Hope it's OK to ask a Canon question.
I just bought a Canon S95 and I am disappointed with some results, I find that in Av mode (which I mostly use) no exposure goes smaller than F8 even in very bright conditions. checking the manual is seems F8 is the smallest!! what happened to F16, 22 and 32??
I was on the beach today, very bright, in Av mode and many shots were badly overexposed, I tried lots of combinations of ISO values too. Auto more often goes OK but I've always liked to control DOF with Aperture preferred.
Any help welcomed.
Graham,
Usually don’t offer camera support here, but since you’re asking a question about the aperture on the camera, I’ll let is slide ;-)
The maximum and minimum f-stop is a byproduct of the size of the lens. Check out this article on wikipedia to learn more of the science behind it.
What I always recommend people do when trying to find the optimum settings is to start in fully automatic, and see what the camera does. If you’re getting overexposed shots at the desired aperture, shutter speed and ISO combination and can’t figure out what to change, put the camera in full auto and see what IT chooses to get the best shot. Since you’re in bright light, you’re right that you would need to stop down (smaller f-number) to make the exposure darker, but since you’ve hit the limit, either the shutter speed has to get higher or the ISO has to get lower. I’d assume that your shutter speed is too low. Of course since you’re in Av mode, the camera should be adjusting ISO and aperture accordingly, but perhaps you’re in manual ISO and it’s set quite high, and the camera is shooting at the fastest shutter speed that it can but it’s still too slow for the ISO that’s chosen?
good luck, and I’ve heard great things about the Canon S95, so I’m sure it’s just a case of getting the settings right—and if not, perhaps you have a bum camera and it needs replacing.
-Joseph @ApertureExpert
@PhotoJoseph
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Thanks so much, you hit the nail on the head, I was not on auto ISO, that I’m pretty sure was it.
I did a series of test shots yesterday with differing settings all of the same subject, looked at them in Aperture and there were wide variations.
I chose this camera after a glowing review by Derrick Story, the big feature of course is being able to shoot raw on a compact camera.
your help is greatly appreciated, sorry it was a bit off topic.
Taking Pics in Tassie