aperture & shutter speed

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omightyone

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Hi guys, i have recently got a bridge camera "Fujifilm S1730"
And just have a few questions, ive noticed people are talking about f/4 ect but on my camera i can only seem to get F3.1 & F6.4. Ive noticed if i zoom in slightly it goes from f3.1 to 3.2 ect ect, is this what happens to change it specificaly or is it jsut my camera?

Also, my shutter speed goes from 2000 down to 1.3 then it goes 1" and so on to 8". Can anyone explain this to me?

Many thanks
steve.
 
I'd imagine that the fuji cam is mostly designed for automatic operation and won't have the same range of apertures as a DSLR - it's aimed at a different type of user who just wants to take shots with out worrying about settings.
 
The thing I've found with bridge cameras is that you need to delve into the complicated menu system to operate the camera manually or even semi - auto such as AP and SP. Learn how to change things in the menu and you have a great camera.

Like many lenses, your lens will open up at a wide angle, but as you zoom in, your maximun aperture will become more restricted. You just need to learn to work with the capabilities of your camera, and you'll be fine. If it becomes a bother, than you may want to upgrade with something that is less restrictive, but if you are a newbie, this should be a good start-up camera. Learn how to access settings within your camera's menu, and you will find things easier. Of course it helps to know about exposure, DOF and colour temperture (WB) first, so look up the tutorials on here and if there is anything you don't get, just ask.
 
The shutter speeds shown as just numbers such as 2000 are fractions of a second. So 2000 is actually 1/2000th of a second, 60 is 1/60th of a second etc.

The shutter speeds shown with a " such as 1" are whole seconds. So 1" is actually 1 second, 8" is 8 seconds etc.

Welcome to TP by the way.
 
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All the above is true, but one of the advantages/disadvantages of compacts is that they inherantly have very deep depth of field (becuase of the tiny sensor) - ie mostly everything is in focus whether you want it to be or not. So there is no point in adjusting the f/number for depth of field control, as it makes very little difference, and therefore it is only useful for adjusting the exposure.

This makes compacts great for snapshot photography, but less versatile for creative techniques. The fundamental difference between compacts and DSLRs is that the latter have much larger sensors, which gives you more control as well as much greater image quality.
 
boliston said:
I've calculated the fuji has a crop factor of 5.7x so we are talking finger nail sized!
Click to expand...

Which means that in terms of depth of field, f/4 delivers the equivalent of f/22.8 on a full frame DSLR :eek:
 
Thankyou for all the help guys, i have a custom mode on my camera which i can change nearly everything on it with. I was just trying to find out some extra information.

I have been wanting to try out light trails thats why i was asking a few as they say change the exposure ect. so the slowest my camera will take pictures is 8 seconds i guess & Do you think that will be enough to take reasonably good light trail photos with?

Also should i use F6.4 or f3.1? am i correct in thinking the F6.4 makes it wide angle? My fujifilm Bridge camera says this on the lens "Fujinon lens 15x optical F=5.0-75.0MM 1:3.1-5.6"

Many thanks
steve.
 
F number has nothing to do with wide angle, it's to do with exposure and depth of field, but since on your camera the depth of field aspect isn't really relevant it is really just to do with exposure.

A higher number means a smaller hole for the light to go through which means you need to use a longer shutter speed to get enough light to expose the picture properly.
 
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