| What are we doing?
January 12th, 2005 AH! ISO! Because I've finally figured out how to do it, with that Nikon Coolpix 4500 of mine, and fast ISO-values (I wanted to know because, with indoor photography, I kept ending up with either totally whitened faces, or, if didn't use the flashlight, blurred photographs - with a higher ISO-value than the standard 100, the FILM (digitally simulated of course) in the camera becomes faster, and you need less light for sharp pictures). This is not possible when you're in auto or P (rogrammed auto) mode, but can only be done in S (hutter priority auto) A, (perture priority auto) or M (anual) mode. Those, you can vary by pressing the Mode-button atop the camera (on the right) and simultaneously turning the command dial (the big round thing to the right of the Mode-button). This, I already knew, because I was using P-mode for movies. Once in 1 of those three modes, you can use the menu-button and, under 'Continuous', select what kind of shot you wish to make. Unfortunately, with me that selection often reads 'movie', so that, during marches, I can quickly switch between auto-mode (for photographs) to it (in P-mode) and back (that 'Continuous'-selection affects P,S,A and M-modes at the same time). But if I want to make an indoor photo, I will, from now on, therefore first have to pick 'single' under 'Continuous' (and if I want to make a movie after that, I'll have to go back there and pick 'movie' again). And then leave the menu again. And THEN you can do what's necessary: press the ISO-button (on the back of the camera, left half of it), namely, and simultaneously turn the command-dial to select the ISO-value (800 works nicely, indoors, I've found), after which, by turning the command-dial without pressing the ISO-button, you still have to select the value left to yourself. In the case of the S-mode that therefore is the shutterspeed, and 1/30 works fine indoors, I find. But that is a big hassle! Oh, and turning that command-dial while pressing the ISO-button, when in auto or P-mode (as I was trying before), has no effect whatsoever, because the camera picks the ISO-value (100 as standard) in those modes. Relevant pagenumbers in the 'Nikon Guide to Digital Photography with the Coolpix 4500 digital camera': 43, 70. Now I've still got to find out whether the image in the Viewfinder doesn't, all of a sudden, project what I am photographing, but follows the zooming, because the camera has fallen recently, or that this is a setting that I can undo. Anyone who knows this already, would make me very happy by telling me... |