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Lise Hache

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 09:40 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hi all, I am having problems with my pictures as you can just imagine, sometimes the picture is just beautiful and the next one I can't get a focus, the picture is just hazy in the viewfinder, no matter what I do and when it comes out it is indeed out of focus or only half the picture is taken. I adore my camera ( well when it works), any ideas? the first time it happened was in may and since then there are always a few pictures that are ruined on every film, nothing untoward happened to my camera back then to explain this, I have changed the batteries.
thanks Lise
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rick oleson

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 10:16 am:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Regarding focus: do you wear eyeglasses?

and regarding the half-picture problem: are you using flash?

rick : )=
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Marie-Lise Hache

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 12:51 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hi Rick,
yep I do use glasses, would it not be great if that was my problem, but my eyes are fine, sigh
and I do use the flash most of the time, I don't know if a picture that did not turn out had the flash on or not, I would assume yes, but then the pictures that turned out fine had the flash also,
any ideas?
Lise
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rick oleson

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 01:05 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

If the pictures that came out half black were taken with flash, the first place to look is the shutter speed: if the shutter fires at a speed faster than 1/60 second, the shutter will only be partway open when the flash fires and you'll only get 1/2 (or less) of the picture. Using a dedicated Canon Speedlight, the flash should automatically set the shutter to the correct speed, but with other flash units you have to make sure it's correct.

The reason I asked about glasses is that sometimes focusing can be a little tricky with them: the viewfinder screen has an "optical" distance of about 3 feet, which is not where your glasses are normally designed to work. I wear progressive multifocal glasses, and I have to look through the right part of the eyeglass lens in order to see the screen sharply. If you have trouble seeing the screen sharply, a badly focused photograph is a high probability.

rick : )=
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Marie-Lise Hache

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 01:24 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

The flash is a canon speedlite 177a, and it was probably set at 125 shutter speed, would you recommend keeping it at 60? and does this mean that my camera may be fine? I do hope so. should the flash be set at "A" with a red indicator, "A" with a green indicator or"M" with a white indicator?, I have never really looked at it before, so I don't know where it whould be. your advice is very appreciated, next time I take a photo that looks out of focus I will play with my glasses to see if that could be it, you never know.
thanks again
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rick oleson

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Posted on Friday, October 15, 2004 - 02:45 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

The flash should have automatically set the shutter speed, but to be safe just in case it didn't, the shutter must NEVER be set faster than 60 when using flash or you will get partial exposures. The red and green A marks correspond to different lens apertures: using ISO 100 film, the red A should be used with the lens set at f/2.8 and the green A with the lens set at f/5.6 (these will be different with different film speeds). You do not want to use the white M; this disables the automatic exposure control system on the flash.

The Speedlite 177a is SUPPOSED to set the correct shutter speed and lens aperture for you automatically when it recharges; however, if you set these yourself you don't have to worry about whether this automatic system is working, the results will be the same. If the flash was set to M the automatic camera controls might not have been operating, I don't know how the system works in that respect.
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bud elliott

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Posted on Monday, December 20, 2004 - 06:16 pm:   Edit Post Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only) Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I have an old canon pellix 35 camera. The right side of the picture is blackened out and the remainder of the picture is hazy, this happens only when taking pictures outside in bright sunlight. If I take pictures when it is dark or nearly dark using 800 film and a slower shutter speed, they for the most part come out good. I took the camera to a local repair shop, and was told everything appeared to be working fine. Thought maybe shutter was hanging up, but unable to duplicate.

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