Any Camera experts....

MeMe · 22 July 2005, 10:29

......out there ?

In brief, I've had to send my digital camera back to Casio 3 times in order to find a fault which they advise is none existant. When reviewing photos on the lcd screen and transfering the same to my pc there appears to be a ghosting/shadowing around the subject matter. Of course the focus has been checked, lense cleaned etc - Casio have also done the same.

Unfortunately the problem continues however Casio say they can not see the same when testing.

All of a sudden I've realised that when I send it back I take out the Lexar 128mb SD card so they are testing with internal memory only.

Can anyone advise if SD cards degenerate with use and if so could this be the cause of the ghosting ?

Richard B · 22 July 2005, 11:09

To eliminate the SD card and do the same test as Casio, have you tried the same as them, ie take come photos using the internal memory?

Andy · 22 July 2005, 11:30

I don't think this is memory card related. The cards stores numbers thats all. Those numbers make the pic. The numbers have to be wrong ... and it's the camera that puts them there.

Try talking test pics in a variety of light conditions with and without the flash. This may help you resolve the symptons a little more to give Casio more or a clue.

Definately sounds like a camera problem.

Scary Des · 22 July 2005, 11:54

MeMe, although it looks clean and large enough, I’m not entirely sure you are allowed to keep your kids in a dog basket

even if they have water readily to hand

Des

TQBoater · 22 July 2005, 13:16

Have you had the camera on a tripod and use the timer function to make sure there is no camera shake causing this?

Jonny Fuller · 22 July 2005, 13:20

looks like motion blur to me too.

definitely try a tripod.

can you alter the shutter speed manually?

codprawn · 22 July 2005, 13:47

I would also go along with motion blur - memory cards DO corrupt data but when they do you get chunks of the picture missing - very obvious!!! A format usually resolves this.

If you haven't got a tripod put the camera on a wall or similar with a jacket or similar under it - use the self timer if you have one.

There is one other possibility - that is condensation although not very likely in this weather.

Do you have the ability to set the equivelant film ISO speed? It could be set too low which is then giving you too low a shutter speed.

One last thing to try - with some cameras you must press the shutter half way down for it to focus properly - hold it for a second - then press down further to fire - you MAY not be giving the autofocus a chance to work properly!!!

Mark Halliday · 22 July 2005, 14:01

What quality setting have you got the camera set to. Economy, or whatever Casio call it, will give a more fuzzy picture because of the file compression, more so the higher the resolution.

MeMe · 22 July 2005, 14:13

.....the forum comes through with all the info required. Thanks chaps.

There's a lot of good tips noted above, upon receipt of my camera bac from Casio I'll try them all. In the meantime they continue to advise "no fault found" therefore it must be me !

As for the 2 touch shutter release button - yep know this - thanks anyway.

Shutter speed - I'll check it.

Tripod - I'll try it.

However, 100 pictures or so prior to only a mnth or so ago the camera took great shots regardless of all the above - I think I'll just bin it and get another

Scary Des · 22 July 2005, 14:32

Just to make up for my not so constructive comment earlier

i found that because I have fingers like sausages I would occasionally cover one of the small sensing lenses on the front of my digital camera with all sorts of strange results

Never did it with my SLR but that was a proper camera not any of this new fangled rubbish

Des

TQBoater · 22 July 2005, 14:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeMe

However, 100 pictures or so prior to only a mnth or so ago the camera took great shots regardless of all the above

Could it be the CCD and lense assembly have got out of alignment then, or one is loose causing the focal plane to move ?

I would have thought the Casio service lab would have found this though

chrisallse · 22 July 2005, 15:22

Coulb be Aberrations in the lens caused by the light hitting the lens from the side (the angle of the shadows look as though the sun is faurly low) I dont think it is camera shake because the available light is high so the camera would be operating at a high shutter speed. Try taking a series of shots of the same thing from different angles and with the sun behind you.

lc0021 · 22 July 2005, 16:14

mmm...

were you by any chance using flash ?

This can happen when using flash in bright light - you get a 'ghost' image which has been exposed by the flash superimposed on the normally exposed image... though I've only ever seen it in manual cameras....

Shouldn't happen if the flash is set to 'Fill' mode...

worth a check though...

codprawn · 23 July 2005, 15:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by MeMe

.....the forum comes through with all the info required. Thanks chaps.

There's a lot of good tips noted above, upon receipt of my camera bac from Casio I'll try them all. In the meantime they continue to advise "no fault found" therefore it must be me !

As for the 2 touch shutter release button - yep know this - thanks anyway.

Shutter speed - I'll check it.

Tripod - I'll try it.

However, 100 pictures or so prior to only a mnth or so ago the camera took great shots regardless of all the above - I think I'll just bin it and get another

If the camera was working fine before it is obviously buggered no matter what they say!!! I would complain a lot more and mention trading standards etc - that usually does the trick!!!

If you decide to buy a new camera please look at

http://www.steves-digicams.com/hardware_reviews.html

Brilliant reviews!!!

My personal choice of camera would be the Panasonic Lumix - the lens really is awesome - a Leica 12x optical and it's stablised which is essential at maximum zoom!!! Equivalent of a 35 to 420mm!!! It is easily the most camera for your money. The Fuji range are also particularly good!!!

MarkWildey · 23 July 2005, 15:58

MeMe

What was the shutter speed of the camera in the sampled picture. Are you a heavy drinker that hadn't had a drink for a few hours

Looking at the image it seems that the camera has been moved down, as the ghosting is always above the main image. I suspect that a slow-ish shutter speed and/or a small delay from pressing the shutter until the picture is taken and you then moving the camera down to review th image.

Were you on an auto setting or a custom setting.

Cheers

Mark

MeMe · 25 July 2005, 16:24

......imput and advice is most welcome - thanks. I'm awaiting the return of my camera (tomorrow/Tue) with luck following which I'll try all the aforementioned timps and revert accordingly.

jyasaki · 27 July 2005, 07:16

One thing you may find useful is a tool that allows you to extract the EXIF data from a digital photo. Most digital cameras will store the settings used to take the picture: shutter speed, f-stop, ISO equivalent, focal length, focus distance, and a ton of other stuff.

There are applications which allow you to extract and view the information as a table (handy for when someone, like MarkWildey asks "What shutter speed did you use?"

There are several you can use (and, as in most things, you can spend little or a lot, depending on what "features" you want.

Here's one that's free:

http://www.takenet.or.jp/~ryuuji/min.../download.html

FWIW, to me that image you posted looks like motion blur. It would be easily proven with a tripod (or other reasonably steady support) and a test image (which could be as simple as a black square outline drawn on white paper. Make sure that the lines are all equal width. Better yet would be 2 concentric black squares separated by a thin white line. You can do this with electrical tape on paper. Shoot the square , uh, square, I guess, and on a point so it's diamond shaped, so you can tell if any blur is vertical or angled. )

I have noticed a lot of people do not wait long enough before dropping the camera away from their shooting stance - this is especially true of cameras that use red-eye reduction. All digital point-and-shoot cameras have some degree of shutter lag, and it seems that people expect them to act like film cameras (shutter goes as soon as the button depresses.)

In any event a bit of experimentation will be quite useful in figuring out what's going on.

jky