Need a camera, but I have shaky hands.

[phillip684]

Hello, I have no history with cameras at all. My girlfriend, sister, or mom always take the pictures, and I just smile and look happy... I need a camera now, and the problem is I apparently have very shaky hands. I've kind of learned to compensate by doing the "continuous" mode and about 1 of the 10 comes out good enough.(I borrowed my moms camera for a project). Anyways, does anyone have any ideas of a camera that will compensate for my shaky hands, and be a good picture at very close, and normal picture range. Price range is open, but as always cheap is better... I will spend more if I have to. Also, I don't NEED this for about 4 months, so I'll probably surf ebay to find a cheap one, maybe after christmas...

I guess a tri-pod would solve the problem too, but who wants to bust out the tri-pod every time they want to take a picture.

This is about how most of my pictures turn out
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b81/Magicpl8er/IMG_0299.jpg


This is the same camera, but on continuous mode... (don't make fun of the soldering b/c it is huge ass wire, and I wanted it to be really secure hehe...)
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b81/Magicpl8er/IMG_0297.jpg




- Thanks!

[Nate P.]

What's your price range?

[Magnj]

anything new is gonna have good SR as long as it isn't walmart brand stuff. Stick with sony, casio, cannon, etc. and pick one you like.

[phillip684]

welll... I guess around 300$-400$. Like I said price range is open. Both of those pictures were taken on my moms Canon Powershot SD600. I don't think it is a bad camera, but... still blurry. Anyways I kinda like the canon S3 IS. I can get a little table tripod, but when I'm out and about is it going to take clear pictures?

[Vapor]

Okay...first thing's first....the top image seems to mostly be suffering from being out of focus, not motion blur. The blur is nearly-perfectly circular, not something characteristic of motion blur. I'm guessing that switching to 'continuous' might also happen to 'use' the close-up auto-focus abilities of whatever camera you have (I'm assuming this 'continuous' is a continuous AF setting).

If your camera has a macro mode (a little flower symbol usually)....use that to deal with the focus issues, it will instruct the camera to look close-range for the subject. :)

Now onto the actual issue of exposure and shake reduction....

If that is the environment you will normally be shooting in....and considering the shutter speed was 1 second in those exposures....no point and shoot camera's shake reduction or image stabilization will 'save' you. Also, this was technically underexposed by a whopping 3 stops (though maybe only 2stops with a proper white balance setting).

So first and foremost...and more than anything else....you need more light. No camera will, in those conditions, give you a good picture without a tripod....even that bottom pic has very noticeable motion blur (and it's been resized!).

Those EXIFs don't seem to have ISO data, but looking at it....probably 200 ISO (I see some noise even after the resize, though not much). Given that and the 3-stop underexposure, and the 1sec exposure at the wide-end of the lens (EXIF says f:2.8, unlikely you can open it any more if it's a P&S), means at 1/16th of a second exposure....about when I feel SR gives you a >50% keeper rate, you'll need ISO 25,600....which the new $5000+ Nikon D3 (body only...super-expensive SR lenses not included in price) can barely do with only semi-acceptable image quality. The more I think about it...either the EXIF is wrong or you were taking that picture in a dark room with basically only monitor lighting....:(

So yeah....more light first and foremost....then from there, if you really do have shaky hands, most of the major brands do have decent point and shoots with effective SR. I'd also really have you consider a table tripod...they're only ~9in tall, inexpensive for point and shoots (since P&S cameras are light), and will help tremendously, allowing you to take better hardware pictures. Obviously leave it at home for social snaps (where flash is usually okay anyway) and stuff like that (heck, with daylight outdoors, there is PLENTY of light for even the shakiest of folk to not use SR [but SR will still help :p:], or a tripod, or crazy ISO settings, or anything like that....almost all P&S cameras these days will take very nice pictures in daylight)...but for taking pictures of hardware, a tripod is really useful and allows you to use long exposures and low ISO settings and give you very good image quality.

[MaxxxRacer]

Nikon D3 and 50mm F1.4 lense. Set it to ISO 6400 and you can take photos in the dark.

but in all seriousness, the Canon Powershot S5 IS (http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/controller?act=ModelInfoAct&fcategoryid=144&modelid=15207) is your best bet for a non SLR camera. It has image stabilization and is an overall good camera.

[Jay78]

if u have shaky hands then stop drinking.... jk

[MaxxxRacer]

if u have shaky hands then stop drinking.... jk

alcohol is a depressant, not an upper. It won't make your hands shake.