What am I doing wrong?

[jandjfun]

My camerais STUPID!!( or is it the user?) It is a vivitar 5.0 Megapixels 3X optical zoom. It's small and cute But...

:(

It eats batteries as if IT was on a cruise

When I "snap" a picture, it takes forever for the shutter to actually take the picture.

If I crop a picture, which I try to do a lot, 8x10's are not a recommended size when I try to develop them.

 

I use a 1GB SDcard. So what do you think my problem is?:confused:

[MauiLvrs]

Buy NiMH rechargable batteries 2000+ mAh.

 

On most cameras, if you partially depress the shutter release the camera will set the exposure and focus. Then when you fully press the shutter release the time to record the exposure will be both much shorter and more standard.

[jandjfun]

I just checked my camera. I am already using those kind of batteries. I will try the depressing the button a little first, but when taking pictures of "funny things" you don't have a lot of time to prepare. Thanks

[unowho6]

Part of the problem for a lot of people is they like to look at the pics after they have taken them. After you take the picture it will be displayed for a few seconds (or however long you have it set for) which allows you to see it briefly which gives you an idea if you got what you wanted. Scrolling through your pictures afterwards can really eat batteries. Avoid it unless necessary.

[RichYak]

Regarding battery life: If you take a lot of pics that require flash, that will eat up your batteries very quickly. Make sure you haven't inadvertantly set the flash to always fire. Most likely, that would be a lightning bolt symbol. Set it to auto if it isn't. Ditto the previous poster: keep that preview screen off as much as possible too.

 

Regarding shutter lag: that's a comon complaint from users of point & shoot cameras, even after the time required for focus.

 

Regarding cropping: What software are you using to crop with? When you re-save the photo after cropping, save it to a different filename (to preserve the original) and choose the highest quality (largest file size) option. Also, since you have a 1GB card, set your camera to take the largest and highest quality pictures. This will give you fewer total photos on the card but will still number in the hundreds with a 5MP camera. Most cameras default to medium out of the box.

[jandjfun]

OK, I am NOT going to preview the pictures anymore, NOT use the flash unless I have to, Press the button down slighty......Thanks for the advice. I will try all the tips you gave me. Thanks CC friends!

[jandjfun]

I adjusted the camera to all your suggestions. Most of them were already done. I also chose "burst" instead of one shot at a time, maybe that will make the shutter close faster. Anyway, by the time I got all the adjustments done, the batteries were dead!:mad: So I am charging them now and I'll take a few shots later to see how it works.

I use HP image zone plus to do most of my cropping. My BIL suggested after cropping the picture, to save it at a higher resolution, but I can't figure out how to do that.

[pierces]

The Vivitar Vivicams are good, inexpensive cameras that do what they are designed to do...take pictures. Being inexpensive, they don't use a lot of the latest power saving technologies and will, as you put it, EAT batteries. The previous suggestions about pre-focusing, cutting down on reviewing, etc. are all good ideas. Unfortunately, if you want a camera the has low shutter-lag, fast autofocus, great battery life, image stabilization and all those other bells and whistles, it costs you.

 

As for cropping and loss of resolution, there isn't a good answer. You can resample a cropped image to a higher resolution, but you can't recover detail that was never there. I wrote an article on the subject HERE that explains it in fairly plain language. It also gives you an idea of how much memeory to take with you on a trip.

 

Composing, holding the camera steady, prefocusing, and shooting in the best light possible will get the most out of your camera. Click on the photo links below and browse my galleries if you wish. Many of the photos were taken with my 5 MP pocket camera.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[jandjfun]

Thank you, I will read your article right now. Maybe I just need to buy a better camera. It's worth it if I am going to miss all the good shots, and hate the ones I have taken, Right?:)

[pierces]

...Maybe I just need to buy a better camera. It's worth it if I am going to miss all the good shots, and hate the ones I have taken, Right?:)

 

A better camera is a good idea, but be careful!

 

I found out (much to my embarassment) that once you have a good camera, you can no longer blame bad pictures on anything but the photographer! :D

 

Anyway, best of luck with your photos!

 

Dave

[geojobes]

Another Tip for shutter lag - if your camera has a sports (or action) setting , use that. It cuts the lag down a lot. I alway use the sports on my old Kodak. It works great in most uses. Most cameras have this setting.

[geojobes]

Another Tip for shutter lag - if your camera has a sports (or action) setting , use that. It cuts the lag down a lot. I alway use the sports on my old Kodak. It works great in most uses. Most cameras have this setting.

[Amused]

My camerais STUPID!!( or is it the user?) It is a vivitar 5.0 Megapixels 3X optical zoom. It's small and cute But...

:(

It eats batteries as if IT was on a cruise

When I "snap" a picture, it takes forever for the shutter to actually take the picture.

If I crop a picture, which I try to do a lot, 8x10's are not a recommended size when I try to develop them.

 

I use a 1GB SDcard. So what do you think my problem is?:confused:

 

It sounds to me like you have it saving to a full resolution .TIFF photo, which at 5MP, can be quite large.

 

Get into your menu and see if you can change it to save to a .JPG format, which is more compressed, but a LOT faster, and you won't notice the difference unless you print it full size (poster size).

 

Hope that helps.

[jerseyjk]

This goes along with reviewing photos ... another thing that contributes to the lack of battery life is deleting pics. Don't bother deleting pics that don't turn out well until you're done shooting for the day. As long as you have enough memory, just keep clicking away and worry about deleting later.

 

I also found that some filters (Kodak SHO for underexposed shots for example) may be able to rescue photos I thought were unusable. Yet another reason not to delete photos until you're sure they're bad.

 

Also, get two sets of batteries. Try to have one on the charger while using the other set. I use powerex 2700 mAh which I think is the largest capacity you can get. Also make sure you have a good charger that has a refresh setting. Even rechargable batteries die at some point. If you've been using them for a while, they may have lived their life.

[Annmarie58]

I have found that when I am not using my camera if I take the batteries out of the camera they last longer !