Help with Canon A80!


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pool100

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Apr 16, 2004
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Hi people,

I'm a newbie to here and I've some problems with my A80, so hope some of you experienced photographers can help me out a bit.

My A80 takes great landscape outdoor shots, but I find it horrible when taking indoor or group photos.

I have attached a few samples of pictures taken using P mode with AiAF off... pls look at them.

[Picture 1-3]
When taking group photos, I can't seem to get everyone into focus. This is very frustrating because only the centre of the photo is focused... the rest of the picture other than the centre is blurred, including the people I want at the edges.

[shirt picture]
Even when I want to take a picture of my shirt, only the centre is focused. The edges are blurred. See the collar of the shirt... it's not in focus. Why is this so since the collar and shirt centre of the shirt are about the same distance? I thought as long as they're same distance (same depth of focus), it should all be focused?

I noticed A80 like to use F2.8 and perhaps that's why it gives this kind of results. Am I correct?

I'm getting really frustrated with this A80 to the extent I want to change cameras. My old fuji point and shoot digi cam managed to get me much better shots!

Pls help. Thanks!

2062431.JPG

4588862.JPG

5496203.JPG

457776SHIRT.JPG
 

Try using other modes instead of P mode. Read the menu esp on the different modes that's available, some are more suitable than others. A smaller F-stop would make the surrounding sharper but requires longer exposure or higher iso each with it's own set of complains. The A80 is a great cam, spend sometime getting to know it and you will love it. (No i do not owe one yet...)
 

Hi thanks for your opinion...

The thing is I've tried every single combination or mode and still the results have so far been abysmal.

Here are some of what I experienced:

[Auto mode] - AiAF often catches wrong subject. Often uses F2.8... not very good for group photos.

[Av mode] - Tried to manually crank up to F4.5 to F5.6 for indoor shots. Images of subjects around the photo are sharper as would be expected, but lack of exposure causes image to be "dimmed". Still not very suitable.

[Tv mode] - Tried to use from 1/30 to 1/100 with flash, but camera selected F2.8 - gives same blurred effect on edges of photo.

[Portrait mode] - effect similar to P mode.

[landscape mode] - Blurred images. Uses high F-stop - lack exposure

[sports mode] - effect similar to P mode

Help! :dunno:
 

err....i don't owe a A80 so don't blame me if i'm wrong, ok?
I check on canon site and found that there's a manual mode. Have you used that before? or is there a limitation also? You never stated if you push up the iso or not? I use my friend's S50, no much problem after increasing the ISO.
 

Try manual or AV mode: f8 with speed like 1/60 with flash. should be ok.
 

ptwong, do u mean own not owe?! :D

anyway...pool100 , if u off the AIAF then did you use manual focus and adjust the range? if not, it is AF
that explains only center is in focus. hmm i need my user guide to confirm this.. sorry that i cannot confirm immediately cos most of the time i try to on AIAF or if not I will use MF manual focus.

the AIAF is for focus auto focus.. it means Artificial Intelligence Auto Focus
 

yes the AIAF might catch the wrong object.. but when u half way press the AIAF will show the catch and move the cam that shows the AIAF to your object area and shoot then. btw i also just learning how to use my cam. i might be wrong ;) so do check and take test photos and compare
 

Max 2.8 said:
Try manual or AV mode: f8 with speed like 1/60 with flash. should be ok.

Impossible mate. F8 for indoor shots on my camera using different shutter speeds all yield the same effect - super dimmed shots.

So far, F8 has only worked well for me in outdoors when the sun was glaring.
 

oeyvind said:
try to send in for servicing.

You feel there's something wrong with the camera mate?

