[TriLUG] Digital Cameras

[Tom Bryan]

On Saturday 15 January 2005 04:13 pm, Steve Litt wrote:

> I have a Kodak dx4530 camera, 

Kodak DC4800 here.  

> picture doesn't flash until maybe a half second after you push
> the button. Invariably that causes blurring.
...
> You can sorta get around it by pressing the button half way for a second or
> so til an LED goes on, and then press the button all the way, and most of
> the time it will go off immediately. But not always. 

The half-press technique works fine for me.  Once the camera has finished 
auto-focusing, determining ISO speed, etc., it takes the picture with 
practically no delay.  I take photos at fencing competitions, and I have no 
problem catching the athletes in the middle of their action.

If there's still blurring, I usually discover that the light is so low that 
the camera has set too slow of a shutter speed for me to hold the camera in 
my hand or at least too slow for the amount of motion in the picture.  Either 
that, or the camera metered the light undesirably.

I get around this problem in one of a few ways:
1) use the flash
2) change the exposure metering mode (center spot, etc.)
3) use the DC4800's exposure compensation dial
4) use the "manual" (aperture priority) mode and override shutter speed 

The last two options usually require some post-processing with the GIMP to 
brighten up the picture, possibly loosing a lot of detail and clarity if the 
setting really was very dark.

---Tom