«

I'm just starting to get into exploring the settings on my Canon S30 camera,
but am noticing that changing the aperture setting doesn't seem to have as
much of an effect as images I see in magazines and on the net would suggest
it would. The difference between the maximum f8 and the minimum f2.8 seems
to be much less than I would expect from what I have seen and read. Is there
anything I could be doing wrong or any quirk of the camera to know about?

Thanks
Dee

wrote:

> I'm just starting to get into exploring the settings on my Canon S30 camera,
> but am noticing that changing the aperture setting doesn't seem to have as
> much of an effect as images I see in magazines and on the net would suggest
> it would. The difference between the maximum f8 and the minimum f2.8 seems
> to be much less than I would expect from what I have seen and read. Is there
> anything I could be doing wrong or any quirk of the camera to know about?

Welcome to the world of tiny focal lengths...

The imaging sensor in your camera is less than half the size of the fingernail
on your little finger. As a result, everything involved in focusing is scaled
down accordingly.

On a 35mm film camera, you might expect a 38-105mm lens. On todays modern
digicams they are only 5-10mm.

Consider that aperture is the ratio between the focal length and the size of
the opening. So on a larger film camera, a 50mm f/2 lens would have a maximum
aperture of 25mm. On the digi, a 5mm lens at f/2 would only have a 2.5mm
aperture.

So you see, in digicams, even at low f numbers you still have a tiny opening.
Because of the characteristics of light and glass, you are always going to
have a wide depth of field through the narrow apertures. As a result, you
just aren't going to get effects like major background blurring.

If you want a blurred background, try it at the longest focal length (maximum
zoom). If that isn't enough, then you might be able to simulate it through an
image editing program like Photoshop.

> Welcome to the world of tiny focal lengths...
>
> The imaging sensor in your camera is less than half the size of the
fingernail
> on your little finger. As a result, everything involved in focusing is
scaled
> down accordingly.
>
> On a 35mm film camera, you might expect a 38-105mm lens. On todays modern
> digicams they are only 5-10mm.
>
> Consider that aperture is the ratio between the focal length and the size
of
> the opening. So on a larger film camera, a 50mm f/2 lens would have a
maximum
> aperture of 25mm. On the digi, a 5mm lens at f/2 would only have a 2.5mm
> aperture.
>
> So you see, in digicams, even at low f numbers you still have a tiny
opening.
> Because of the characteristics of light and glass, you are always going to
> have a wide depth of field through the narrow apertures. As a result, you
> just aren't going to get effects like major background blurring.
>
> If you want a blurred background, try it at the longest focal length
(maximum
> zoom). If that isn't enough, then you might be able to simulate it
through an
> image editing program like Photoshop.

Thanks Jim, that makes sense.

At least I can feel like it's not me or my camera that's wrong now. I'm
quite happy using photoshop to get the effect I want, would just have been
nice to play with those settings on the camera. Doesn't seem worth it now.

Dee