Question on Canon A95

This camera has a "SCN" (scene) setting allowing automatic compensation for
a few different conditions, such as "snow", "night" (etc.).

One of these, "Indoor", is said to "prevent camera shake", which, seeming to
be a nice feature, one would think could be used in all modes, if desired.
(Damn, I need to go buy more commas!)

Anyhow, is this "feature" more likely to be a faster shutter or something,
rather than anything approaching actual motion compensation, a feature which
I'd think would be prominently touted if included.

--
dvus




dvus

dvus wrote:

>This camera has a "SCN" (scene) setting allowing automatic compensation for
>a few different conditions, such as "snow", "night" (etc.).
>
>One of these, "Indoor", is said to "prevent camera shake", which, seeming to
>be a nice feature, one would think could be used in all modes, if desired.
>(Damn, I need to go buy more commas!)
>
>Anyhow, is this "feature" more likely to be a faster shutter or something,
>rather than anything approaching actual motion compensation, a feature which
>I'd think would be prominently touted if included.

It doesn't use IS if that's what you mean.

The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate camera
shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white balance, drive
mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific settings. Some of them
can be changed manually.

You have to remember that camera companies expect a lot of newbies to be
using these digicams, so they keep the manual simple for them.
Experienced users already know how to use the basic camera settings, so
they don't need the manual to explain it to them.

Bill wrote:
> dvus wrote:
>
>> This camera has a "SCN" (scene) setting allowing automatic
>> compensation for a few different conditions, such as "snow", "night"
>> (etc.).
>>
>> One of these, "Indoor", is said to "prevent camera shake", which,
>> seeming to be a nice feature, one would think could be used in all
>> modes, if desired. (Damn, I need to go buy more commas!)
>>
>> Anyhow, is this "feature" more likely to be a faster shutter or
>> something, rather than anything approaching actual motion
>> compensation, a feature which I'd think would be prominently touted
>> if included.
>
> It doesn't use IS if that's what you mean.
>
> The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
> aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate
> camera shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white balance,
> drive mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific settings. Some
> of them can be changed manually.
>
> You have to remember that camera companies expect a lot of newbies to
> be using these digicams, so they keep the manual simple for them.
> Experienced users already know how to use the basic camera settings,
> so they don't need the manual to explain it to them.

So, it's just a combination of settings that cause the exposure to be as
short as possible, thus minimizing the effect of any camera shake?

dvus

dvus wrote:

>> The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
>> aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate
>> camera shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white balance,
>> drive mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific settings. Some
>> of them can be changed manually.
>
>So, it's just a combination of settings that cause the exposure to be as
>short as possible, thus minimizing the effect of any camera shake?

Yes. My A75 has the same scene modes and does the same thing.

As I said before, an experienced user will already know how to adjust
the camera settings to avoid camera shake. But a newbie will find the
scene modes handy so they don't have to know much about the camera
settings and still get decent photos.

I've played with all of the automatic modes on my A75 to see what they
do and how they perform. I found that 99% of the time the camera does an
excellent job with the settings and it results in great photos.

Have at it.

Bill wrote:
> dvus wrote:
>
>>> The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
>>> aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate
>>> camera shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white balance,
>>> drive mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific settings. Some
>>> of them can be changed manually.
>>
>> So, it's just a combination of settings that cause the exposure to
>> be as short as possible, thus minimizing the effect of any camera
>> shake?
>
> Yes. My A75 has the same scene modes and does the same thing.
>
> As I said before, an experienced user will already know how to adjust
> the camera settings to avoid camera shake. But a newbie will find the
> scene modes handy so they don't have to know much about the camera
> settings and still get decent photos.
>
> I've played with all of the automatic modes on my A75 to see what they
> do and how they perform. I found that 99% of the time the camera does
> an excellent job with the settings and it results in great photos.
>
> Have at it.