Users of A80 I need your opinions... thanks a lot!
 

try to mount your camera to tripod or any form of support (put on the table) and perform some test shots using Av mode,AF mode ON, f2.8 and timer mode. Check whether the shots are having same problem. If yes, time to visit the service centre.
 

starry said:
yes the AIAF might catch the wrong object.. but when u half way press the AIAF will show the catch and move the cam that shows the AIAF to your object area and shoot then. btw i also just learning how to use my cam. i might be wrong ;) so do check and take test photos and compare


Starry, I don't think it works that way does it? I thought when AiAF has focus locked, it has already calculated the distance and metered the correct DOF. Moving the AiAF frames to the correct subject after focus locked will still yield a wrong focused image won't it?
 

pool100 said:
Hi thanks for your opinion...
[Av mode] - Tried to manually crank up to F4.5 to F5.6 for indoor shots. Images of subjects around the photo are sharper as would be expected, but lack of exposure causes image to be "dimmed". Still not very suitable.
Can post a sample to show what you mean by "dimmed".
But assuming you set a high fstop (4.5 to 5.6) and used flash, then perhaps you are expecting too much from this little cam. Were you taking a group shot? What was your camera to subject distance? Was it the subject that was dimmed, or the subject flashed but background (or ambient) lighting was dimmed?
 

Royce said:
Can post a sample to show what you mean by "dimmed".
But assuming you set a high fstop (4.5 to 5.6) and used flash, then perhaps you are expecting too much from this little cam. Were you taking a group shot? What was your camera to subject distance? Was it the subject that was dimmed, or the subject flashed but background (or ambient) lighting was dimmed?

Hi,

I've just taken a few samples using different f-stops for your reference...

The first picture was using f2.8 (as usual the edges of the picture were blurred, only the centre was focused)

The 2nd picture was using f5 (Notice this picture is "dimmer" than the one taken by f2.8, though the objects are a bit sharper? Guess the lack of exposure due to smaller aperture causes it to be slightly dimmer)

The 3rd picture was using f8 and 1/60s (This picture says it all by what I mean "dimmed" picture)

548091f2.8.JPG

290950f5.JPG
306584f8.JPG
 

The flash on the A80 may not be powerful enough to illuminate a room like that at high fstop. You would need an external flash on slave mode to do it.

You can try increasing flash compensation to max, but i still doubt that the little flash on the A80 will be powerful enough.
 

Royce said:
The flash on the A80 may not be powerful enough to illuminate a room like that at high fstop. You would need an external flash on slave mode to do it.

You can try increasing flash compensation to max, but i still doubt that the little flash on the A80 will be powerful enough.

But if I need an external flash fixed on to take a normal indoor picture like that, doesn't it say a lot about A80's capabilities? I don't remember my cheap fuji digi cam having such a problem...

Even if I were to try increasing the flash, I can only do that in Manual mode... doesn't that render other modes like P, auto, Av or Tv useless for indoor shots?

I think the illumination for f2.8 (as seen in the picture) is pretty good. My only problem is the blurring at the edges of the photo. Is that common?

Is any other A80 user having the same problem?
 

Well, seem like your camera lens got some finger print on it. As the pictures you pose same with my picture last time. That time my lens got a large finger print on the top part of my lens, so everything come out blured on the top part. You should try on ur camera and look at the lens when it extent out.

Just my poor experience. Other than that, your camera might have something wrong in the focusing or the lens. Hope this help
 

pool100 said:
Hi people,

I'm a newbie to here and I've some problems with my A80, so hope some of you experienced photographers can help me out a bit.

My A80 takes great landscape outdoor shots, but I find it horrible when taking indoor or group photos.

I have attached a few samples of pictures taken using P mode with AiAF off... pls look at them.

[Picture 1-3]
When taking group photos, I can't seem to get everyone into focus. This is very frustrating because only the centre of the photo is focused... the rest of the picture other than the centre is blurred, including the people I want at the edges.

[shirt picture]
Even when I want to take a picture of my shirt, only the centre is focused. The edges are blurred. See the collar of the shirt... it's not in focus. Why is this so since the collar and shirt centre of the shirt are about the same distance? I thought as long as they're same distance (same depth of focus), it should all be focused?

I noticed A80 like to use F2.8 and perhaps that's why it gives this kind of results. Am I correct?

I'm getting really frustrated with this A80 to the extent I want to change cameras. My old fuji point and shoot digi cam managed to get me much better shots!

Pls help. Thanks!

2062431.JPG

4588862.JPG

5496203.JPG

457776SHIRT.JPG


may be some setting wrong
can try with full auto mode ? cos i guess with full auto mode you cant adjust any setting ... quite a good mode to test for error
if still like this ... then go to canon and repair it
 

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