Gentlemen.

Now I set up my photo booth more questions has raised about my camera.

I have a Sony Cyber-shot 2.1 mega pixel camera. I dont have a macro lense (it won't adapt), so I have to make the best of it.

My questions are:

1. Sharpness: the options range from +2 to -2. What should I set it on?

2. ISO: What does it mean? The ISO option offers 400, 200, 100 and Auto. Waht should I set it on to take a better picture?

3. Focus: The option offers Auto, 0.5m, 1.0m, 3.0m, 7.0m, and infinity. What should I set this one on?

4. EV: What does it mean and what should I set it on? It range from +0.3 ~ +2.0

I apologize for asking so much questions but as a newbie in picture taking I could really use the help. If anyone knows any of the above answers I would very much appreciated!

WC

Hey Ben,

Here's giving this one a stab since i play around with my digital camera quite a bit.




For question 1, are you sure thats related to sharpness. Ive got the exact option on mine but its for exposure. +2 would mean 2 seconds additional exposure time. Often used when you are in a poorly lit room. You would need a tripod when using this option as slight movements would be registered in the photo.

2. ISO is short for International Organization for Standardization. The higher the value you select here, the more grainy the final image becomes but the less lighting required. Check this site out for a better explaination.
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Digital_Imaging/Sensitivity_01.htm

3. Sounds like you are referring to the focal length. Check out this one for a good explanation.
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Optical/Focal_Length_01.htm

4. EV refers to the Exposure Compensation. You will need this when the auto focus feature returns a wrong value. Check out the explanation here.
http://www.dpreview.com/learn/?/Glossary/Exposure/Exposure_Compensation_01.htm

As you can tell, all the links are pointing to the same site. www.dpreview.com is the one place i always go to get my camera questions answered or even compare with other cameras. Its like the armorama of the camera world. Suggest you bookmark it cause its all you will need.

Hope this helps.

I'd ingore most of the Jeremy's post. It is full of well meaning but mostly wrong info.

Sharpness - this is usually the amount of in-camera sharpenning that is applied to the image. Basically the camera looks at the border between different colour pixles and increases the 'sharpness', really all it is doing is increasing the contrast between pixles. Leave it at 0. It doesn not really make your image sharper.

ISO in digital is the sensitivity of the camera sensor to light, roughly equivelent to the old film speed. Of your options, 400 is the most sensitive, ie will require the least light to correctly expose an image. 200 is half as sensitive as 400, and 100 is half as sensitive again. The thing is, as was mentioned above, the higher the ISO you select the grainier the image becomes. Go with the lowest you can. Auto will simply choose the option the camera thinks is best.

The focus options you mention are distances from the lens, and relate to the distance at which things will appear sharp. Auto is just that, the camera will focus on what is in the centre of the viewfinder, the distances are manual settings and will make the things at the distance you have selected in focus, and infinity will mean everything out beyond a certain point will be in focus. Judging by the numbers given that will roughly be anything beyond 7 to 10 meters. This is NOT focal length! A 7meter lens? WOW, you could use that to count sheep on the moon.

EV stands for Exposure value, but has nothing to do with auto focus. Normally you set it to 0, but it allows you to compensate for the camera's auto exposure getting things wrong. If you take a photo and it looks too dark, you can select say '+1' and reshoot the shot. This second shot will be one stop brighter. Likewise if the subject looks too bright, you can use a '-' value. It is especially usefull when taking photos of bright subjects against a dark background, or dark subjects against a bright background.

I do sugest you explore the links in Jeremy's post, as they will contain plenty of good info.

Thanks gentlemen, your info are very valuable to me... the site is great and I think learned alittle bit more about photography.

WC

That was helpfull I just got a new digital camera so I can start posting pictures. I just need to learn about photo buckets.

Tom