Sometimes my camera freezes

[kimapali]

I was spending ten minutes chasing my daughter with my camera, watching her tackle the cat ala WWF style, and then getting some shots of her playing with her toys. I tried messing with the shutter speed and aperture since I just got done with Lesson 3 and am in the midst of Lesson 4.

I noticed a couple of things:

- If I manually turn off the flash, the picture doesn't always turn out if I'm in bad lighting
- Even if the flash is on, the camera sometimes freezes, the flash keeps on blinking, and makes this strange sound that reminds me of a Japanese Beetle looming in the air. It does this and I can't make it stop flashing until it's done "thinking," and I've missed the shot.

If I'm taking pictures and the lighting isn't great, what are my alternatives to the in-you-face flash? Please consider that my daughter will not sit still unless the Teletubbies are on, but then there's a strange bluish cast from the TV on her face!

Thanks!

[gjtoth]

I was spending ten minutes chasing my daughter with my camera, watching her tackle the cat ala WWF style, and then getting some shots of her playing with her toys. I tried messing with the shutter speed and aperture since I just got done with Lesson 3 and am in the midst of Lesson 4.

I noticed a couple of things:

- If I manually turn off the flash, the picture doesn't always turn out if I'm in bad lighting
- Even if the flash is on, the camera sometimes freezes, the flash keeps on blinking, and makes this strange sound that reminds me of a Japanese Beetle looming in the air. It does this and I can't make it stop flashing until it's done "thinking," and I've missed the shot.

If I'm taking pictures and the lighting isn't great, what are my alternatives to the in-you-face flash? Please consider that my daughter will not sit still unless the Teletubbies are on, but then there's a strange bluish cast from the TV on her face!

Thanks!

Kim, sounds like your white balance is set goofy. Just for grins, see if setting it to "Auto" helps you out. I don't know about your camera as I have a Oly point & shoot BUT, do you have autofocus? If so, then you probably have a setting for "Continuous Autofocus" (Mine does). You might want to set that to "off" if you do. There are alternatives to the on-camera flash and I'm sure if you consult with Peter, he can point you in the right direction as far as lighting and strobes and such.

---- I just looked at the specs for your camera on the Oly site. You DO have Continuous AF. Turn it off and see if you still have the problem.

[ladyups]

I was spending ten minutes chasing my daughter with my camera, watching her tackle the cat ala WWF style, and then getting some shots of her playing with her toys. I tried messing with the shutter speed and aperture since I just got done with Lesson 3 and am in the midst of Lesson 4.

I noticed a couple of things:

- If I manually turn off the flash, the picture doesn't always turn out if I'm in bad lighting
- Even if the flash is on, the camera sometimes freezes, the flash keeps on blinking, and makes this strange sound that reminds me of a Japanese Beetle looming in the air. It does this and I can't make it stop flashing until it's done "thinking," and I've missed the shot.

If I'm taking pictures and the lighting isn't great, what are my alternatives to the in-you-face flash? Please consider that my daughter will not sit still unless the Teletubbies are on, but then there's a strange bluish cast from the TV on her face!

Thanks!

Hi Kim...I could be wrong on this but it sounds to me like your camera is using AF assist. It's the flash blinking short burst to assist the focus on your subject. I'm not real sure how to explain this, but it puts little burst of light out so your auto focus can focus..if the light isn't real good the auto focus has trouble focusing and it needs assistance from the flash. Hope this helps...and if its not right, I'm sure someone here will explain it better.

Mary

[coffee]

As far as the camera freezing: If you are in auto focus, and the camera can't get a focus lock due to insificiant light, or other factors, the camera will not fire.

Alternatives to the flash include higher ISO sensitivity, turning on more indoor lights, or just getting you subject closer to the avalible light.

And one other thing, set your flash to bounce off a wall or ceiling instead of it flashing straight away.

[kimapali]

Is AF necessarily bad? Is the camera not firing because it knows that nothing will come out?

[coffee]

It might not be firing cause it can't focus on anything. If you look through the viewfinder, assuming you have a DSLR, and the auto focus can't make a lock, a LED circle will blink. That is the way with Canon's anyway. But regardless, there should be a visual cue, and/or audio cue of some sort to let you know the camera didn't auto focus. No AF is great, but you have to have enough light.