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Pictures Always Blurry - Help Needed!


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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Hello,

I have an Olympus X-44 digital camera. It's a 14MP camera with 5x optical zoom.

Thing is, no matter what I do, I can't get this thing to take any decent pictures.

As an example, I took these yesterday:

pc180100.jpg

pc180095.jpg

As you can see, they are simply awful.

Really need some help. :/

Thanks.

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Posted
  • Location: Preston, Lancashire
  • Weather Preferences: Cold & snowy in winter. Hot and stormy in summer.
  • Location: Preston, Lancashire

With cameras like these sometimes you have to half press the shutter before taking the photo in order for it to focus. You'll usually see a green box appear on the lcd screen which means it's in focus. If not you will see a red box appear on the lcd screen which means it's not in focus.

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Posted
  • Location: Carlisle, Cumbria
  • Weather Preferences: Atlantic storms, severe gales, blowing snow and frost :)
  • Location: Carlisle, Cumbria

I've just got a Samsung digital 14.3mp, 5 x zoom camera, when I take my shots I have to half press the shoot button and wait for a green box to appear in the centre of the screen, once this happens I can take the picture. Perhaps yours is similar?

Check what setting you have applied and picture effects.

Here's the first pics that I've taken with my new camera, probably already seen them :)

http://forum.netweat...rict-mountains/

Edited by Liam J
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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Aye, I do this, there's loads of different settings on there, but neither this, nor the settings make a difference? :(

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Posted
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, squally fronts, snow, frost, very mild if no snow or frost
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)

Hi Backtrack, i like the second image especially. i think what it is most likely to be is camera shake, especially when using zoom, generally images taken using optical zoom are less likey to blur then using a digital zoom, what i used to do on my photgraphy trips is lean against something, or sit the camera on something to stabilise it, or a tripod, i think its worth it to carry around one for the benefits, i think you are good at photography!

or there is always image editors,

the first one is far to blurry to mend, have you got image stabiliser on in camera or is there not one?

Edited by ElectricSnowStorm
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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Hi Backtrack, i like the second image especially. i think what it is most likely to be is camera shake, especially when using zoom, generally images taken using optical zoom are less likey to blur then using a digital zoom, what i used to do on my photgraphy trips is lean against something, or sit the camera on something to stabilise it, or a tripod, i think its worth it to carry around one for the benefits, i think you are good at photography!

or there is always image editors,

the first one is far to blurry to mend, have you got image stabiliser on in camera or is there not one?

Thanks very much mate :)

Usually I try to keep the camera as still as possible, even when it's not zoomed in it blurs. I have an anti-shake setting on my camera I think? I could give that a whirl when I take a photo.

Thanks again, very kind of you. :D

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Posted
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)
  • Weather Preferences: Thunderstorms, squally fronts, snow, frost, very mild if no snow or frost
  • Location: Stanwell(south side of Heathrow Ap)

Its happens easily, camera shake is not usually noticable until after the image is taken, and mostly not until viewed on a screen, many of my photos i used photoshop to sharpen them up abit, but i did notice a big difference in stabilising the camera myself , but use anti-shake settings if their is one, another option is to take a picture without zoom then use an image editor to crop/zoom, keep to optical zoom as this is like a telescope, wheres digital can cause fuzz/noise on the image(although expensive cameras handle this far better, like digital SLR's), which when viewed bigger it can show this, so keep to optical if you can. if the problem continues then do get the camera looked at just in case, when i had the same problem i blamed the camera! because i was feeling steady and thought how can they be blurry! but the more zoom the more magnification of the camera shake is shown on the photo.

Edited by ElectricSnowStorm
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Posted
  • Location: West Sussex
  • Weather Preferences: Outdoors
  • Location: West Sussex

ESS has covered shaking, it's one of the down sides of packing 14million pixels onto a small sensor, smaller pixels mean more sensitivity to shaking.

So do use the built in stability function. also check what 'film speed' or ISO is selected, quite often cameras have an auto iso now, the higher the number the faster the shutter speed, the less likely to move during shooting.

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

ESS has covered shaking, it's one of the down sides of packing 14million pixels onto a small sensor, smaller pixels mean more sensitivity to shaking.

So do use the built in stability function. also check what 'film speed' or ISO is selected, quite often cameras have an auto iso now, the higher the number the faster the shutter speed, the less likely to move during shooting.

Cheers Ian,

I've upped the ISO to the max, and will now give it a go with the anti-shake setting enabled.

