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well I have a sony ds p73 4.1 megapixel camera, and have been trying to get a closeup shot of on of my lemon tetras, and have had trouble getting it to focus on the fish. Any help would be appreciated.

Can you switch to manual focus?

If not, can you set the focus ahead of time and then move until the fish are in focus and snap the picture without it autofocusing?

Without one of those two your best bet is to wait until the fish are equally far away as something large enough for the camera to focus on, and get both in the shot.

-Molly
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It has the preset focus range, and the smallest one is .5 meters, so I guess this isn't a good closeup camera? and how does changing the shutter speed help again, I forgot?

.5 meters?? that's what, 1.5ft or so? is there a macro mode on your camera?? it should be denoted by a tulip icon.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

yea there is a macro mode, but it may only be able to be used in auto focus, I was lookin around online last night and found a site that said the minimum focusing distance was something like 3.5 inches, so I don't know if that was just in autofocus or what. but I didn't see an option on the camera for 3.5 inches when I set the focus myself

3.5 inches is the closest you can get to your subject from the front of the lens with a sharp focus. you won't be able to set that in your focusing, it's just part of the physical properties of your particular lens.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

oh, ok...maybe I just need to practice alot and get better w/ my camera, lol

Been doing a lil practice, and was wondering if maybe you guys could critiqe some of my pictures and maybe a few tips.
http://photobucket.com/albums/y11/lookin_around/

Last edited by lookin_around at 10-Mar-2005 23:21

Heya Lookin_Around,

Not to shabby my friend, you sould've seen my firt pics, it looked like a combination of a space invasion and a bowl of soup! but i guess when they say "practice makes perfect" they're talking the truth.

One thin that still gets me down is to take a pic of the entire tank from a bit further, without having the flash reflection smack bang in the middle of the tank, but that is what I'm going to try this weekend.

'well till later then

Rafiki

lookin_around
Have you looked at this thread? There are some very helpfull info there.

http://fishprofiles.com/files/forums/Photo%20Booth/49003.html?200502170914


I have seen far worse than that. I like the "Just some Practice" It looks very good. Other than being a bit small the tank photo is very well presented. Some members of FP have cameras that can take extremly close ups mine can focus perfectly at 10mm. It was designed to do that. Take you camera to a camera shop and get them to explain the Focus features on your camera.

Keith

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the pics are definitely getting better, but you are still a little too close for your camera focus. remember that your closest focus on macro mode is 3.5 inches, which is about 9cm, so anything closer than about 9cm will be out of focus no matter how much you practice. if your fish come close to the glass like that, you might try backing up a little to get the fish in focus and not the background

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

yea thanks for the advice, and I did try backing up, but I get the reflection of the camera on the tank, and I definitely dont know how to photoshop it out.

well, i suppose if you don't mind the bother of putting black tape on your camera, that would definitely reduce the reflection on the glass. on the other hand, you're putting tape on your camera, so if you like having your things "unmodified" this won't work for you.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Sure, thats a good idea, I just dont like to modify things if it will damage it, or if I have a chance of damaging it.