All action shots with S5000 are a complete blur...

[luvmyqh]

I have a Fuji S5000. I'm not great with mechanical stuff and thought this camera would be easy for me to use. I have 2 problems. I take alot of pictures at horse shows and of my own animals. When I'm taking pictures of a moving horse at a horse show, I get the horse in view, but by the time the camera actually takes the picture, the horse is long gone. I actually have to try to take the shot before the horse comes into the view finder. It's horrible. Whats up with that? And, ANY thing thats moving, which of course is mostly what I take pics of, are just a complete blurr! I can take "still" photos fine. Do I need to go back to a regular 35mm with film?
Or, what the heck am I doing wrong? Any help is appreciated!

Thank you!

Joyce

[Scubamom]

Joyce,
I have the S5000 and have found that the shutter lag does present some problem with action shots. You do have to focus on the subject, & then hit the shutter just as it comes into the frame. As to the blur, have you tried shutter priority? I recently took a picture of my cousin's daughter jumping over a dog, & got the action perfectly. (I will be posting it in my gallery shortly - I don't remember offhand what the shutter speed was). Set the shutter speed to at least 1/500, or even faster depending on the subject.
Good luck,
Kathy

[luvmyqh]

Set the shutter speed? Now I have to figure out how to do that. I never knew you had to do that with this camera. How do you set the shutter speed?

Thank you so much!

Joyce

[Scubamom]

Joyce,
The dial on the top of the camera on the right hand side is the settings dial. Turn it to "S", then you can change the shutter speed with the up or down arrow on the back of the camera. The camera will set the f-stop correspondingly. The same works for using aperture priority - set the dial to "A", use the up or down arrow keys to set the aperture, and the camera will set the shutter speed.
It's worth sitting down with your camera manual & going over all the features. Then practice, practice, practice!
Good luck, Kathy

[Scubamom]

Joyce,
I have uploaded (into my gallery) the picture I took of my cousin's daughter jumping over a dog. I was shooting on "auto" - I should have set it on shutter priority & used a faster shutter speed, but I just grabbed the camera to seize the moment! So the camera is capable of getting action even on auto, as long as the action isn't too fast.
Kathy

[photowebor]

Another trick I learned from my semi pro days is to find a subject with similar lighting and a similar distance and then lock your focus.

Then follow your actual subject and then snap it as you follow them.
Of course, when I did this, I had a 100% manual camera. No auto exposure and no auto focus. So the same rules applied.

The other posts on shutter priority are essential too.

[Tmoons]

hi,

i'm new here.
but maybe TS (topic starter) could use the following:
if you do not need a flasher. put the camera in multi shot mode (i'm not sure that is the official name for it)
how to get in that mode:
press the little button on top of the camera (next to the other little button with the little square (half white half black))
Now at the same time move the cursor (now on the LCD) 1 pos. to the right. this is the "up to 5 shots in a row" option.
if you move the cursor 1 pos. more, you'll get the option to start shooting, and it will save "the last 5"
maybe this makes it easier to find the horse and get the right shot?!
i used this to make some WRC (car rally) photo's and also some fire works photo's (when i figure out the gallary thingy here i'll put some up!)

[paintblr]

It sounds to me that the TS is less knowledgable about photography ( not making fun of you, just stating that) .. I started my digital photography with the s5000 and then went to an s5100 and now have a canon rebel XT .. if you want to use AUTO mode then you might think about using the flash .. if you want more control ever what you catch and how it looks you might want to post some of your pictures here and let us help you with your creative modes and the settings .. if you read the manual you can learn a lot about photography .. if you look in my gallery you will see a truck that I got a shot of in high speed motion .. it was not luck .. I put the camera i the multi-shot mode as mentioned above and did a half shutter on something at the correct focal distance and waited to see that the truck was about the come over the jump and started shooting before I could see it and stoped after I got the shot I wanted and deleted any that were not what I wanted .. half shutter will lock in your focus and speed up how fast the picture is actually taken for those "don't want to miss the action shots" .. best of luck and if you have any more questions please feel free to ask ..

-Rob