2 Responses to “What Is The Best Way To Stabilize Pictures Using The Canon Powershot A530?”

1. Picture Taker says:

   January 9, 2010 at 11:29 am

   Yes, you can get a tripod. Believe it or not, you can get ANY tripod. For some reason that I will never understand there is at least ONE thing in cameras that is universal and that is the size of the tripod threads. Any tripod will attach to your camera. For the A530, you can get almost anything made as it would nto have to hold 5 pounds or anything. Just don’t get one of those minipod things that has flexible legs. You can get an acceptable tripod for your camera for $20-30 in any photo department of Best Buy, etc., or in any local camera shop.
   This is what you have to know about image blur if you decide to buy a camera that does not have optical image stabilization.
   Image stabilization is the real deal and it DOES help your pictures, but it’s not essential. In the case of Canon’s, it’s about a hundred dollar upgrade in the SD (Elph) series. I’ll add my stock answer on “IS” (image stabilization) after I’m done talking about some other things here and you can check it out if you want to.
   When it was my turn to buy a “pocket” camera to take with me when I didn’t want to drag out the SLR, I chose a Canon SD900. There are times when “IS” might help, but overall, I don’t really miss it in this camera. If you have longer zoom lenses, any degree of shaking will be magnified and “IS” will cut down or eliminate the blur caused by that shaking. There are a few tricks and techniques that you can use if your camera doesn’t have it.
   First of all, like the old days, just make a conscious effort to hold still. Try to use the optical viewfinder so you can hold the camera up to your face and not at arm’s length. You can turn off the LCD preview if you do this and it will save batteries anyhow. Take a breath and hold your breath while you gently s-q-u-e-e-z-e the shutter, trying to avoid shaking the camera as you push the button.
   In any mode on most point and shoot cameras, you will see a “shake warning” if the shutter speed is going to be slow enough that there is more risk of your shaking. There are a few things you can do in this situation to minimize the potential for a blurred image.
   You can always force the camera to use a faster shutter speed by selecting a higher ISO (sensitivity) setting. You have a few options with most cameras to accomplish this. First, in the manual mode, you can simply select a higher ISO when the light is low and you are more likely to have trouble holding still for a longer exposure. This will force a faster shutter speed. In any mode, you can use “AUTO ISO,” but you can also use “HI ISO” or whatever your model calls it. This will force the camera to go to the next higher ISO than the normal program would select under the existing lighting conditions. If the normal program would use ISO 100, “HI ISO” will bump it up to ISO 200. By doing this, it will make the shutter speed twice as fast so there is less likelihood of blurring due to camera shake.
   Some cameras, such as the Canon SD1000, also have an interesting feature called “Auto ISO Shift” that allows you to make a one-touch adjustment to the ISO if the shake warning icon appears.
   The down side of increasing the ISO is that higher ISO settings will introduce a roughness to the image called “digital noise.” Until you get up to ISO 800, it’s not really much of a concern,
   You can also use the flash, which would usually eliminate blur, if the subject is within your flash range.
   You can also steady the camera on something or use a tripod and then use the self-timer so the shutter will go by itself without you touching the camera, eliminating the possibility for shaking the camera.
2. Picture Taker says:

   January 9, 2010 at 11:55 am

   check yahoo shopping for tripods