Advice and help/ slow shutter and video problem

Hi, im pretty new here and am still learning photography, i recently went on holiday(vacation) and i ran in to a few problems, firstly at the zoo i was getting my son and a rhino into focus at different distances, i never got the shot but what i learned is that the lens i used only had infinity view when it is fully unzoomed, which is pretty disappointing as i thought every lens had infinity view at any zoom?
I must be wrong.

Second problem, was that when i tried to do a slow shutter speed pic of a water fall the whole image was just one white sheet (over exposed)
I was on manual setting with auto iso and manual everything esle and no matter how hard i tried it would only turn out as a full white picture, i also tried turning the camera to TV mode which only let me adjust the the shutter speed, took the picture but it was still over exposed, but not as much as if the camera was on manual, some objects were viasble but not anywhere near a good qualituy picture, and the waterfall was totally unvisable/white, it was between a 1 to 3 sec shutter speed which i was using to capture the image.
What am I doing wrong?

And last question is, on video mode when the sun is bright in the lcd screen and its not viewable, what is the best way to get good focus of your video as its happened to me a few times, the sun was bright and im unable to see the lcd for the video as it does not record video through the view finder, im using the Canon 1100d and a 55-250 is lens.

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks Kev

For the last one, they have a flip-up cover that acts like a canopy over the LCD. Zacuto also makes an expensive magnifying device that clips over the screen. A larger hotshoe-mount LCD screen with better visibility is another way to go. A simple piece of folded paper held in place by thumbs could work too. Some folks could use the velcro on their flash and adapt a flash modifier to fold back and cover the screen.

As jrw pointed out, when you slow your shutter-speed to blur the water, you will increase the amount of light hitting the sensor and therefore your image will be overexposed. You can buy a Neutral Density (ND) Filter, which is a dark filter, like a pair of sunglasses, which will hold back anywhere from 1-stop to 10-stops of light (or adjustable ones), thereby allowing slower shutter-speeds without over-exposing your shot.

ND filters come in various sizes which can screw on to the front of your lens:

http://www.adorama.com/catalog.tpl?o...ature1=B %2b W

To view images on the LCD in bright sunlight, I use a Hoodman Loupe:

http://www.hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1017

For video you can buy the attachment kit package or less expensive Cinema Strap, so that you don't have to hold it in place:

http://www.hoodmanusa.com/products.asp?dept=1066

Rich

Hi, thanks for the answers, I will be investing in ND filter for future use.

I do have one more question

I am wondering why some of my pictures turn out very sharp and clear and other have no edge or sharpness to them at all for example this penguine I took a picture of is so clear and sharp

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/67730394/IMG_0762.JPG

1/640 sec f/5.6 iso 320

Yet this monkey I took a picutre of, has no sharpness or real detail about it, is it becasue it was a darker day or becasue I had my shutter speed up high?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/67730394/IMG_0721.JPG

1/1600 f/5.6 iso 1000


I do have IS on my lens but I think it takes a better picture with it switched.

I do have a very stead hand so I presume it's not from hand movement

To me the only real difference in those shots sharpness comes from the noise level which is caused by higher ISO in the second.

I do have the ISO set to auto, hence the fast shutter speed equals the higher the iso becasue of the less light getting through the lens?

So if I took it at a much lower Shutter speed the image would of been much sharper as the ISO would of been alot lower ;-)

Thanks once again people for all my Questions being answered.

I will be back no doubt for some more Qeuestion's lol

Kev

In addition, the Penguin shot has a high contrast background, plus the higher contrast of the two-tone skin on the Penguin makes it easier for the autofocus system to lock onto.

The Monkey shot is a lower contrast shot since the rocks and monkey are similar colors. Also, the monkey's fur has lower contrast than the penguins skin, and the monkey's fur is one color wihch also makes it harder for the AF system to lock on to. Furthermore, skin will always look sharper than fur.

But with practice you should be able to overcome some of these obstacles by trying to grab an edge of the monkey, or focus on a corner of part of the rock, or the log (beneath the monkey) that is in the same plane of focus as the monkey (focus-lock), and then recompose afterward.

faster shutter should improve sharpness. smooth press on the shutter button vs. jab helps too.

higher ISO = more noise = softness and less shadow details as well.

You didn't give us focal length on the zoom so a brief moment of shutter speed vs. focal length.

2x focal length = shutter speed should be adequate with a steady hand and still/slow moving objects. at 250mm x 1.6 (crop factor) = 1/400 A little lens move on a long focal length = blur. IS helps but it can't overcome significant camera movements ( I don't see this in the monkey shot - the blur would be in a direction) w/ a steady hand you could have ISO 200 ish which would make a difference in image quality. I don't like going above 800 and really prefer shooting at 100 or 200 if I at all can.

I am not convinced that the monkey shot is completely in focus. The Auto focus may have missed - not sure at f 5.6 though it should have been "close enough"

If this is a poor way to test autofocus accuracy I am sure someone will chime in. put the camera on a tripod or fixed surface. take a series of pictures using the autofocus, but change the focus by just a tiny bit between shots and see if the lens goes back to the 1st distance. Then shoot a 2nd series w/ manual focus and start a tiny bit short of what the autofocus picked and then work through the distance the autofocus picked.

Then on the compute peak at the pixels. Also shoot these series in RAW - too much image manipulation is going to JPG.

Best of luck

jrw - great advice - I have used the EOS utility once to download the cinestyle picture style - I always use the SD card reader in the laptop to transfer the pics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrw

That is one way. Another is to manually focus using live view and maximum magnification, switch over to auto-focus and see if it shifts. Yet one more way of checking is to tether the camera to your PC. Connect the USB cable, turn on camera. If EOS Utility doesn't start up open the program. Select Camera settings/Remote shooting. Mouse over the AF button to get the focus then open the live image. Zoom to 100% to check the focus. The focus step buttons will allow you to increment the focus to verify or indicate direction of error.

The steps match the increments used by Auto Focus Micro Adjustment (AFMA) if available on your body.

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