Slinks

Hi,

A friend of mine just got the canon powershot a550...she says it takes good 'still' pictures, but when ppl are moving its blury... Does anyone know if this is a common problem with the low-end powershot a series? Or is there a setting that can be changed to fix it?

wackjum

If you're in low light it will be using a long shutter.

Use the flash if you want sharp (but less flattering) pics.

Without knowing anything else, that would be my guess.

Street Spirit

Anything that moves while the shutter is open will appear blurry....with any camera.

Stapler

I found found that with my mom's a540 it's a bit tough to hand hold it indoors or at dusk at a reasonable ISO, even if it's fairly well lit. At the longer zoom ranges the aperature just isn't wide enough. Outside though it's easy enough to capture things in motion.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/161/3...eff7b4f2_b.jpg -blurry cousin in a room that is mostly windows during mid day. F/6.3 1/50th of a second at iso 400

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/149/3...b61a0fca_b.jpg palm trees were flapping as a storm came in. F/4.5 1/1250th of a second iso 100


You really want to have the Shutter speed as high as possible, there should be a Tv mode for shutter priority. It may be a good idea to play with that and see what speed she needs to have for the situations she comes across. She may need to bump up the iso in some situations, I don't know about the 550, but the 540 is pretty noisy at 400 and beyond.

Slinks

thanks...i'll pass the suggestions on...

jupitersolo

What he asking about is the video part of the camera. The stills are good.

Even though the camera will take video, it's still not a video camera. You will have to make sure that you have a lot of light.

Take it back and get a new one. If that doesn't work, just get a different camera.

danny25

I don't think he's asking about video. He just used the "still" term differently.

any image, whether it shows movement or not, is a "still".

jupitersolo

Ok, I just read it again closely. It sounds like a problem with not enough light as other have said. .