Help with P&S Canon S90

[RobinMarie]

Hello Everybody. I bought a Canon S90 after reading such great reviews on the camera, but I've been extremely disappointed with it, and I'm wondering if there is something wrong with my camera.

I had a G10 before I bought the S90. I scratched the lens on the G10 and decided I wanted a smaller camera, so I looked at the S90 and the reviews I read stated that it was very close to the G10, but my pictures are coming out horrible, mostly when I have to use a flash and focus on images - I feel like sometimes it focuses, other times it doesn't and sometimes the flash will go up and other times it wont (when you've never moved your camera from the first location). I also get a yellow/orange glow on people's faces a lot.

It's so frustrating, I never had these issues with my G10. I actually stopped using this camera for photos when I was at a wedding because it was driving me crazy... I used it the rest of the night for videos, which I shouldn't have to do!

Here are some examples:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcottage/5241587874/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcottage/5241595016/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/beachcottage/5241587774/

Any thoughts?

[inkista]

Well, I highly doubt your G10 could've gotten those shots, either. You're mostly shooting low-light shots of moving people at f/2.0. It takes a few skillz to get those in focus in time with only contrast detection AF.

Are you waiting for AF confirmation before mashing the shutter button? (i.e., does the center box come up green when you half-press?) If it isn't green, it's not focused.

Secondly, when you're at f/2.0, you actually have a smaller depth of field (something the G10 kept you from seeing unless you were doing macros). Things in the frame will be out of focus because of this. You have to autofocus accurately. You can't just expect the camera to handle it. I think this is the problem with the first shot.

With the second shot, the couple are moving, and you're shooting at iso 3200. Chances of getting a good clean shot in those circumstances is pretty low. The flash on the S90 is not an eTTL one. You only have three power settings. And the closer someone is to your camera, the lower your power level needs to be.

With the third shot, you've got DoF and movement working against you here. The guy in the back is focused. The guys in front aren't. This is DoF. You're also shooting at 1/60s, which is slow enough for subject motion blur to show (as you can see).

Yes, it's the camera, because the S90 is giving you good isos above 400, and f/2.0 at the wide end--things you didn't have with the G10. But partially, it's you. Just because these cameras are called point and shoots doesn't mean you'll get flawless photos just by hitting the shutter button.

I'm not seeing the yellow glow you're talking about, and I'm afraid I probably can't help you with the flash issue, since I tend to use my S90 in either Av or M mode all the time, so I just choose when the flash goes up and when it doesn't.

[RobinMarie]

Originally Posted by inkista

Well, I highly doubt your G10 could've gotten those shots, either. You're mostly shooting low-light shots of moving people at f/2.0. It takes a few skillz to get those in focus in time with only contrast detection AF.

Are you waiting for AF confirmation before mashing the shutter button? (i.e., does the center box come up green when you half-press?) If it isn't green, it's not focused.

Secondly, when you're at f/2.0, you actually have a smaller depth of field (something the G10 kept you from seeing unless you were doing macros). Things in the frame will be out of focus because of this. You have to autofocus accurately. You can't just expect the camera to handle it. I think this is the problem with the first shot.

With the second shot, the couple are moving, and you're shooting at iso 3200. Chances of getting a good clean shot in those circumstances is pretty low. The flash on the S90 is not an eTTL one. You only have three power settings. And the closer someone is to your camera, the lower your power level needs to be.

With the third shot, you've got DoF and movement working against you here. The guy in the back is focused. The guys in front aren't. This is DoF. You're also shooting at 1/60s, which is slow enough for subject motion blur to show (as you can see).

Yes, it's the camera, because the S90 is giving you good isos above 400, and f/2.0 at the wide end--things you didn't have with the G10. But partially, it's you. Just because these cameras are called point and shoots doesn't mean you'll get flawless photos just by hitting the shutter button.

I'm not seeing the yellow glow you're talking about, and I'm afraid I probably can't help you with the flash issue, since I tend to use my S90 in either Av or M mode all the time, so I just choose when the flash goes up and when it doesn't.

The thing is... this is all in auto mode, I never touched any of the settings (except for maybe the wedding shot because I was messing around with the settings ) and it takes a million tries of hitting the shutter half-way to ever get anything to focus or find faces, it never wants to focus. I sit there and tell people to hold on for at least a minute or two ... it's crazy. I should just bring my DSLR with me everywhere, at least I know I'll be happy with those shots.