Thanks, I will.

dvus

"dvus" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Bill wrote:
>> dvus wrote:
>>
>>>> The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
>>>> aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate
>>>> camera shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white balance,
>>>> drive mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific settings. Some
>>>> of them can be changed manually.
>>>
>>> So, it's just a combination of settings that cause the exposure to
>>> be as short as possible, thus minimizing the effect of any camera
>>> shake?
>>
>> Yes. My A75 has the same scene modes and does the same thing.
>>
>> As I said before, an experienced user will already know how to adjust
>> the camera settings to avoid camera shake. But a newbie will find the
>> scene modes handy so they don't have to know much about the camera
>> settings and still get decent photos.
>>
>> I've played with all of the automatic modes on my A75 to see what they
>> do and how they perform. I found that 99% of the time the camera does
>> an excellent job with the settings and it results in great photos.
>>
>> Have at it.
>
> Thanks, I will.
>
> dvus
>
Even for a more experienced user, these modes provide a much faster and more
convenient way to set the camera. The snow scene seems to work particularly
well.
I've been caught a couple of times with the wrong setting because I forgot
to restore a setting. The camera remembers some but not all settings between
sessions, so it pays to really look at the screen when first turning on
(assumimg you have microscopic eyesight and can remember what the icons
mean).
Dave Cohen

Dave Cohen wrote:
> "dvus" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Bill wrote:
>>> dvus wrote:
>>>
>>>>> The indoor scene setting probably just uses the largest available
>>>>> aperture and turns on the flash. This will effectively eliminate
>>>>> camera shake. The scene settings will also adjust the white
>>>>> balance, drive mode, image quality settings, etc. to specific
>>>>> settings. Some of them can be changed manually.
>>>>
>>>> So, it's just a combination of settings that cause the exposure to
>>>> be as short as possible, thus minimizing the effect of any camera
>>>> shake?
>>>
>>> Yes. My A75 has the same scene modes and does the same thing.
>>>
>>> As I said before, an experienced user will already know how to
>>> adjust the camera settings to avoid camera shake. But a newbie will
>>> find the scene modes handy so they don't have to know much about
>>> the camera settings and still get decent photos.
>>>
>>> I've played with all of the automatic modes on my A75 to see what
>>> they do and how they perform. I found that 99% of the time the
>>> camera does an excellent job with the settings and it results in
>>> great photos. Have at it.
>>
>> Thanks, I will.
>>
>> dvus
>>
> Even for a more experienced user, these modes provide a much faster
> and more convenient way to set the camera. The snow scene seems to
> work particularly well.
> I've been caught a couple of times with the wrong setting because I
> forgot to restore a setting. The camera remembers some but not all
> settings between sessions, so it pays to really look at the screen
> when first turning on (assumimg you have microscopic eyesight and can
> remember what the icons mean).
> Dave Cohen

Yeah, the icons are a bit cryptic, especially for my older eyes. I guess
I'll probably get used to where each is sooner or later and go more by feel.
The easiest one to distinguish is the movie mode icon, but I must say it
isn't of much use since the results are pretty bad. I'm not sure why it was
included except perhaps for people comparison shopping with other cameras.

One thing I'm having trouble with is using the manual focus. I can't seem to
get it to go past a certain point when shooting things close-up, even though
the displayed scale seems to indicate it could focus closer than it actually
will. (Is that at all clear?) I just can't seem to get good close-up photos
with the stock lens, perhaps I'm expecting too much without buying an
additional lens.

--
dvus

dvus wrote:

> One thing I'm having trouble with is using the manual focus. I can't
> seem to get it to go past a certain point when shooting things
> close-up, even though the displayed scale seems to indicate it could
> focus closer than it actually will. (Is that at all clear?) I just
> can't seem to get good close-up photos with the stock lens, perhaps
> I'm expecting too much without buying an additional lens.

To anyone who might care, I found out that applying any optical zoom will
prevent the manual focus from going below a certain point on the displayed
"gas-guage" scale. Removing the zoom will allow you to manually focus to the
limit of the adjustment.

--
dvus