Cameras & Camcorders

[lbenson49]

does the speed of the sd memory card, that is the number 2,4, 6, or 10 have an affect on the sharpness of a still picture taken with  a digital camera. i purchased a canon elph 100 and the indoor low light pics without the flash does not come out very sharp. it comes out sharp on the camera screen, but not when printed. thanks

[Rrrrrrr]

Nope. Its just tells you how fast its capable of being written to or downloading into your computer.

As for the low light lack of sharpness, I would suggest using a tripod and slower shutter speed and drop the apeture as low as it can go if you can do manual mode in the elph. Its quite common for the picture to look great on the LCD and come out not so great when printed.

[Entropy]

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lbenson49 wrote:

does the speed of the sd memory card, that is the number 2,4, 6, or 10 have an affect on the sharpness of a still picture taken with  a digital camera. i purchased a canon elph 100 and the indoor low light pics without the flash does not come out very sharp. it comes out sharp on the camera screen, but not when printed. thanks

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No.  It only affects how fast the camera can write out pictures to the card when taking them rapidly.  In some cases, video recording has a minimum requirement on SD card class.

SD card speed will never affect image quality.  In your case, your problem is motion blur most likely.  In low light without flash, the camera slows down the shutter to allow more light in.  However, if the subject or camera are moving, this will cause blur.  If the whole shot is blurry, it's camera shake and IS can often help a bit (but it can't fix everything), and a tripod will eliminate the problem.  A monopod or improved holding technique can also improve the situation.  If just moving subjects are blurry, there's nothing you can do other than use the flash.

[lbenson49]

thanks for your response. your answer is what i thought, but wanted to verify it. trouble is one does not know if the picture without the flash will print good until it is to late, since the screen shows a good pic.

[lbenson49]

thanks for your response. the pic is not blurry, just grainy, but your your response is what i thought. i just wanted to verify it. the trouble is that when you take and pic and it comes out good on the camera screen, one does not know if it will print good.  

[Entropy]

Grainy is high-ISO sensor noise.  The low-res preview on the LCD screen could be working in one of two possible ways:

1)  Sample every N pixels and display that.  This often causes the preview to look "jaggy" but would show the noise

2)  Average the pixels for display - provides a smooth preview but will filter out the noise

Does the camera support zooming into the preview?  This would let you see the noise.

The only way to reduce the sensor noise without increasing the amount of light present is to purchase a camera that has better noise performance at high ISO speeds.  DSLRs blow away point-and-shoots in this area, and in the case of point-and-shoots, larger units tend to perform better.  Specifically, it's the sensor size that is important.  (Not size in megapixels, but physical sensor size - high megapixel counts are actually bad for noise.)  This is why Canon dropped the pixel count from 14 megapixels to 10 from the G10 to G11.  Canon's G-series (along with the S90/S95) have some of the largest sensors available in any P&S.