Carl Hutzler's Blog

So you are trying to take better pictures of your kids by getting down to their level, but you are finding that you still can’t quite get your point and shoot camera to take the $&#*%!! picture when you press the button! And you start thinking you need a better camera, bigger lenses, etc…maybe even an SLR. Well, the good news is that you likely don’t need to get a new camera as there are some ways to speed up that little point and shoot you already have.

Note: If you are still shooting a film based camera, get rid of it unless you are a professional and have a specific need to shoot film. All film shooting parents out there should go run to their nearest Best Buy or Target and get a digital camera today. In the next week to 10 days people who shoot film will nearly pay for a new digital point and shoot camera after they spend the $$$ to process their film/prints. So even if you don’t have (or like to use) a computer, get a digital camera, as you can go straight to Ritz Camera and plug your digital camera’s memory card right into the machine that prints out the prints – no computer needed! (although it is still convenient to have one).

Now back to our regularly scheduled program…

Two areas that can slow down your point and shoot camera are:

1) Flash
- Red-eye mode on many point and shoot camera results in a half second to full second of delay before the picture is taken
- It takes time to charge the flash and most cameras will not take a picture until the flash is ready to fire

2) Focus
- Small point and shoot cameras are not well known to have fast focusing capabilities

RED-EYE Flash Mode
Red-eye flash mode operates by pre-firing the flash with a very low output. This pre-fire causes the subjects pupil to contract a little which reduces the amount of reflection the camera sees off the red (blood filled) eye. But the problem is that the pre-fire institutes a delay before the camera takes the actual picture … and by that time, the subject is no longer smiling!

I would suggest turning off the Red-Eye mode on your camera…permanently if you can. Some newer digital cameras do this by default now-a-days which is a good thing. Simply put, Red-eye flash is just not necessary these days, as digital allows the photographer to remove the red-eye on their computer (or at the photo lab) very easily.

I can’t tell you exactly how to turn off Red-Eye on your camera because every camera is different. But thankfully most camera makers use similar symbols these days. So turn on your camera and make sure you are in the “shooting” mode where you can take a picture (not in the playback mode). Then look for a button that has a lightning bolt on it…

Usually pressing the lightning bolt will cycle through the camera’s flash modes. The display will show these modes as small symbols (get your glasses on). You want the one that either shows the flash being OFF (lightning bolt with a circle/slash) or ON (lightning bolt with nothing else around it) or an Auto mode which means the camera determines when to flash. The one you don’t want is the Red-Eye (usually a small lightning bolt with an eye next to it). For reference, I have included a page from a camera manual which describes the modes with the symbols just as an example (keep in mind that your camera may not have the same modes or symbols!):

Flash Recycling Delay

The flash in your camera needs a lot of power each time it fires. If your camera came with a rechargeable Lithium-Ion (L-ion) battery then you should be reasonably OK as these batteries can charge the flash fairly quickly. However, if your camera takes AA sized batteries, then you may have room to improve in this area. Normal Alkaline AA batteries that you would buy at the corner drug store are only capable of supplying a small amount of power per second. Even the best Duracell and Energizers are no match for L-ion. So what do you do to get that flash charged and ready for the next picture?

Well there are other kinds of AA batteries that you can put in your camera which can recharge that flash much more quickly. One alternative is AA Lithium cells (not to be confused with L-ion). Lithium AA’s are not rechargeable and are generally expensive batteries (usually $8 for 4 batteries). They will not last a lot longer in your camera even if the packaging says they will! But they will put out more power than normal Alkaline batteries and hence will fix the flash recharge problem. But man are they expensive. The only reason I carry a set around is as emergency back-up as they have a very long shelf life (>10 years!). So maybe buy 4 of them and keep them in your camera bag. But don’t use these day-to-day.

The better bet is Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries. These come in AA size (and many other sizes) and like the older NiCd cells, can supply a lot of power fairly quickly. But unlike the older NiCd cells, NiMH do not suffer from the “memory effect” which killed NiCd cells fairly quickly if you did not charge them “just right”. So go out and get some NiMH batteries. Circuit City, Target and others all cell these with and without chargers. You can even get “quick chargers” for a few bucks more that will charge em up in 15 minutes! Not bad. Prices range, but $20-$50 is the sweet spot. Oh, and you can buy cells with different capacities…more is better. But 2000 mAH (milli-Amp Hour) is a good number to shoot for. I just bought a pair of Energizer 15min chargers which included four AA 2200mAH batteries for just $20 each (on sale, rebate, etc).

Oh, and not only will NiMH batteries help your recycling time, but they will save the environment too. Not a bad thing to do.

Focusing

Small cameras usually do not have fast focusing mechanisms. I am not sure why, but it likely has to do with cost, miniaturization, and maybe some other things. Either way, they are not that fast. This can be frustrating when trying to photograph kids as the half to one second delay to focus the camera can mean the difference between getting the shot and not.

Bigger digital cameras like D-SLRs focus quicker because they have bigger motors (or ultrasonic) and dedicated circuits/CCD’s to allow the camera to focus faster. So this is certainly a case of you “get what you pay for”.

But all is not lost. The bad news is that better batteries and pushing a few buttons won’t fix the issue. But the good news is that there is a way to cheat it a little. Most point and shoot cameras have a way to “pre-focus” the camera. Usually this is accomplished by pointing the camera at the subject as if you were going to take the picture but instead only pressing the picture taking (shutter) button half-way down. Pressing the button half-way makes the camera do the focusing and lighting/exposure. Then when you press the button down the rest of the way, the camera takes the picture without any delay as it has already done the hard part of focusing and exposure. Try it and see.

There are, of course, limits to this technique. If your subject moves toward or away from you after you “pre-focus” then the picture will likely be out of focus. And you have to keep that shutter button pressed half-way to maintain your focus lock….and sometimes this can be hard to do for an extended period (5 seconds or more). But with practice, this technique may work for you.

Next up: Why I rarely use flash in the first place on those little point and shoot cameras (especially indoors).