results. If there is noise compensation feature in the camera, turn it on for long exposures. There got to be some kind of exposure compensation dial that you should be able to use to get the exposure just the way you want it.

I know the information I provided may be too general, or something you already know, but I hope it will give you some ideas. Good luck!

[TObject]

On the subject if a wrong lens can affect the exposure. The answer is yes and no. The nicety of TTL (through the lens) exposure metering found on the majority of SLR cameras, that the light is measured after it already passed the lens, so no additional corrections are necessary.

Said that, newer lenses are usually equipped with a chip that transfers distance information back to the camera. The exposure calculation algorithm uses that information. This kind of information is important when doing flash photography. I would say it's not very (if at all) important for taking pictures using ambient light without a flash controlled by the camera.

[ScottyY2K]

Originally posted by TObject
That image was taken with a film camera.

......

I know the information I provided may be too general, or something you already know, but I hope it will give you some ideas. Good luck!

Thanks for the info Sergey! I have not done enough experimentation with long exposure digi shots. I will do so in the future. I "ASSumed" yours was a digi shot. Nice picture BTW.

Since I had similar results with two good Canon digi's I assumed it was either a Canon flaw (not likely) or an aspect of digi photography as you state. Thanks again!!