When taking action shots, amateur photographers such as myself can become frustrated. I have a nice camera, which does a lot of great things, super zoom (35X), high resolution, great variety of ways to shoot the shot, effects and so-forth. While taking pictures of my daughter and grandson at the playground, I became very disappointed in a lot of great photos I could have had - had I known how to use my camera properly.
Upon return home, I studied the User's Manual again and about the problems I had. I was not familiar with the fast shooting option of the camera and the User's Manual didn't have any information on it either! The next event that I attended and was taking photos at was an Easter Egg Hunt at a gated community. This neighborhood lined all the children up at one end of the park (which was scattered with over 1500 Easter eggs) and released the children to run and gather as many eggs as they could as fast as they could go! (My thought was, "Gosh, I wish it was this easy to get them to clean their rooms!") Back to the issue of the camera. So, I used that rapid shot mode on my camera, expecting to hear rapid clicks and get rapid shots. NOT! It was tremendously slow! As evidenced by shots seen below:
When I pushed the shutter button all the way down, the camera would take time to focus, then shoot, focus, then shoot, focus then shoot. By the time it took the picture, the subject matter was long gone! Needless to say, I went back to still shots to get the material needed for the neighborhood's magazine. The picture below is the one we used for the cover:
Still faced with the dilemma, I went to the camera shop where I purchased my camera asking for help! The salesman was very helpful, but I was still left highly disappointed. He helped me to speed up the operation of the camera by explaining that I should first depress the shutter button half way to assure myself of the focus I wanted then to depress it the remainder of the way to obtain faster shots. My disappointment - this camera was only capable of a shot every 1.3 seconds until the disc becomes full. That is EXTREMELY slow! But it is what I had.
The camera salesman showed me other models that shoot rapid-fire - well, those are not in my budget at the present. I figured that I'd make do with what I had. And I still love this camera as it has allowed me to take fabulous photos that many people have been amazed with.
Still, the rapid fire shooting was nagging me. A few days ago, while shopping at Costco, I browsed through the camera section, just in an attempt to see what they had available and what type of rapid fire cameras they had on their shelves. I stumbled across a very small camera that was offered and boasted 10 fps (frames per second) shutter speed! To my delight, the price tag was within reach - $149.00. I swooped up the camera and brought it home with me. Joy!
Then I began trying to find the setting to the rapid fire. Try as I may, I couldn't find it. This camera is a different brand that the one I had been using. And small - as I said - it is TINY - not much bigger than a stack of credit cards. I took the camera back to Costco and asked for help there. The assistant was very helpful and found the setting and proceeded to fire off a rapid ten shots! YES! Then it stopped. I looked puzzled. The assistant explained that yes, the camera CAN shoot 10 fps, but then it has to load them before you can shoot another 10. AARRRGGGHHH, I can see a problem here! But, it is a small improvement over the other camera. I asked him how to find the setting, and he told me, "Just leave it there, you may never find it again." Big Eye Roll. I came home and studied the Owner's Manual and did find how to find the settings so I'm good there. I'll keep the camera, as it has great resolution and 10X zoom. The 10 fps can come in handy and the price is right.
Below shows a first practice session with the 10 fps setting.
As you can see a LOT happened in that one second period. I also see problems I have to work with here. Focus is one major thing; second, following the subject with the camera will take lots of practice. It's hard to see the viewfinder in an outdoor setting. It could also be beneficial as this is a high resolution camera to zoom out then crop the photos. The pictures would still be in good enough resolution for print.
I'll see if I can get a willing human subject to practice with. Hmmmm, my grandson at play may be just the thing! I'll be making some plans to practice more.
As I learn and experience when practicing or just taking shots, I'll share in future blogs. Any comments you would like to make that can add to the information on this subject are encouraged and appreciated!
Happy Shooting!
No comments:
Post a Comment