Yes, you're missing a huge thing with the LCD, the brightness varies massively with viewing angle and ambient brightness. If your eye is above the LCD it will appear brighter, if lower it will be darker. In bright sunlight it will also appear darker. This is especially true with cheaper LCDs than many cams have and cannot ever be relied on as an accurate gauge of exposure. Autoexposure is there for a reason, you can override it to an extent with over/under exposure compensation but it will usually be a good guide point to work from. Relying on the LCD will usually lead to flawed exposure..

Gary.

Nikon D4050-1.818-5555-200VR..

Sadly this is a problem we all face. Esp certain camera models but I will not enter that discussion, rather just say, if you feel your LCD is inadequate it probably is. Even more sadly, camera autoexposure is frequently hit or miss, I have had literally dozens of under or over exposed pictures on a neutral lighting day on the 4th of July. The LCD will tell you when a pic is grossly over or under exposed but I always have to see the image on my monitor before I know for sure if it has been correctly exposed. What's worse is that the situation changes again when you print, this is why out of thousands of pictures that I have taken I have a small handful I would feel happy about printing and framing.http://www.flickr.com/photos/freezingrain/..

Sorry I couldn't respond to comments right away had to step out. I'm happy (I guess) that I'm not alone in this problem. I do appreciate your comments. However, I'm still left with what to do to if my LCD won't give me an accurate indication of what my pictures will be. I assume that my camera will give me the information somewhere somehow that will tell me when I should click that shutter, if the LCD isn't reliable, but where? DSLR photographers seem to get good shots without a live-view screen what do they use to know when things are right is it all just experience?..

The lcd is just for framing, viewing and checking settings. Any of the various auto modes should work reasonably well as a starting point and use of exposure compensation will come with experience. The best way to proceed is to try stuff. Point the cam at various things and see how it does, then try over and underexposing (AE compensation) which will work in all auto modes except full auto (green auto on the dial). This will give you a good idea of how to predict the metering system..

The Canon A620 has loads of semi-auto modes to play with and metering is probably displayed on screen in the form of shutter speed, aperture, ISO and color balance etc. You may need to tell the camera to display all this info in a menu somewhere but there should be plenty there to help you..

Gary.

Nikon D4050-1.818-5555-200VR..

Brian Sprague wrote:.

Am I missing something here?.

Yes you are. Why arent you going by your exposure level indicator? Its to the right of the aperture value at the bottom of the screen, and described on page 44 of your Advanced manual. Canon cameras tend to over expose slightly, so people tend to adjust speed / aperture so that the indicator displays 1/3 for a slightly underexposed image. You can also use Program mode and set the Exposure Compensation to 1/3 or whatever your personal preference may be..

Also, you should review your images in Playback mode and review the histogram. The histogram will indicate if an image was over or underexposed. You can then adjust exposure and take another image..

Finally, you can use the CHDK hack to get a live histogram. You can use the live histogram as a guide to exposure adjustments. The CHDK hack is described in another thread here and on this web page:.

Http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK.

The point is to learn to go by exposure indicators and not how it looks on the LCD...

My biggestfrustration is that shots look good in the LCD but are too dark ortoo light on my computer, or printed. I usually shoot in manual modeand depend on the LCD to know if the shot looks right. Am I missingsomething here?.

Why do you shoot in manual mode? This is almost certainly the root of your problem..

Another problem, when you're outside, is that the LCD looks different in different light levels, so you can't judge your exposure on the LCD, the only reliable guide is the histogram. Perhaps learn to use that..

Have you set the LCD to be brighter than the default so you can see it better in sunshine? this will give a false indication of exposure too..

But I really think that using at least one of the priority modes if not the programmed auto mode will get you back on the right track. Only use manual when these modes won't give you what you want, which I bet will be hardly ever..

Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

I think what you are saying is that the histogram is one of the best indicators of for getting proper settings that a balanced histogram means proper exposure levels. I took a quick look at CHDK, and will read it completely and probably download the program (especially since it addresses the A620 specifically)..

I appreciate your taking time to address this rudimentary stuff. I seem to have gotten off track to improving my pictures this may help, thanks...

I switched to manual because auto rarely gave me good results always over or under exosed, blurry, or too noisy, depending on the shot. Manual at least gave me some control of things. I don't mind setting things myself, but the LCD has been an unreliable representation of exposure levels, noise, etc. As mentioned before, the histogram may be my best tool (which I will pay more attention to). I understand that intermediate levels of auto (P, Tv, Av) may help. Perhaps that is what you mean.

I appreciate the help, and feel I am gaining a new direction in all this. Thanks...

I took a quick look at CHDK,and will read it completely and probably download the program(especially since it addresses the A620 specifically)..

Fine if you can do it, but it's easy enough to set the histogram so you see it straight after you've taken the shot. In fact you really need to look afterwards anyway because as you'll see on a live histogram, things change constantly - did you press the shutter at just the right moment to get the histogram you wanted? Only checking afterwards will tell you that..

However, a live histogram helps you get it right in the first place. I wish Canon would follow everybnody else and include this feature..

Androohttp://Androo.smugmug.com..

Graystar: you had so much info in your post it took me a bit to digest everything (still checking it all out). Indeed, I see that I should be looking at my exposure level more closely. I'm very impressed that you even knew which page the info was on. I guess, when all else fails, read the manual... thanks again..

Thanks again to everyone who contributed. I'm sorry I couldn't stay with this enouth to have a running dialog, but your suggestions are great. When we get into bad habits it's hard to see the way out sometimes. I hope this line helps others who might have similar problems. Oh yes, I've got to get a card reader so I can load CHKD. If you're a Canon Ax owner, this looks really exciting!..

Just had to stop back and add something. I found a feature in CHDK called Zebra (I had seen this mentioned before in other places but didn't know what it was). It is a feature that highlights very bright or very dark spots of a photo on your LCD before you shoot. If you're like me, this will be an invaluable tool. Also, CHDK is available for some other Canons, as well..

Http://scratchpad.wikia.com/wiki/CHDK..

God luck with it all and hopefully the frusgtrations will fade and you'll start having more fun and success as you get to know the system better..

Gary.

Nikon D4050-1.818-5555-200VR..

Staxuser wrote:.

God luck with it all and hopefully the frusgtrations will fade andyou'll start having more fun and success as you get to know thesystem better..

Gary.

Nikon D4050-1.818-5555-200VR.

Thank you Gary, I just finished loading CHDK firmware what a wonderful tool it is. It's hard to express how appreciative I am to everyone who contributed to this thread, and I hope it is as valuable to others as it has been to me.  ..