| Joined: | Sun Apr 1st, 2012 |
| Location: | South Lakeland, UK |
| Posts: | 4066 |
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How is the camera mounted?
In the absence of any examples or information, my thoughts and suggestions.
Self timer is usually used to trigger the shutter when the camera is mounted on a less than rock solid tripod, to eliminate the action of pressing the shutter button (which causes blurry pictures, even if using a tripod) disturbing the camera when the button is pressed. The usual way is with a remote control of one sort or another but if you don't have one, or the battery goes flat, the self timer can do the job, although you don't get to choose a decisive moment ten seconds before it happens! This should result in very sharp images.
It can also be used for taking a photograph when you want to be included in the picture, it gives you the opportunity to get into position before the shutter is released. Obviously that requires some sort of support for the camera, which could be sat on a wall, table or even propped in a tree?
I assume this occurs in poor light? In good light the shutter speed should be high enough to eliminate moderate camera shake caused by an unstable mount, or hand holding. Although, in poor light the camera mounted flash usually pops up. The flash should freezes any camera shake.
What lens are you using?
If it's above 50 or 100mm then you need to take special precautions like using a good solid tripod to guarantee sharp images in poor light. Wider lenses tend to be a bit more forgiving. Longer lenses will give more blurred images if there is any camera shake at all.
Without seeing an example and knowing the circumstances, it's difficult to be more precise.
One other possible cause is if your lens has VR (Vibration Reduction) and you ARE using a tripod, you need to turn the VR off, because on a tripod, it can actually cause blurred images.
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Robert.