I have a Kodak DC 3800, and I’m using a 32 MB disk. This is a basic point-and-shoot, low end, camera. This camera used to take great pictures. But now, they almost always come out blurry for no apparent reason. The picts are better in natural light, but not perfect. (Also, I’ve tried both rechargeable and non-chargeable batteries.)
What’s going on? Any clue? Does the digital “eye” have a life span, parhaps? But yet, why should it? Please share your experiences with me…even if you have a different model digital camera.
Yeah, that’s a good question…and an obvious thing to check!
:smack: The lens is so small, so cleaning may be tricky. It’s hard to know! Q: How do you clean such a small lens? A: Very carefully, right?
Hard to say. Could be something as simple as crud on the lens. Any trauma in the camera’s life that might have damaged the autofocusing mechanism?
Are you sure it’s lack of focus? Any chance that you’ve set it to the lower resolution mode or set it to one of the lower quality JPEG storage modes? Is there any chance that the camera is in macro mode (which would result in it only focusing well on near subjects)?
Finally, are you absolutely sure that there’s no camera shake when you take the picture? Try a tripod or try resting the camera on something while you take a picture of a non-moving subject. If the picture is not crisp and there’s evidence that the camera has clearly missed its focus (e.g. it’s focusing only on infinity or only on something a few inches away), then you might have a physical problem with the camera.
Sorry, Mr. Police Occifer, I felt the lens, and it didn’t feel dirty…
Just kidding… I didn’t consider this because the overall evidence
suggests something more must be happening here.
In all seriousness, the pictures look fine when viewing the digital image BEFORE snapping the picture. So, wouldn’t the image ALWAYS look blurred? And, why would the quality vary so much, from picture to picture? - Jinx
Finagle, you’ve given me some good ideas. If there is “camera shake”, it is nothing more than what is to be expected. Surely, the shutter speed is (I WAG) 1/60th of a second, and a tripod shouldn’t be warranted (typically) for every single shot. It was never an issue before…
Don’t know if the camera was subjected to any major trauma, off-hand. Also, I’ll check into your other ideas as well for testing the camera settings and focusing abilities at the extremes.
Usually it’s from camera shake and too dark conditions. Are you taking photos inside without a flash? When I do that I generally get random levels of blurriness, depending on how well I hold the camera still. And even the ones that look good on the viewfinder often turn out crummy on the computer.
Finagle’s test is a good one. If it takes good pictures sitting on a table with the self timer, then there’s only one person to blame…
My camera has 2 settings on it, one for close up and the other for distance. If you don’t have the switch in the right place the pics come out blurry. Does yours have the same thing?
Can you change the image quality manually? Most cameras have a “Hi” and a “Lo” quality setting. That can make a big difference in the “fuzz” factor
You might have to read the manual to do this operation, sorry
Are you using digital zoom? On most digital cameras, the digital zoom feature is very picky and practically requires tripod use for clear pictures. Someone used our camera to take photos at a friend’s wedding, and used the digital zoom on all of them, and all were slightly blurry because he wasn’t holding it still enough.
It’s my wife’s camera, so I’ll have to look into these things. In the meantime, a photographer friend of mine says the optic sensor for focusing may need a cleaning, too. The sensor is even smaller than the lens…maybe the diameter of a drop of water. How the heck can you really clean that?
AFAIK the optic sensor is not serviceable by the user, unless we are talking two different things…?
Here are some issues I’ve found with my DC-4900:
If you turn the flash off, it will take the pics at the slower shutter speed which it displays, and this doesn’t look good at all if you do not have a tripod.
If they are very close-up pictures, then you should not be using the zoom at all.
Make sure that you have the exposure metering options set right. Perhaps you can change them from “center weighted” to something else. It actually seems to make a big difference in photo quality on mine, which manifests itself as a lack of focus in some cases.
On another note: anyone else notice that ISO-400 on a digital camera does not seem to be equivalent to ISO-400 on film? My ISO-400 setting seems to require about the light, f-stop, and shutter speed of an ISO-200 film. Most depressing.
I’ve read through my wife’s user’s manual, and we strongly think the camera’s optic sensor may be knocked out of alignment. For a Kodak manual, it really leaves a lot to be desired. For example, many features are not even explained within the maual!
Also, I would not have guessed a seemingly “point-and-shoot” camera, such as this, would try to change shutter speeds. Perhaps this sounds like a good feature, no? Well, maybe if shooting in bright light, it may be…if the camera can go to a shutter speed greater than 1/60s.
But: (a) when using a flash, the flash can only be synchronized with the shutter at 1/60s. Again, maybe it is taking care of that. But, I’d really like to know what the camera is doing, and to have the ability to override.
Even further still, if the camera has dropped the shutter speed below 1/60s, it should warn the user! Conventionally, a tripod is (virtually) manditory for slow shutter speeds!
It’s a coincidence that I just found out today my Olympus D-510 has a couple of settings that might be of interest to you.
My camera has a “sharpness” setting with three options: hard, normal and soft. Mine was on soft.
My camera also can take pictures in a couple of formats, such as HQ and SuperHQ. With the hefty memory stick I bought for it, Under HQ, I can take about 250 pictures. Dialing it up to SHQ reduces it to a mere 85.
Taking pictures without a flash is also risky, as the lens stays open longer.
I’ve only been taking pictures for about a year when I discovered this, but I’m glad to finally learn this. I can’t wait to try it out when I get home.
Your camera has shutter speeds variable from 1/2 to 1/1000 of a second. And apparently two aperatures: f/2.8 and f/8. Why do you want a point-and-shoot to change shutter speeds? Well, otherwise you’d have a hell of a lot of incorrectly exposed photographs. (Although you can control this through aperature as well.)
From the specs, the only advice I can offer is to check whether you’re on macro (close-up) mode accidentally (as suggested before.) Check to see if image quality setting is on “Best.” And DO NOT use the digital zoom (digital zoom is virtually worthless. All it does is make the pixels bigger.) Take a photo outside in the middle of the day. Does is it still look like crap? If so, then you’ve got crap on your lens or optic sensor. If you have any photos, you should post one for us to have a look at.
Sorry, handy, but an LCD screen on a digital camera hardly has enough resolution to show you if your picture is in focus or not, unless it is REALLY way off.