How can I reduce camera "noise" on my Canon S5? My pics look horrible!?

Question

I just purchased a Canon S5 IS. It's got 8 megapixels and a 12x optical zoom, which I thought would be great, but the pictures look really bad as compared to those taken with my previous camera, a Canon Powershot A95 with 5 megapixels. I think it's due to camera noise, because everything looks very grainy, especially in lower light. Also, in low light, the pictures all come out blurry. The sports setting doesn't work nearly as well as it did on my Powershot. It is super grainy. Is there anything I can do? I've got it set at the highest resolution possible and ISO shift is on. I just hate this camera now. Help!

Answer 1

make sure your not in sports mode when you are shooting in low light. its going to bump up the iso.

also set the iso to manual and at the lowest number.

Answer 2

Like any other point and shoot type camera, low light shooting (using higher ISOs) is one of the S5's main weaknesses.

It produces way too much noise starting as low as ISO 400 and even at ISO 200 you can start to see detail loss.

To avoid noise, you should try not to shoot with Auto ISO or AUTO Hi ISO because the camera will automatically apply a high ISO when detecting lower light. However, the drawback with using a lower ISO in low light is blurry images.

The only real way to avoid noise with a camera of this type is to shoot using a lower ISO with flash (don't forget you have to raise the flash manually) or shoot only outdoors in good to bright lighting. You can also shoot indoors using a low ISO (50-100) if you mount the camera on a tripod and use the delay timer, but this is not practical with moving subjects.

The problem you are experiencing (way too much noise) is one reason why many people turn to using a dSLR, which is capable of producing images with little or no noise, using ISOs of 1600 to much higher. So, perhaps you should consider an entry level dSLR sometime in the future...they're not really all that difficult to use. If you bought an S5 IS (which has full manual controls) then a dSLR is just as easy to get the hang of. The improvement over image quality alone will amaze you...

good luck..

Answer 3

There is the problem ... you have the ISO in its automatic mode .. set your ISO to 100 and your images will have far less noise.

In low light you will have to put up with noise, since to prevent camera movement, you will have to shoot at the cameras highest ISO setting.

The reason your pictures come out blurry in low light probably has more to do with camera movement than poor focus.