 Mark McWaters |
Very Unhappy with Digital Rebel I have a digital Rebel camera that I bought new a few months ago. I am totally disapointed with the photos I've taken with it and need help in asertaining if it is operator error or a problem with the camera. I've noticed in personal reviews that every once in a while there is a person such as myself that has a problem with this camera. This is my third digital camera, the first a 1.3mp Canon A50 and the 2nd, an Olympus C2100 2mp. I'm a novice photographer and mostly use the auto or night mode settings (for low light situations). If I take an exact photo with all 3 of my cameras, all in auto mode, the Digital Rebel's always the poorest quality. Not so much in outdoor situations as indoors with less light. I'm so skittish with this camera that I'll use my old Olympus for important photos. I've let other people try it against their "point and shoot" digital cameras and they have the same results. I'll usually get the response, "You need to get to know the settings of the camera". Shouldn't the camera take a decent photo in auto mode? Any help would be appreciated!
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Jon Close |
All digital cameras have a filter over the sensor to combat moire, pixelation, and other digital artifacts. Unprocessed, the filter makes images a bit dull and unsharp. Digital point & shoot cameras, like the A50 and C2100, are geared toward simplicity. They do a lot of processing of the digital image (sharpening and contrast adjustments) to create jpegs for immediate printing or posting on web/email. Digital SLRs, like the Digital Rebel, are aimed at advanced users who want total control over the post processing. The default settings do very little adjustment to latent image, and so would appear a bit dull and less sharp than the output of the point & shoots. But there is much more information in the DLSRs files (especially the RAW file) and when brought out with post-processing it'll blow away those point & shoots. You can also adjust the Parameter settings of your Digital Rebel (especially Sharpness and Contrast) to get jpegs closer to what you expect. See the Canon Digital Learning Center at http://www.photoworkshop.com/canon/index.html, especially the Digital Rebel Tutorial, and Getting the Most Out of Your EOS.
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Peter K. Burian |
Mark: The Digital Rebel is an excellent camera that can take superb image quality. Do you have it set for the highest resolution and quality? Go into the Menu and set 3072 x 2048 JPEG Fine options. (That is designated with an L and a smoothly curved icon. See http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/300d_pg3.html That will produce great quality. If your images are too dark, or some other technical problem is ocurring, that is another issue entirely. Cheers! Peter
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Marianne S. Jensen |
Mark.....give your Rebel a chance. You are used to using a digital camera that performs all corrections for you. You now have a camera that requires the YOU do some of the processing. At first, this seems like a pain in the neck but you'll ultimately appreciate having total control over your images. There are lots of great books to give you help. One excellent one that comes to mind is "Real World Digital Photography 2nd Edition". Happy shooting!
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Peter K. Burian |
Marianne: Unless he shoots in RAW capture mode, the camera does all the processing. Just like any other digital camera. I do not recommend RAW capture mode for beginners. The best JPEG options produce superb image quality. Cheers! Peter Burian, Author, Mastering Digital Photography and Imaging (Sybex Books, 2004)
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Peter K. Burian |
This is a good article about the pros and cons of JPEG and RAW capture. The Power Of JPEG: http://www.pcphotomag.com/content/2005/janfeb/jpeg.html Although RAW capture is great for advanced photographers, not everyone should be using that option. Cheers! Peter
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Marianne S. Jensen |
Peter.....Note that I said he would need to do "some" of the processing. I agree that the camera does most of the processing but many images can be greatly improved with a slight Levels adjustment at the very least which might the case in Mark's situation. As for RAW...I agree that it can be challenging for beginners to the digital process.
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Mark McWaters |
Thanks all for the information. Time to step up my camera knowledge. Thanks for the great recommendatons.
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Kent Kosai |
Mark, I have the Digital Rebel and it's a great camera. But like other people responding to your question, it's best to read through your manual and understand the various settings that it offers. The Rebel offers a lot of features which is usually the reason to get a SLR over a point and shoot camera. Kent
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Elaine S. Robbins |
Another thing to consider is what lenses you are using. Digital point and shoot cameras have smaller sensors, and hence have smaller, less complex lenses, and hence you sometimes get a sharper lens on the upper end point and shoots than you do on the Digital Rebel kit lens (the cheapy 18-55mm). A better quality lens (one of the 50mm primes, for instance) might give you better results. Also, could you upload an example? Say, like what you described, shooting the different pics w/different cameras? That would give us a better idea what the problem might be. Cheers!!
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Christopher A. Vedros |
You may have figured this out by now, but the "night mode" setting on the Digital Rebel is NOT a general-purpose low light setting. It is intended for night time portraits, where the subject is standing still. It uses a slower shutter speed to capture some detail from the background, then fires the flash to expose the subject. This setting will usually give bad results if anything in the scene (or the photograper) is moving.
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Peter K. Burian |
That's a good point, Chris; flash is important. Ideally, one should use a tripod when shooting in Night mode program. Or Intentionally move the camera (during the long exposure) to create motion blur. Or Tell the subject to move -- and pan the camera with her motion -- during the long exposure. Many of the blurred images will not be succesful, but some will produce an intersting effect. Cheers! Peter Burian
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