[Iancity]

Hi - I'm having a few probs at the minute and just wonder if I have got some settings wrong etc....I'm slowly getting there manually BUT had an important match to photo last night (my kids were mascots at a cup final) and so thought I had better put it on auto just in case....anyway, what's happened, and I noticed it at the time, is that every shot seems to take ages for the shutter to release, its as if the shutter speed is set at 2 seconds or something, hence all my photos have come out blurred
I presumed on auto that it controls everything - is there somewhere simple I am going wrong....?

Thanks

[sdb123]

What was the available light like? What lens were you using?

[Iancity]

Was the inside of a tunnel at St. James park, well lit. Then onto the pitch at 7 Oclock, just turning dusky.
Lens was 55-200.. 1:4-5.6

and I'm geet inexperienced at this so please bear with me !

[Pirate!!]

Ahoy!

I think there may be 2 problems. First, the camera was in AUTO mode, and second (IMHO) the lens. F4-5.6 . . . FWIW, f/2.8 for mixed/low light would've been far better. And if you are in a confined, well lit space (such as the tunnel), an external flashgun would've been ideal for the lens you had.

I know it's hard, but the lens you had fitted would be OK for decent daylight conditions. I've been there and got the t-shirt (as have most of us - it's a learning curve). I believe you need(ed) a faster (wider aperture) lens, and also you need to NOT let the camera dictate settings by plonking it into AUTO mode. It generally ends in disappointment. This would apply to ANY dSLR.

[Farno]

I agree with the man above. you needed a little faster glass or more light to help with shutter speed and so freeze the shot.

[Yandros]

Check the properties on the images and look at the ISO value the auto setting ended up using. In very low light, even with cheap bog standard lenses, you can usually salvage something reasonable if you bump the ISO substantially (say to 1000-1600ish). You'll need to use one of the other camera modes to comtrol this properly though.

[Iancity]

Thanks for the replies....I'm just learning and it takes me a while to compose a shot, so knowing I would have very limited time I thought sticking it in auto would be the ideal solution...ah well, live and learn.

Are there any decent 'repair' tools that would help with the photo's, they are just generally blurry - have tried the 'sharpen' tool in picasa but its nowhere near as powerful as I need - I guess I'm screwed

Checked the properties, ISO is 200 in them all and exposure time varies, 0.16; 0.333; 0.769 etc.....

[Pirate!!]

The blurryness is caused by camera shake due to the slow shutter speeds. I believe the delete/erase option is basically it. I don't think you could recover blurry images.

[mij]

You could of put it in P mode which is "Program Automatic Exposure Mode" and used auto ISO set to 1,600 which would of given you more of a chance.

Have a read of Ken Rockwell's guide, he explains it pretty well and his guide is free.

Link: Nikon D40 User's Guide

[Yandros]

Originally Posted by Iancity

Thanks for the replies....I'm just learning and it takes me a while to compose a shot, so knowing I would have very limited time I thought sticking it in auto would be the ideal solution...ah well, live and learn.

Are there any decent 'repair' tools that would help with the photo's, they are just generally blurry - have tried the 'sharpen' tool in picasa but its nowhere near as powerful as I need - I guess I'm screwed

Checked the properties, ISO is 200 in them all and exposure time varies, 0.16; 0.333; 0.769 etc.....

No, sadly sharpening never fixes camera shake

I'll second mij's advice...use auto ISO set high and P mode rather than Auto. When you get more experienced, dump P mode too, as that is also pretty inflexible when it comes to getting the shot you want (I use A mode almost exclusively).