Trouble with A1 Please help

chpeck · 30th July 2004

Few days ago I sent in my Olympus C5050 to have the motherboard changed due to problem of resetting whenever I change the batteries.

Just loaned a Minolta A1 from a friend and have been shooting mostly indoor with flash.

I am surprised to see that the colour accuracy is pretty bad and no matter what white balance I set. All the colours seem wrong to me be it Red, Green or Blue and black is not black enough. Most pictures appear too pale. Most of the setting were kept as default.

I believe this camera can deliver a lot more than this and it just doesn’t give good result using the default settings.

Can someone share with me your kind of settings for shooting with flash indoor and without flash outdoor?

pit · 30th July 2004

Perhaps you can post some pics and the settings used ?

webstop · 30th July 2004

A1 by default uses a normal setting to let you optimize the photos in post-processing. Try to increase colour saturation and contract, set softening to hard and use vivid colour.

chpeck · 30th July 2004

Originally Posted by webstop

A1 by default uses a normal setting to let you optimize the photos in post-processing. Try to increase colour saturation and contract, set softening to hard and use vivid colour.

It is weird to me that this is the design intend. I did try to increase the colour saturation by +2 and set to hard.

My friend just bought a Fuji S7000 and out of the box the pictures we took in the office with a cheap Vivitar external flash look really good.

We put the shots from both cameras side by side and find that the colours from the S7000 are really vivid (especially the Red) and the black is free from noise unlike the A1 which looks like having all kinds of colours in it.

The flash I tested with the A1 was 5400HS.

Will try more extensively tommorrow on a trip to Melecca. Just hope that I have made some mistakes somewhere.

sulhan · 30th July 2004

Hi Ch...

Welcome abroad (for a short term).......on the A1 users....

Well, i think there are a few things that i need to tell you about the A1.......its like a girl.......whom you want to court. It takes some time for you to know its capability and its functions and features.

I agree that this camera is not good for pick and shoot type of camera.
There are many possible things that may not have been set correctly.
There ar emany manual color parameters that is available on the A1......
Once you get these right.....you willl then start to enjoy it capability.

I would think that some of the items that you could set to achieve different colour output are:
- White balance (my personal advice.....Use Manul Whilte balance for mixed lighting especially indoors)
- When Use flash - set to flash whitle balance where possible.
- Setup colur space
- You can adjust color
- You can adjust filter
- and metering mode...

Remamber...in the A series.....anything about colorsetup is on the left face......knobs & buttons

well....the above are the "manual" setups that you really need to know and play with on this camera. It took me sometime to get use to the settings myself. I'm no photography expert so there is a learning curve involve.

So go ahead....check out the above setting parameters..and see what you could get out of this babe.....

BTW: 5400HS does not support the D feature for head on flashing...

rgds,
sulhan

pshing · 30th July 2004

i always shoot my picture with +0.7~+1.0EV. besides, use auto-white balance most of the time. the color taken would appear quite natural normally.

if you are under different lighting condition, can try to play with the white-balance. i personally dont do any modification in saturation and others, because they can be achieved by using photoshop later...

else if still cant help, can try to shoot in RAW mode, then do the adjusting after that in computer...

^.^pshing
owner of an one-month-old A1

30th July 2004	#1
chpeck Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Woodlands Posts: 105	Trouble with A1 Please help Few days ago I sent in my Olympus C5050 to have the motherboard changed due to problem of resetting whenever I change the batteries. Just loaned a Minolta A1 from a friend and have been shooting mostly indoor with flash. I am surprised to see that the colour accuracy is pretty bad and no matter what white balance I set. All the colours seem wrong to me be it Red, Green or Blue and black is not black enough. Most pictures appear too pale. Most of the setting were kept as default. I believe this camera can deliver a lot more than this and it just doesn’t give good result using the default settings. Can someone share with me your kind of settings for shooting with flash indoor and without flash outdoor?

30th July 2004	#5
sulhan Advertiser Join Date: May 2002 Location: Melbourne, Australia Posts: 4,051	Hi Chpeck.... Hi Ch... Welcome abroad (for a short term).......on the A1 users.... Well, i think there are a few things that i need to tell you about the A1.......its like a girl.......whom you want to court. It takes some time for you to know its capability and its functions and features. I agree that this camera is not good for pick and shoot type of camera. There are many possible things that may not have been set correctly. There ar emany manual color parameters that is available on the A1...... Once you get these right.....you willl then start to enjoy it capability. I would think that some of the items that you could set to achieve different colour output are: - White balance (my personal advice.....Use Manul Whilte balance for mixed lighting especially indoors) - When Use flash - set to flash whitle balance where possible. - Setup colur space - You can adjust color - You can adjust filter - and metering mode... Remamber...in the A series.....anything about colorsetup is on the left face......knobs & buttons well....the above are the "manual" setups that you really need to know and play with on this camera. It took me sometime to get use to the settings myself. I'm no photography expert so there is a learning curve involve. So go ahead....check out the above setting parameters..and see what you could get out of this babe..... BTW: 5400HS does not support the D feature for head on flashing... rgds, sulhan Last edited by sulhan; 30th July 2004 at 07:05 PM.

30th July 2004	#6
pshing Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: tampines Posts: 104	my little experience with A1 i always shoot my picture with +0.7~+1.0EV. besides, use auto-white balance most of the time. the color taken would appear quite natural normally. if you are under different lighting condition, can try to play with the white-balance. i personally dont do any modification in saturation and others, because they can be achieved by using photoshop later... else if still cant help, can try to shoot in RAW mode, then do the adjusting after that in computer... ^.^pshing owner of an one-month-old A1

30th July 2004	#2
pit Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 139	Perhaps you can post some pics and the settings used ?

30th July 2004	#3
webstop Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 82	A1 by default uses a normal setting to let you optimize the photos in post-processing. Try to increase colour saturation and contract, set softening to hard and use vivid colour.