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08/23/2004 08:43:19 PM · #1 |
I recently bought a Nikon Coolpix 5400 so that I could get back to photography, which I'd had to abandon 13-14 years ago. A few days after I bought it, my wife and I visited a museum where she wanted to take some pictures. Since use of flash was prohibited and the best shutter speed one could obtain was 1/8, I said to her, "Don't bother. You won't get anything other than a big, nice blur without a tripod". However, she said she wanted to give it a try anyway and took some pictures. When I loaded them into the computer, I saw -much to my surprise- that the pictures were sharp. I couldn't believe this, so I took a few pictures of our living room at ISO 50 and 1/4 and 1/8 shutter speeds, and those pictures turned out almost razor-sharp (or as sharp as a digital photograph can get) too. I'm not a photography guru; my knowledge and experience are very limited, but I know that you can't get a decent picture at these speeds unless you mount the camera on a tripod, or something. Not that I complain; if this Nikon, or any other high-end digital camera for that matter, is somehow capable of taking sharp pictures at low speeds even when held in hand, then I'm exhilarated, but this really nags me and makes me think maybe there's something wrong with my camera, such as some kind of miscalibration.
I'd greatly appreciate any opinions on this. Thanks in advance.
Ozzy |
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09/05/2004 06:18:27 PM · #2 |
Greetings
Giving a helpfull bump!
Mike |
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09/05/2004 06:21:17 PM · #3 |
i have no idea, i know nothing about nikons. all i know is that at 1/8th shutter speed handheld my pics usually come out like crap
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09/05/2004 06:21:52 PM · #4 |
Ah, another 5400 person: welcome both to dpc and the vexatious world of the 5400.
More people report a kind of oddd softness to their images from the 5400 under any circumstances, which is more often a processing thing, and IMO a slight erraticness in the seating of the lens.
It seems a bizarre occurrence to me, what you've experienced. You have looked at the shots on a computer, haven't you?
E
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09/05/2004 06:28:16 PM · #5 |
Did you look at the images "full size" (1:1 pixel to screen)?
When reduced, images often appear sharper than they are.
However, I have taken many good pictures at 1/8 of a second with my Canon G2. It's not impossible to hold steady, especially if you already half pressed the shutter. In my case, I almost always shoot auto-bracketed, and the second shot doesn't require any movement on my part.
Doesn't the Nikon have BSS, where it selects the best (sharpest) shot of three?
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09/05/2004 07:23:56 PM · #6 |
Thanks a lot for the responses. I've been testing/learning the camera since then and I'm quite happy with it. I was bothered by this behaviour, because it seemed too good to be true.
>> More people report a kind of oddd softness to their images from the 5400 under any circumstances
I don't know what to say. I look at the pictures I've taken and kept so far, and all of them seem to me sharp enough for digital camera images.
>> You have looked at the shots on a computer, haven't you?
>> Did you look at the images "full size" (1:1 pixel to screen)?
Yes and yes. Although my hands are reasonably steady, and were even steadier back when I used a film SLR, I don't have the hands of a brain surgeon, and I was never able to take sharp pictures at any shutter speed lower than 1/30 no matter how hard I tried. But anyway, I guess I should stop complaining about this and just enjoy the hobby.
And btw, the camera does have BSS, which I haven't tried yet.
Thank you all again, |
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