S1 IS owners unite!

[BusShooter]

I've had this camera for about a year now and it's always came through for me on pictures, and now I'm looking to learn more about it. When I started, I used the old point-and-shoot method. Now after a bit, while I still depend on the auto modes, I started fiddling around with the other settings such as AV/TV/M... I haven't really tried P, or slow blur, or any of the other ones.

Hopefully this thread could evolve to where we can share tips and techniques to getting the best out of the S1. I know there is the S2/S3 threads out there, so I'd just like to focus primarily on the S1 here.

So... starting off, I have a question. I'm not so good with the technical lingo of it (aperture, focus), when I play with manual mode, I just experiment with the numbers and I try to remember, without figuring out which is which (and I know it's a very novice and n00blike way of going about photography).

Anyway, when I try to take nighttime photos on manual mode, sometimes the camera take forever to take the picture, giving me a "busy" icon for a good 10 seconds about, and if I move the camera in the slightest way, the pictures come out horrible... either too whitewashed or with streaks of light from the picture being moved.
Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

http://static.flickr.com/141/327741109_4f5384f12f.jpg
(It was supposed to be a bus moving... the horizontal streaks of light was the bus.)
The stats of this picture according to the photo properties are:
Shutter speed - 3.22 seconds
Aperture - F/2.8
Focal Length - 6 mm.

Was there anything I really could've done to actually get a picture of a bus in this low light setting? Or should I be content in knowing that I have fast speed mode to capture moving objects at nighttime?

:)

[veronica]

I have the S2 IS now but my last camera was the S1. Your question would pertain to both cameras though.

The reason your camera is so slow in your example is because you have a really long shutter speed. What happens is that you push the button, the screen will go blank while it is taking the picture (can be several seconds), then the screen will say "busy" for a while the camera is "thinking".

My first suggestion would be to get a tripod. It is very difficult to hold your camera steady for the longer shutter times. With a tripod, you would get the horizontal streaks without the vertical ones. Streaks are pretty cool. If you don't want such long shutter times, you can try and use a lower aperture number. If you don't want the streaks, then definately reduce your shutter time. Also check your ISO setting, you may want to use 400.

[BusShooter]

Hey Veronica,

Thanks for the reply, albeit I'm getting to it a bit late. :p

I typically try to stay away from using an ISO 400 as it gives off a lot of noise... then again oftentimes taking pictures at low light situations it's a bit hard to not use that setting at times. :(