Cyber-Shot Help

I have a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P92 that I purchased when they first came out (a few years ago) and have had great success with most of my outdoor photos. Turn the flash off, and it works great. My problem lies with indoor shots. I was fiddling with settings per my manual, and seem to have caused some sort of ridiculous delay. I also have the issue where 9 out of 10 pictures look gawd-awful blurred (sample below). Any suggestions? I would appreciate some help with the settings.

Originally Posted by blckkat

I have a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P92 that I purchased when they first came out (a few years ago) and have had great success with most of my outdoor photos. Turn the flash off, and it works great. My problem lies with indoor shots. I was fiddling with settings per my manual, and seem to have caused some sort of ridiculous delay. I also have the issue where 9 out of 10 pictures look gawd-awful blurred (sample below). Any suggestions? I would appreciate some help with the settings.

Hi there,

Do you know what settings you changed? From your EXIF info (information about the photo that is recorded and stored with the image file) it appears your camera was set to use forced flash (fill-in flash) with red-eye reduction. This would explain the delay you mention as the camera first fires off a small flash burst to constrict the subject's pupils (to lessen any red-eye) before it fires of the main flash burst and takes the shot.

The reason for your blurry photos is likely to be your shutter speed- the two shots you posted were taken with shutter speeds of 1/8th of a second and 1/13th of a second. This is simply too long a shutter speed for most people to handhold successfully (handholdable speeds actually vary according to many factors, but these really are way too slow for most).

So, what to do? First, get your camera off of red-eye reduction mode to eliminate the delay, and then dial in shorter shutter speeds to eliminate the blur. The EXIF shows that you were shooting in Manual mode- so just manually increase the shutter speed. One old rule of thumb is that your shutter speed should not be slower than the reciprocal of your 35mm focal length. So if you were zoomed to 100mm focal length, for example, you would want your shutter speed to be at least 1/100th of a second. With good technique most people can do much better than that, but it is a good place to start. (Incidentally, the actual focal length would be less on a camera like the DSC-P92, but we need to deal with the 35mm equivalent focal length when using the "reciprocal of focal length guideline).

Hope this has been helpful and not confusing.

Kind Regards,
Brian

The red-eye reduction I can change with no problem, I know where that is. However...I don't know how to change the shutter speed...I don't know what option that is on my menu...I knew it had something to do with the shutter speed, but I don't know how to fix it.

And yes, you did confuse me with the last part. When you have the time, please explain focal length.

Thank you for your help!

Originally Posted by blckkat

The red-eye reduction I can change with no problem, I know where that is. However...I don't know how to change the shutter speed...I don't know what option that is on my menu...I knew it had something to do with the shutter speed, but I don't know how to fix it.

And yes, you did confuse me with the last part. When you have the time, please explain focal length.

Thank you for your help!

Look in your manual for the manual options. See if there's a place where you can adjust shutter speed. Either way, you should be okay with just auto settings, at least for the most part.

What he is getting at with the focal length is that your shutter speed must be higher than the reciprocal of the focal length. The max zoon on your camera is something like 114mm. Therefore, at full optical zoom you'd want your shutter speed to be at least 1/100, but the higher the better, depending on light. The lower the shutter speed the longer the shutter stays open and the more blurring becomes a problem.

I wish I was at my apartment or I could post two pictures side by side to explain this, as I was tweaking around with this very thing over the weekend.

I'd honestly try just auto mode and see what happens first. If that doesn't work, increase the light and manually tinker with the shutter speed, if you can. Your camera might not have that option. If it does, aim for 1/100 or higher.

Good luck.

haha! wow, holy camera jargin!!! i have a sony cyber shot. not the same as yours, but the menu's are all pretty similar. i've sold a few to friends too. so, here's my suggestion. put it on manual. the green icon on your dial. then turn off the flash. turn up the lighting in the area naturally. put the snake by a window, add a lamp etc. there should also be an option to take closeups. it looks like a flower on the dial where you change the flash. it's usually the right "arrow" on the fourpart dial. it looks like an old nintendo control pad. that will help the camera focus when you're taking pics closer to the snake. like the ones i saw you post. i'd try to not use the zoom until you get things a bit more dialed. and i'd stay away from the manual settings until you really get a handle on the camera! that should help. if not feel free to message me privately. i don't mind walking you through it at all.

firesnake