hey all. some of you know i just picked up the gateway DC-M42. I've had it since last night but just today had enough memory to really play with it and upload pics to comp. heres the scenario:

took some candid shots on 4 mp, brightness and focus was pretty good.

then my g/f took a pic of me on my computer chair. phenominal quality pic, sharp as can be perfect lighting

then took one of my dad he sat in the same place same lighting and same settings on cam...and was very very dark and out of focus (soft)

repeated taking pics with constant conditions and same results.

understand all the while i have to continuously turn the cam on and off to upload and then take pics.

I let the camera sit and cool for a little, first and second picture taken great sharp and lighting was good...then quality dropped off a little and lighting is no longer an issue but it is still out of focus...

it seems as though there are certain conditions which make the camera take out of focus pics....HELP please. I want to see if I can solve/troubleshoot the problem myself...

I'm new to cameras, am I doing something wrong?

 

only way to really tell is to use a tripod,...that way you have the exact same angle and what not everytime to see if its the camera that is going out of focus by itself

 

thanks...i'll try it now let you know.

 

you probably turned the flash off by accident :dunno: :chuckles:

 

Heres one on the tripod. Seems to me to be a great quality pic. Pretty sharp and lighting is good:

 

Heres from one a different angle but still on the tripod. Lighting is fine but look how blurry it is...what can cause such a change. Literally no lighting was changed or settings either. And the camera was rotated on the tripod maybe 3 inches.

 

Now do you guys see what I'm saying? Or am I just simply expecting too much from a digi-cam? I can't be expecting too much cause some of the pics come out super crisp. Like heres one I took of me, we've been comparing everyone since that one and none of them come close...what causes this?:

 

Is everything on auto? Sometimes when there's low light, the autofocus doesn't know how far to focus.

 

Yeah actually everything is on auto...ISO, flash...etc. I don't really have a way of controlling the focus. Except for the fact that when in manual mode, I can focus by pressing the shutter button half way down then depressing it the rest of the way to complete the shot. You think that could be it. Thats what I suggested to my dad (a professional photographer, but unfamiliar with digi)

Could it be that the auto setting just isn't very precise and thats what accounts for the inconsistency?

BTW, thanks a lot for trying to help me here g2tegls

 

play with the settings and take it out of auto mode.....it may be inconsistent because it doesn't know the exact focus so everytime you take a pic it calculates the best picture but some may be better than others cause everytime you take a pic it is different for the camera especially when using flash indoors.