717 shutter speed

[Fred Nicod]

I cannot take pictures exceeding one second without the picture greying out.
This occurs at setting 's' and manual no matter how I adjust the aperture setting.
I used a tripod on all of the testing.
Am I missing something or is it a problem with the camera.

[JCW3]

Actually your just over exposing the image. That more a basics of photography thing. Its not a easy thing to explain in short, so I may recommend just reading online or in a book (35mm or digital) about exposure.

The 717 is a bright camera, in other words the lens on it is actually faster (lets in more light) than most other digital cameras, thats one thing that makes it so special. But in reality that is a great nightime camera!!!

Why are you trying to get 1sec exposure?

You should have no problem getting the exposure if you wait until dark, you will quickly find the exposure to balance out more. You can also add a ND filter to it.

[Fred Nicod]

Thankyou for your kind explanation and prompt reply. I will take your advice, you have allayed my fears of finding this aspect a problem when the warranty runs out.
The reason for the 1 second was that I was experimenting with all the functions on the camera as I worked my way through the instruction book.
I did try all the different exposure settings (in daylight) without much improvement and looked at histograms without really understandiing their significance.

Can you recommend any particular book

[JCW3]

There is a lot of info on the web for FREE reading if you would like. I did a quick search on google and found ALOT of hits. This is the first link that came up and its looks to be very good, but I did not read it all, just a quick skim.

http://www.vanfossenpro.com/learn/basic/basic9.html

I have also read alot of John Shaws books and have found them very good. Really any of his books will cover this topic, but Nature Photography seems to give a good general basics chapter on exposure.

I personally do mostly nature photography so most of my books revolve around that topic and how to work with differant cases. I would recommend finding a good book that goes over the basics and at the same time talks about a subject you photograph alot.