I'll let you know the results shortly, thanks for the tip. :good:

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

I've taken a couple of pics;

One has the anti-blur setting on, and the other doesn't.

Digital cameras are usually rubbish for taking indoor pictures, but it's come out fine I think?

Setting turned on:

pc200121.jpg

Setting turned off:

pc200122.jpg

Its happens easily, camera shake is not usually noticable until after the image is taken, and mostly not until viewed on a screen, many of my photos i used photoshop to sharpen them up abit, but i did notice a big difference in stabilising the camera myself , but use anti-shake settings if their is one, another option is to take a picture without zoom then use an image editor to crop/zoom, keep to optical zoom as this is like a telescope, wheres digital can cause fuzz/noise on the image(although expensive cameras handle this far better, like digital SLR's), which when viewed bigger it can show this, so keep to optical if you can. if the problem continues then do get the camera looked at just in case, when i had the same problem i blamed the camera! because i was feeling steady and thought how can they be blurry! but the more zoom the more magnification of the camera shake is shown on the photo.

Cheers for that mate, seems to have worked as posted above. It'll be better when I take an outdoor photo.

I generally don't use that anti-shake because it takes around 3-5 seconds for the photo to come up, but it seems to have worked a charm.

I think I will also buy a tripod. Thanks again. :D

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

Something still isn't looking too good, it's almost as if it was set on macro mode or manual focus as things don't look in focus.

Using full auto a lot of recent cameras can do a very good job in almost any situation and decide for themselves if it's a close-up, landscape or portrait shot.

Having said that the colours look good, and a common feature in the shots you've uploaded is low or very low lighting.

This makes me think the camera is having to use a rather long exposure and that's the root of the problem.

Even bright days this time of year the light levels are quite low, so before assuming something's wrong with it do make a special effort to take some shots around mid-day in good lighting.

I always find a new camera tends to give you a lot of disappointment at first as even the best way to hold it and press the shutter feels wrong and awkward, then a bit of trial and error is needed to get the best from it.

Olympus is a very good make and I absolutely loved my C765.

The shots from it saved on external drive still look very good compared to my latest cameras.

So don't panic just yet - although assuming it's still under warranty there is always a possibility of something being faulty with the autofocus or whatever.

Edit:

OK I looked at the exif data and they are all using far too long an exposure.

For example the garden/waterfall is on 1/15th second which is too slow unless you have a tripod.

The ISO for that is 125, it would have been fine on ISO400, this would have allowed a faster exposure.

Try setting ISO to auto for now and the camera will decide what's best.

Handheld it's quite difficult to keep it still enough below 1/125second

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Something still isn't looking too good, it's almost as if it was set on macro mode or manual focus as things don't look in focus.

Using full auto a lot of recent cameras can do a very good job in almost any situation and decide for themselves if it's a close-up, landscape or portrait shot.

Having said that the colours look good, and a common feature in the shots you've uploaded is low or very low lighting.

This makes me think the camera is having to use a rather long exposure and that's the root of the problem.

Even bright days this time of year the light levels are quite low, so before assuming something's wrong with it do make a special effort to take some shots around mid-day in good lighting.

I always find a new camera tends to give you a lot of disappointment at first as even the best way to hold it and press the shutter feels wrong and awkward, then a bit of trial and error is needed to get the best from it.

Olympus is a very good make and I absolutely loved my C765.

The shots from it saved on external drive still look very good compared to my latest cameras.

So don't panic just yet - although assuming it's still under warranty there is always a possibility of something being faulty with the autofocus or whatever.

Edit:

OK I looked at the exif data and they are all using far too long an exposure.

For example the garden/waterfall is on 1/15th second which is too slow unless you have a tripod.

The ISO for that is 125, it would have been fine on ISO400, this would have allowed a faster exposure.

Try setting ISO to auto for now and the camera will decide what's best.

Handheld it's quite difficult to keep it still enough below 1/125second

Hi 4wd, thanks for such a detailed, helpful reply.

I've messed around with the ISO, and although the light isn't good, it's still taking really poor pictures.

Here's a short video of the settings available, and the settings I use.

No idea why it's that way up, but it's watchable.

Afterwards I took a picture with those settings on the camera:

pc200124.jpg

As you can see, it turned out bad again.

Just for measure I took one with my iPhone, which has a 3MP camera:

img0191jn.jpg

As you can see, the iPhone eats my camera for breakfast.

