I need help Camera People!!

[Disneydreamer23]

hello I just bought a new camera on black friday and I looked through my manual and I cant find the right setting to use for MOTION shots like for parades and rides ( with out flash of course) and I cant find a night setting either HELP PLEASE The camera is a fuji film finepix S 4430 THANK YOU!!!!

 

[Nemo14]

Have you checked the Fuji website?

 

[KeithVH]

OK. You won't find too much on this the Fuji site. This is probably an S4000 rebadged specifically for a given vendor. It should have both a Night and night tripod scene setting somewhere in the menus. But I'm not sure that'll get you what you need. I have no idea what those presets do to the settings (see below).

Do you want to stop motion of a moving object or capture the movement of an object in the dark?

There are three settings you need to worry about, shutter speed, lens aperture, and ISO. You have IS so make sure that is turned on. The camera goes to 24mm at the wide end so I would stay there as much as possible. That helps you to control the aperture (the f-stop). This determines how much light is let in through the lens. A smaller number, like the max 3.1 on this camera, is better for dark work. And you'll need to keep the shutter to at least 1/15 sec (unless you have really good technique). You can use the A or S modes on the main dial to set those. With A, you set the aperture and the camera picks the shutter based on the ISO. On S, you select a speed and the camera sets the aperture based on the ISO. A higher ISO number will allow higher shutter speeds at the cost of noise (speckles of color) in the image.

I would start with S to set your minimum speed (practice to find how low you can go) and fiddle the ISO to get dark ride pics.

Use A and the ISO to move the camera with a moving object and a longer shutter speed to imply motion (moving background, static subject).

This is just one way of doing it but it's a start.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Thank u!

 

[ddbowdoin]

why are simple cameras expensive and cheap cameras complicated?

Leica M6 1500 for a used camera that is 25 years old... three features, one button: aperture, shutter speed, shutter release.

Nikon S61000AWX-35 - 100 bucks at Best Buy, a million buttons... a million settings, I can't find anything.

 

[BoarderPhreak]

All you need is a fast shutter speed and/or fill flash. Use the "sports" setting.

 

[PhotoDave219]

hello I just bought a new camera on black friday and I looked through my manual and I cant find the right setting to use for MOTION shots like for parades and rides ( with out flash of course) and I cant find a night setting either HELP PLEASE The camera is a fuji film finepix S 4430 THANK YOU!!!!

.... expose for the light?

 

[thomas998]

All you need is a fast shutter speed and/or fill flash. Use the "sports" setting.

Second that suggestion... When using a point and shoot camera it is often best to use the flash even thought it isn't going to be powerful enough to actually help it often tricks the camera into taking a better picture because it will keep the camera from opening the shutter too long. On some point and shoots you can't control the shutter speed and if you can't control it the camera will more times than not hold it open too long when you are trying to capture movement in the dark.

 

[KeithVH]

I stand by my original answer. Fill flash ain't happenin' on dark rides. And it's not powerful enough to deal with parades.

 

[ddbowdoin]

I stand by my original answer. Fill flash ain't happenin' on dark rides. And it's not powerful enough to deal with parades.

I don't care if you strapped Alien Bee's onto a P&S... no one should be flashing any dark ride

 

[Minnie_girl]

All you need is a fast shutter speed and/or fill flash. Use the "sports" setting.

x2

 

[ddbowdoin]

DON'T FLASH A DARKRIDE.... PERIOD

 

[NowInc]

...it never ceases to amaze me how many people

1.) Think its ok and totally not low class rude at all to just fire flash away on dark rides...ignoring the CLEAR requests to NOT do so.

2.) Think that pictures taken with flash on a dark ride will actually come out looking ok.

 

[KeithVH]

So, to get back to the OP. I'll assume you want to take a picture of an object that may (parade) or may not (dark ride) be moving when the light is low. Based on your variables, technique is REALLY key here.

1. Make sure image stabilization is turned on.
2. Use A mode and set the camera to f3.1.
3. Keep the camera at it's widest zoom setting (zooming can mess up the f setting above) and will be more forgiving of movement compared to telephoto ranges. Zoom with your feet.
4. Set the ISO to 800 for starters.The camera will pick a shutter speed based on the other settings. If the pic is still to blurry, up the ISO to a higher number to improve the shutter speed.
5. HOLD THE CAMERA STEADY. Here is the technique piece. Elbows in, two hands on the camera, everything braced against your body. Take a breath, let a little out and hold it, and click. Like this:

Average handheld shutter speed is usually around 1/60 sec, maybe 1/30. Done right, and with some practice (try it at home on the couch) and following the above, you should be able to hold steady for a decent shot down to 1/2 sec. Maybe a little more under optimal conditions for very static objects.

The issue you will end up dealing with is noise, random variations of bright/dark spots in the shots (mostly an ISO issue). Probably more visible in the darker areas of your shots. Several programs can help clean that up, depending on how much work you want to do on the PC/how badly you want to keep the shots.

Your biggest challenge will be focus. At some point, even with AF assist illumination, the camera stands a chance of not locking onto anything to focus on if it's too dark. This is a problem with a LOT of cameras and you don't have much choice at that point if it won't focus (for still lifes maybe, but not with any movement happening).

Best of luck. It can be done, just keep practising.