JoAnn

I'm not a pro in photography but I do love taking pics. I bought this cannon SX30IS camera and when I take action shots thay are coming out blurry. I have it on the sport setting and the ISO on 400. I just bought the camera so I'm wondering if it was a bad investment. Is there anyone out there that can tell me what I'm doing wrong!!

Very sad JoAnn

mel Loc: Jacksonville, Florida

I has the same camera a short while ago and I thought it was amazing andd took some great pictures. Try using a faster shutter speed. that should help a lot. You may have to increase yout ISO to get a good exposure.

DonW Loc: Naples,FL & Cape Cod,MA

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Hi JoAnne: I'm no professional, but I've owned Canon cameras for many years. IMHO, the SX 30 IS is just not up to Canon standards. I bought one (thankfully from Amazon) and returned it for exactly the reasons you mentioned (blurry images).. especially out in the 700-800mm range. This is a crazy zoom for a point & shoot camera. If the long zoom feature is not as important to you, and you like Canon cameras, I would recommend either the G11 or G12. The zom is small (28-140mm), but image quality is excellent as are movies. Just my 2cents :)

PNagy Loc: Missouri City, Texas

I bought the Canon SX30 IS for my wife. I tested it at freezing fast action, which is probably the greatest challenge the camera can have. I expected bad results, but they were great. The camera froze a spinning ceiling fan as if it were not on at all. The setting was on the point and shoot "sports" icon.

Depending on what you want to shoot, try the TV setting beginning a practice shot at 250. It will blur really fast action, so bump it up to 320, shoot again. If the picture is blurred, keep moving the TV setting one step higher. If it is too dark, first increase the exposure value. If that does not work edge the ISO upward.

When you have the right combination of TV, exposure value, and ISO, you are ready to shoot. The SX30IS should give you very good results.

K7DJJ Loc: Spring Hill, FL

I tested the canon sx30is and took this bird at full optical plus full digital or 3512 mm. I didn't buy it because I wanted to shoot in RAW mode.

henrycrafter Loc: Orem Utah

Read and study the manual that came with your camera!!
Then follow the directions.
If you really study the manual most if your questions will be answered

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

Do you have the image stabilization on? It can help immensely.

You may not be getting action blur - you may be getting blur from your own hand shake - especially if you are using the zoom. The more you zoom out, the more handshake blur you will see. With nerves of steel and holding your breath, you could still see blur caused by pushing the button to take the shot.

To prove this, zoom the lens all the way in to the shortest number (probably 28) and take action shots. Then move it out to halfway and take actions shots, then zoom out further and take action shots. Hand shake blur gets increasingly worse as you zoom.

I find it very hard to believe Canon would make a upper end point and shoot that even has an action setting that can't take action shots. Canon has a reputation to protect against Nikon and Sony and they've consistently done so over the years. I tried a 14MP $129 Nikon and $129 Canon recently at Target. The Canon blew the Nikon image quality away. If Canon can do that in the $129 category, it certainly can do awesome things in the $400 category.

I was looking at the SX30IS before I decided to buy my Sony dSLR instead. The SX30IS gets rave reviews as being one of the best in class with reviewers getting very good actions shots. I can't imagine the electronics would be a lot different than their dSLRs when it's almost one itself, although the glass and sensor are going to be somewhat less quality than a Canon dSLR.

Get yourself a $20 mono-pod (a one legged version of a tripod) and put it between your knees and squeeze the bottom of it with your feet when your actions shots are occurring. Or if you're standing up, put the monopod in front of you and press yourself against it and it against a hard surface like a low fence, a big rock, a car bumper, or something that is lower than chest level and won't be damaged by you pressing a metal mono-pod into it. This will dramatically improve your body stability and get rid of a lot of handshake.

Good luck with that. Just don't be hasty to blame the camera until you read the manual, get comfortable with the functions of the electronics, and shoot a couple hundred shots with it. Also look at your results on a high quality computer monitor, not just the LCD screen of the camera.

JoAnn

Thanks for all your comments...I have read the manuel, in fact 3 times. But it doesn't tell me much about troubleshooting on the sports settings. The reason I want the sports set is because my Grand daughter plays volleyball and I like to try and get good action shots of her, she really enjoys seeing how high she can jump.(me too). I am going to her game tonight and I'm going to use the camera for the first time at her game. I will try everything you all suggested.
Thanks
JoAnn

JoAnn

When I change the shutter speed it changes back to auto when I go to sport icon.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

That's because the Sport preset controls the shutter speed and sets it high as a priority over all other settings to stop action. It will adjust aperture, ISO, what form of image stabilization is best, depth of field, and other things to create the best action shots it possibly can without input from you.

As I said earlier, worry most about making sure you are steady handed - especially if you're going to zoom. If you're going to use it tonight, you could call and then stop by a K-Mart, Target, Best Buy, or any number of places to get a mono-pod to help out.

You should probably also know that photographers who are experienced in action shooting sometimes only get 50% acceptable shots and even then keep only 50% of the 50% at most. So take MANY shots at the game and don't be disappointed if a lot of them aren't what you expected.

I'm not sure but I think the SX30IS can also do continuous advance shooting, which just means it will continue firing shots as long as you hold down the button. You can fire off 5 or 10 shots like a fully automatic machine gun! That's advantageous in action shooting because each shot is a little different than the last one during the string of shots and some will come out good and others won't. You can delete the blurred ones and keep the good ones. You'll need a pretty large memory card for that though if there's a lot of action you want to capture during a game. 16GB would be a good starting point.

Have fun and experiment a lot.

SnapHappy Loc: SW Florida

Hi JoAnn and welcome to the forum! Here's my 2 cents' worth---when asking a specific question, please post one of your photos so we're all on the same page. It would help me, for one, to know exactly what your experience has been with the camera. I've owned the SX 30 for a while and might be able to give some specific input. For what it's worth.....

DonW Loc: Naples,FL & Cape Cod,MA

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WOW... I'm impressed at what you were able to capture with the SX 30 IS. Did you use a tripod and what were your camera settings? Again, wow...

Oh, and how did you arrive at a total FL of 3512?
TIA
:)

K7DJJ Loc: Spring Hill, FL

The canon sx30 had a 35x optical lens and a 4 times digital. In the properties file I read, in 35 mm film 3511.75 mm. It is 35 times 4 converted to 35mm film. I was in auto mode, and it set the camera at 1/1000, f5.8 and ISO 100. I was using a tripod because I was testing the camera. I shot about 100 shots that day and even the hand held shots were clear at 35x. I travel a lot and don't like to carry extra lenses.

DonW Loc: Naples,FL & Cape Cod,MA

Thx for the info.. I rembered the 35mm conversion right after I posted (duh!!).

Excellent shooting!.. and thanks for sharing

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

I wonder if the new SX50IS will shoot RAW? Seems logical.