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Manual Setting On 350d


Ripley
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For the first time today I took my camera outside to try and take a shot using Manual focus. The 2 lorikeets I feed were around so I moved away and used my 4.0-6.something lens. I set the aperture to about 5.6 and dialed the shutter speed until the focus indicator blinked in the middle. Locked the focus on the bird's face, pressed shutter half way and recomposed shot. But the shutter 'locked', ie, it was going to be a very slow shutter speed and I was handholding lens. This lens was on an old SLR camera but fits the Canon DLSR. The lens tended to hunt around and whirl whilst trying to focus as well.

The conditions were overcast. So I then switched it back to 'auto' to see what would happen and and the flash popped up when I pressed the shutter.

So does this mean that the conditions were simply too dark for my Aperture and Shutter combination I'd dialed in or is my lens just not fast enough? I also tried an aperture of f11 but same thing.

I'm confused and I don't start my I am a clueless beginner weekend course until next weekend. :)

I asked husband who said he doesn't have a clue what I'm talking about (he's an engineer but knows jack about taking photos).

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Until you get used to the camera and it's various settings, use Program mode. This allows you to control the ISO (lower for bright conditions, high for dark/low light), the flash, the focus priority and the metering, but the camera takes care of the aperture and shutter speed.

You can see the selected aperture and shutter speed in the viewfinder and adjust the ISO to suit.

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Just a course at my local TAFE. It's an intro level digital photography course that runs for 2 Saturdays. Then I'm booking myself in for the more in depth one after that. Was cheap - about $130 and I'm literally 2 blocks away from my local TAFE.

Edited by Ripley
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edtied because I fixed the problem - battery was going flat so recharged it and reformatted CF card then restored default settings and then changed them to how I wanted them again.

All fixed!

Edited by Ripley
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Always helps to try the following (any, or all):

1) power off

2) change/check/remove battery (could be going low)

3) remove battery and card from camera for a little while then start afresh

4) camera or lens might be cold (??)

I always consider these things first, could be something simple

and can avoid expensive repairs :rainbowbridge:

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  • 3 weeks later...

The tip I learnt from shooting handheld is that your shutter speed should be equivalent to your focal length or faster. For example: If you were using a lense at 50mm, then your shutter speed should be at least 1/50s or faster. The further you zoom, the faster shutter speed you'd need. Once you have those aspects down, just play with the ISO and aperture until your exposure meter indicator is in the centre of the display.

Examples:

300mm zoom, you would want the shutter set at 1/300s or faster

10mm zoom (wideangle), you could probably get away with a 1/10s shutter (which is pretty slow, but hand vibration is less pronounced at that length)

Edited by Rainey
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Yep, I learnt that too in the course. It wasn't run by TAFE, I was wrong. It was run by a local community college and was held at my local high school.

I recommend people do a workshop if they are interested as it teaches you all that - all about apertures and corresponding shutter speeds, how to pan for motion blur, focal lengths of lenses, night photography tricks, fill in flash, metering etc.

If you already know a little bit anyway, do an advanced course as I went in to the begginer one and the tutor sent me to the Advanced course for the next weekend as he told me I'd benefit more and that the beginner course was for people "too bloody lazy to read their manuals." :laugh:

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