MY CAMERA

       This last while I have been dissatisfied with my photos. They seem to be a bit fuzzy and out of focus. I've been in a hurry and I haven't stopped to check things out.     

      I was beginning to think that I might need a new camera. My camera is about 5 or 6 years old and is a Nikon L830 which is  lower end camera. But then, I'm a lower end photographer. So finally , I found some time and went out in the back yard to do some testing. I suspicioned that there might be some shake from me so I propped myself up a bit. I found that I could still get a reasonable photo from the camera. I also found that I had to take more time and be more precise with focusing. 

      And on to another issue. You've been looking at this photo for a long time. How long? Since Oct. of 2014. So nine years ago. Do we update our photos or leave them at a younger age? If I look at this photo long enough will it be imprinted on my brain and I will think that I'm this age? 

      Well, okay how about an update?

     Well, I've decided that there must be something wrong with my camera after all!

Decision Time

     I have not been taking very many photos this summer and it worries me. I like to be able to take many photos come home and look at them and throw most of them away. There's also the issue of being outdoors.

    Now a couple of years ago I got a reasonable point and shoot. I wanted a nice grip for the elderly fingers which sometimes get stiff and clumsy. I also wanted some zoom so this had an astounding 34 x. I like the camera and it can do more than I can do. It tells me what I've done and tells me what to do if I would only observe the monitor.

    I also like to bike every spare minute I can get. My plan was to put the camera in my bike bag, but the bike bag proved to be too small and there was the possibility of damage. I have got a good scratch on my monitor and I don't want any more of that nonsense.

    So I thought I'll use my old point and shoot as it has a case and fits in the bike bag nicely. This should really work.

    The first night with the old camera I saw a blue heron at my favorite beaver pond. Now herons make it easy. They pose for you. They pose a long time for you. So I shot a few photos. The heron was down in the gully a bit and it was in an area of shadow.

Okay I'll give you a nickel if you find the blue heron!

I think there's a blue heron in this photo.

     Well , when I got home and looked at the photos, I was disappointed. Really disappointed. Disappointed enough to not use the old point and shoot again.

   So back to my original problem. I need to fix something so that I can take the larger camera on my bike.

     

I do have a nice beaver pond to visit

That Dang Camera

      Last fall I bought a new camera. I was so proud of my new possession   that I wrote a post about it.

      As I told you before I wanted some zoom, pixels and a good handle. I got those things and "much more."I don't know if I'll ever use the "much more." I set it up on Easy auto. This setting allows the camera to do most things for you automatically.

     Every once in a while I look at the menu and some of the options. As I'm meddling I sometimes accidentally change settings. 

     Apparently I changed something a while ago. It took me a while to notice the change  so I can't recall what I fiddled with. 

     So I recently noticed that the flash was not working. At first I wondered if there was something wrong with the flash. I went to look for the 216 page manual. I couldn't find it on my computer. I tried everything. Finally, there it was in plain sight all the time. So look up flash. There are two different sets of numbers so It took awhile to find flash. In my first session I discovered that I had probably turned the flash off but I couldn't find out how to turn the flash back on.

     So after a few days of worrying I finally got back to the challenge. It all depends on how you read the book. After half an hour today I finally got the flash turned back on. While puzzling the problem, I learned other things about the camera. So I'm going to have to go through the manual step by step to learn more so that I don't accidentally turn something off that's important.

     Well, it didn't spoil my summer!
   

More Smart Stuff.

      About a year ago I bought a new car and posted about all the smart stuff in it. There are many sensors which tell you many things. It tells me when tire pressures are low and much more.

     I was talking to a friend the other day and his car has more stuff. The lights turn on when needed. When backing up there's a beeper which increases speeds the closer you get and a continuous beep when you are a foot away. The friend rented a car at an airport. He soon came to a 10 km long tunnel. He wondered why he had no lights. It took a sec before he realized that in the car he rented, you had to turn on the lights yourself. Then he had fun finding a light switch.

    So if that wasn't enough I bought a new camera and discovered it can do almost everything but talk. I did my homework in choosing a camera. I wanted some zoom and pixels. I wanted a camera with a handle as I find the little guys hard to hang on to. So I chose a nikon l 830 for about $200.00. I give you this information so that you can get some idea of what cameras do. My old camera was a photo smart M447 put out by Hewlett Packard.

The silver oldie

My challenge

    Now one thing I didn't check was the camera manual. I downloaded all 204 pages. I wish I'd looked at the manual before buying. I might have had a more exact idea of what I was buying. The little manual that comes with the camera is 43 pages. For both of them the diagrams are far too small and sometimes interfere with understanding.

    Now as I got reading and finding out how the camera works , I found more and more that it does many things automatically. Here comes the smart stuff again. There are various modes for shooting. Point the camera at something and it automatically changes to that mode. Point to a person and portrait is seen. Point to a outdoor scene and landscape comes up. Now it took me a little while to discover this feature. All this information comes up on your screen. You can set this camera to do things manually. I'll probably use easy auto most of the time.

    It's amazing what technology has devised. It's certainly a lot smarter than I am.

    I've had fun playing with this camera even though I haven't saved one picture. I want to know a few things before I get many miles away from the 204 page manual when I run into a problem..