400d troubles

[ARU]

Hi,

I have recently bought the 400d and I am having a few difficulty's with it.
the problems I am having are

1. when I load my photos on the computer they appear to be very dark. even thought my light settings were correct and the image review on the LCD looks perfectly crisp and clear.
I can adjust the picture with software but it still doesn't look right

2. I tried shooting at the airport in raw format instead of jpeg and when I opened them with photoshop or canon software they seemed quite low quality not what I would expect from a 10MB raw photo (the photos still appeared dark)see below.

3. I have noticed several dust spots in my pictures what is the best way to clean my lens?







any help would be greatly appreciated

cheers Alex

[Marcus]

Hi Alex

I have the same camera with the same problem... Have "worked" on the settings... but still get "dark" photos!

Marcus

[Peter Lewis]

aru said:

photos on the computer they appear to be very dark.

Something to check . . . Parameters

I found on my 20D that RAW photos were much darker then jpegs. After some time fiddling, I decided to read the manual.
There is a menu function called Parameters.
Parameter 1 (automatically set in a 'basic' ie jpeg mode) - image will look vivid and sharp.
Parameter 2 (which the RAW format was set to) subdued.
By changing the RAW format default form Parameter 2 to Parameter 1 the problem was solved.
May not be the cause of your problem, but it might pay to check.

[flyjoe180]

I find the images on the LCD are actually darker than they appear on the computer, which is odd because that appears to be the opposite to your problem, giving quite exposed-looking photos once downloaded.

Re the cleaning, is the dust on the outside of the lens?

[flyjoe180]

By the way, the LCD brightness can be controlled under the MENU functions.

[globemaster]

Alex

Lower your ISO from 1600 to 100. Use the "up" arrow on the keypad which should bring up the ISO Speed menu. Shoot Av mode at around F8 rather than Manual Jpegs fine.

globemaster

[amitch]

The dust spots are on your sensor, not the lens. You can get various kits to clean the sensor, but if you are unsure take it into a camera shop and get them to do it. Canons come from the factory with free stuck on dust and should be cleaned before use.

ISO 200 is more than enough for what you are trying to do, only increase it when the lighting is poor.

In theory, no in camera setting should effect a RAW file as it's whats recored onto the sensor and then written to the card ie: no in camera processing is done to the file.

A good trick is to meter the ground using the f-stop you want, then set the camera to manual and use the settings from the ground. This will over expose the sky, but will give you a correctly exposed aircraft. You will need to check these settings often and the light will change.

Don't use the LCD as a guide until you understand how the photo compares as a large print or file on your computer. Use the histogram as this is telling you what you need to know. It's amazing how many people take the LCD view as correct, even though the histogram is telling them that the exposure is wrong and later when they view the files on a computer, they look awful. The LCD is small, cheap and just a way for a quick look at the photos, nothing more.

[ARU]

well thanks for the advice guys, i will definitely keep trying

[planeimages]

Maybe try returning all custom functions to default. This will only affect JPEGs of course.

Check that you are shooting in srgb .

It looks like the exposure value bias has been shifted.

Also shot on 100/200 ISO unless the light is really poor.