/sigh.

Any more suggestions based on the video settings?

Thanks. :)

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Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

"Manual exposure, Program AE, 0.5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320, Compensation: +0.3"

Still too long an exposure, no need to use the Manual Aperture control at this stage, let the camera do full auto and in such low light ideally set it on something solid and use the self timer with (say) a 2 second delay.

The real problem is understandable impatience to see what it can do but you will find it different again in decent light.

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Posted
  • Location: East Hull, East Yorkshire
  • Weather Preferences: Warm and stormy.
  • Location: East Hull, East Yorkshire

Hi BT,

What i would do first is reset the camera......You can find it in camera : Settings 1 or page 32 in your manual

Then set the shooting mode to iAUTO

Turn on Anti shake

Take a picture and see if this makes a difference..

Del.

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Thanks very much guys.

I will do both of these now & let you know. :)

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Maybe it's just faulty? They say 10% of all electrical goods are faulty from new so you could just be unlucky?

Edited by CreweCold
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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Maybe it's just faulty? They say 10% of all electrical goods are faulty from new so you could just be unlucky?

I've had it replaced once!

"Manual exposure, Program AE, 0.5 sec, f/3.5, ISO 320, Compensation: +0.3"

Still too long an exposure, no need to use the Manual Aperture control at this stage, let the camera do full auto and in such low light ideally set it on something solid and use the self timer with (say) a 2 second delay.

The real problem is understandable impatience to see what it can do but you will find it different again in decent light.

Thanks 4WD, here's the results of those settings :) :

pc210124.jpg

I'll go up the hills tomorrow in the daylight and snap some pics.

It'll be cloudy, and I will be photographing still shots. Any setting suggestions?

Edited by Backtrack
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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Having it replaced isn't a guarantee, I've had stuff in the past that have been faulty both originally and then replacement wise. Other than that I don't have a clue what could be wrong because I'm not a camera expert....but those pics look so so poor for 14 MP. My 8MP on my Xperia Arc would knock spots off those images as they stand....these weren't even taken on highest resolution.....

The last 3 were taken in very poor light just now with the aid of the flash.

Edited by CreweCold
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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Wow, crystal clear.

What settings did you use for those?

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Wow, crystal clear.

What settings did you use for those?

Standard settings on the Xperia Arc....Sony are known for producing quality camera phones though so it's not surprising. All I had on the last 3 pics was automatic flash, the settings weren't even tweaked at all to compensate for the poor lighting conditions. Very pleased with the camera on this thing...in good lighting conditions the pictures are comparable to some higher end digital cameras I have seen. Also they come up very well on HD on my TV.

Edited by CreweCold
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Posted
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL
  • Location: Swallownest, Sheffield 83m ASL

Backtrack.. I've been having a look around at reviews and there are a couple of comments out there that mention out of focus. That said there seem to be hundreds of happy reviews. I'd take it back. It isn't doing the job properly.

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

Ah your phone.

Yep, always loved the Sony phone cameras.

The new iPhone camera looks immense, but I only have a 3GS.

Backtrack.. I've been having a look around at reviews and there are a couple of comments out there that mention out of focus. That said there seem to be hundreds of happy reviews. I'd take it back. It isn't doing the job properly.

Thanks PP,

Unfortunately, I think it's out of warranty, but I will try.

Yep, will go to Argos tomorrow and swap it.

Hopefully they will give me an exchange!

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Ah your phone.

Yep, always loved the Sony phone cameras.

The new iPhone camera looks immense, but I only have a 3GS.

Thanks PP,

Unfortunately, I think it's out of warranty, but I will try.

Yep, will go to Argos tomorrow and swap it.

Hopefully they will give me an exchange!

How long you had it?

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Posted
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snowy winters, hot, sunny springs and summers.
  • Location: Runcorn, Cheshire

How long you had it?

Got it for Christmas, took one back 2 months ago for the same issue, this one is doing the same. :(

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Posted
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire
  • Weather Preferences: Snow, storms and other extremes
  • Location: Crewe, Cheshire

Got it for Christmas, took one back 2 months ago for the same issue, this one is doing the same. :(

Hmmmm when you got the replacement the warranty should have automatically renewed as the time resets to from when you got your replacement. Therefore realistically you are covered under the Sales of Goods Act. Don't let them tell you any different, if they replaced it first time for the same issue then theoretically they should do the same this time.

Edited by CreweCold
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