Frustrated Fathers Camera ... how the hell do I use this thing?!?!

[Frustrated Father]

Alrighty, bought this thing a couple years ago for the wife. Then it was a HUGE amount of money, now I\'m sure its a laughingly low price but ... such is life.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydscs85/

This is the camera that we\'ve got. I know nuttin, nadda, zip ... zilch! All I know is that I can\'t seem to zoom up on my miniatures and take a decent picture, though at one time it must have as the ones in my gallery obviously were taken with it.

The wife says my mother messed with it, pushed buttons, that sort of stuff, it hasn\'t been working like it was since. So, the question arrises ...

How the HELL do I make this thing work? Anyone got this? Know anything about it? What settings are optimal for what I need for taking pictures of miniatures?

If ya\'ll can help me out here I\'ll have about twenty pictures up come Sunday. If not ... well, I might just take someones suggestion and chuck the bastard in frustration.

:flame:???

 

[Trevor]

Well you\'ll want to turn the macro on (its usually a thing that looks a bit like a plant), 4cm is pretty damn good, mine is only 10cm. Also set the white balance to indoors (it doesn\'t look like you can set it manually, but if you can make it so the pic is a little lighter). Set to max resolution and fine quality level.

Then take some shots from different distances, play with the zoom and move the camera closer and further away.

See what the pics look like and adjust lighting/white balance accordingly.

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[Dragonsreach]

You should be able to go into the menu\'s and reset every thing back to the factory standard set up.

From there start by finding out how to put it into Macro mode (Icon looks like a Tulip).
Then you need to read Honza\'s article on Single light source photography. (Trust me it\'s the most simplest explanation of how to get it right)
The set the camera on a tripod and set the mini about 10-12 inches away and let the Auto focus kick in.
One of the beauties of Digital Photography is that you can take 100\'s of pictures and have them there and then no waiting for processing. Use this as a practise and just play around.
Post up a couple of pics on the forums and you\'ll get some advice. (Whether it\'s useful or not is a different matter. )

 

[Calavera]

OK, his pic here: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/SonyDSCS85/Images/specsview.jpg

Fasten it on a tripod about 8-10 inches away from the mini, zoom in, press the directional button to the right to turn on the macro, then on the lightning a couple of times to deactivate the flash, then turn o the white balance to indoor setting and use a lamp like in the article that DR linked to and take a pic, try and see how this works. There should also be a lot of advanced manual settings in the menu, like ISO and stuff, looks like a good cam.

G\'luck

 

[the_alleycat]

There is another thread around here about help taking photos, has some advice about using the levels setting in Photoshop. [from Dragonsreach if i remember right.] This has to be one of the most useful pieces of advice i\'ve ever recieved.

Of course i now need to practice lots to get better original photos, but seriously if you don\'t already have it, get Photoshop. The minis i posted yesterday has a really yellow background until i used photoshop.

 

[Frustrated Father]

Thanks for the replys folks! Wife sat down with me and read these and then she dug out the owners manual and said \'huh ... so that\'s what that is for\' ....

Anyhow, so camera in hand now, went and bought a tripod, snagging all the lamps in the house and yes, I do have Photoshop.

Pictures tomorrow I hope!