Croton Car Fire 7/26/08

[Remember585 815]

Here's a picture given to me of a car fire we had last night. My question is - no matter what digital camera I have used, I get the same results. I always seems to get blurry images especially in low light situations.

Any thoughts?

[dadbo46 50]

Here's a picture given to me of a car fire we had last night. My question is - no matter what digital camera I have used, I get the same results. I always seems to get blurry images especially in low light situations.

Any thoughts?

Yea....tell the flames to freeze.

[Future Fireman 4]

What kind of Camera do you have?

Mike

[Remember585 815]

My latest camera is a Coolpix. I had two Fuji's before this one. Not sure what the camera was that took this pic. Just seems like a routine problem with simple digitals.

[Future Fireman 4]

Well, you could solve this problem with a 'sport' mode, or 'subject in motion' if you have a regular digital. However, I don't know how to solve this problem on Digital SLR cameras. I'm going to defer to photounit, Seth, or anyone else who has an SLR camera.

Mike

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

There are additional pictures of the car fire before Croton FD arrived on www.lohud.com

[Remember585 815]

There are additional pictures of the car fire before Croton FD arrived on www.lohud.com

There was a few people in the lot popping pics and video. Guess nothing else was going on last night...

Interesting / fun fact - Two members were in Shoprite, one with and one without his pager. They couldn't make out the dispatch and walked outside to listen - oh, hey, that car is on fire!

[jack10562 414]

You can't often use point-and-shoot camera with "auto" settings, especially in low light conditions and get good results. The brightness "tells" the camera what exposure combination to use, and, well, you see the results.

Preferably you need to use manual settings if the camera permits.

In low light set the ISO higher, and adjust the shutter speed slower and open up the aperture to get your exposure. Two problems that crop up here are a higher ISO setting also introduces more "noise" and a slow shutter speed increases the chances for blur from camera and subject movement.

The main problem with consumer digital cameras is the 1-1/8 inch (and smaller)size of the image sensor, vs a full frame (24x36mm) sensor in a DSLR camera. More mega-pixels is not always the answer, either, too many pixels crammed into too small a sensor does not improve results.

You will have to practice with your exposure and shutter settings to get your image. Several combinations of settings will give the same exposure but with a different quality.

[jfmuller 23]

Newer cameras come with image stabilization that helps out tremendously. Also if you have a view finder use that with the camera anchored against your face, the less movement the better. Sometimes leaning on a building or against a pole will help you keep it steady. Tripods are ideal, but hard to store in the back pocket. Some cameras have a delay you can use that will allow you to depress the button and then hold the camera steady before the picture is taken. Pushing that button moves it a little adding some shake.