Re: flash causing round footballs

On Tue, 22 May 2007 16:35:16 GMT, JWBH wrote:

I took a few photos in very dark conditions, almost black (i.e. no
additional light of any kind) inside the house with a casio exlim ex-v7,
just to see how the flash coped.
I took a few photos in very dark conditions, almost black (i.e. no
additional light of any kind) inside the house with a casio exlim ex-v7,
just to see how the flash coped.

What i got consistantly was semi-transparent pinky-orange footballs
usually about three or four to seven in number all in different positions
in different photos.

I've just taken a whole lot of pics in the same conditions. Looking
carefully a quite a lot of the pink circles are in the same place. So I
checked the lens for dust and it has a bit on it. I dont know the best way
to clean the lens. It's fairly recessed into the camera. (this ex-v7
doesn't extend out in the same way of lot of zoom camera's do).

"all in different positions" or "in the same place"? If it's dust
causing the problem, they'll be randomly positioned. Since many are
in the same place it may be flare that you're seeing, or the result
of overly bright light reflections. Flare is often elliptical
rather than circular. You may be seeing the results of both. But
when you see the result of light reflected from dust motes, it'll be
bright and very white (overblown highlights), not transparent, and
very close to the lens. Assuming that the dust particles are
approximately the same size, the largest, brightest ones will be
closest to the lens, but in looking at the pictures you won't really
have a good way to know their size or distance. If you have a
friend that has a flash that can emit a rapid stream of low powered
flashes and position it very close to your camera (with the camera
and flash mounted securely instead of being handheld), you might be
able to detect the motion of the dust particles, as they'd produce
dimmer trails. Flare objects, if visible, wouldn't move.

You could also try shooting again on a dark night where the camera
is pointed in a direction with no nearby objects and there are no
bright lights. If you see any strange objects they should be
limited to the bright dust motes and not the "semi-transparent
pinky-orange footballs" you've been getting.

.

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