It's all black :(

CutzEr

First of all, this is probably a very *stupid* question, I am very very new to photography.

Well, I have a Fujifilm S3 finepix s3pro. (With a Nikon ED AF nikkor 80-200mm 1:2.8 lens)

So, the problem is whenever I take a picture, it turns out completely black. When I put the flash on, it turns out fine. No, it's not because the room is dark or whatever, I could be out in full daylight and it would still be black without the flash.

It's not the battery, that's pretty much all I know

DaireQuinlan

CutzEr wrote: »

First of all, this is probably a very *stupid* question, I am very very new to photography.

Well, I have a Fujifilm S3 finepix s3pro. (With a Nikon ED AF nikkor 80-200mm 1:2.8 lens)

So, the problem is whenever I take a picture, it turns out completely black. When I put the flash on, it turns out fine. No, it's not because the room is dark or whatever, I could be out in full daylight and it would still be black without the flash.

It's not the battery, that's pretty much all I know

Is the camera in manual mode ? If so put it into automatic mode. It sounds as though you're shooting with the aperture and shutter speed set high and fast respectively. Stick it into automatic and shoot and it'll probably work. Also, if its a second hand cam its probably worthwhile resetting it to factory defaults. There's some way of doing this , quick google will probably answer.

melekalikimaka

aye either the shutter is too fast or ap to high

Dublin_Gunner

melekalikimaka wrote: »

aye either the shutter is too fast or ap to high

If he's outside in full daylight, then the flash being on wouldn't really help that though - this would only be the case if it was in a dark room or something (unless he/she has a monster flash attached to it!).

Could well be a software problem (hence having the flash on triggers correct settings).

Restoring to default as suggested would be a good place to start.

Mycroft H

Can you post some shots up? And include the shutter speed, iso, arpeture ect.

gary82

Yeah just upload a shot and the shutter speed and aperture info will be embedded in the file...

majiktripp

Also , try resetting to default settings :
- To reset the camera by holding down the "BKT" and "+/-" buttons for 2 seconds until the top panel display flashes.
And heres the manual just incase you want to read up a bit :
PDF File Here

CutzEr

I reset it, but it didn't help.

The camera always displays 'lo' which means there is not enough light.. I doubt that is the case if it is completely pitch black.

When I take pictures with flash, I am looking through the thing to take pictures, but it is also darkened.. And once I do take it, it displays blackness in the preview. Yet if I view it on a computer, it is bright. I just can't focus it etc on the camera, as I can't really see it.

F-stop: f/2.8
Exposure time: 1/125 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-160
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length: 80 mm
Max aperture: 3
Metering mode: Center weighted average

Owen

I know this is of no use to the OP whatsoever, and it probably belongs in AH and not the Photography forum, but I giggled when I saw the thread title and thought of this :

"Black, Black, it's all Black"

DaireQuinlan

CutzEr wrote: »

I reset it, but it didn't help.

The camera always displays 'lo' which means there is not enough light.. I doubt that is the case if it is completely pitch black.

When I take pictures with flash, I am looking through the thing to take pictures, but it is also darkened.. And once I do take it, it displays blackness in the preview. Yet if I view it on a computer, it is bright. I just can't focus it etc on the camera, as I can't really see it.

F-stop: f/2.8
Exposure time: 1/125 sec.
ISO speed: ISO-160
Exposure bias: 0 step
Focal length: 80 mm
Max aperture: 3
Metering mode: Center weighted average

This is now making less sense. So whilst looking through the viewfinder you can barely see anything because its so dark ? And after taking the shot the preview is completely black, but you can view it on a computer ? It sounds as though there is

1. something dreadfully wrong with the camera
2. something dreadfully wrong with your understanding of how these things work.

I don't mean that in a bad way, but my advice is to take it into some friendly local camera store and have them look at it. They can quickly tell you if the camera is screwed or whether its the camera equivalent of PEBKAC

-edit- actually, looking at this again, it looks as though the lens is stuck at its lowest aperture (f/16 f/22 ?) but is still reporting f/2.8 to the camera. That'd explain the dim viewfinder for a start, and the fact that you can take pictures with flash. I'd say by the sounds of this that either the camera mount or the lens isn't functioning correctly.

CutzEr

Yes, I'd say it is both. Something dreadfully wrong with my understanding anyways. When someone says aperture, all I think about is Portal :P :P

Wait wait wait.. I just took off the lens to see if it was in correctly..

Well, it is still taking pictures with the lens off.. black.

So..

DaireQuinlan

CutzEr wrote: »

Yes, I'd say it is both. Something dreadfully wrong with my understanding anyways. When someone says aperture, all I think about is Portal :P :P

Wait wait wait.. I just took off the lens to see if it was in correctly..

Well, it is still taking pictures with the lens off.. black.

So..

what's the mirror doing when you take a picture with the lens off ? you should see the mirror flip up completely then flip down again. Maybe the mirror is jammed halfway or something, that would explain the dark view through the viewfinder and the dark exposures (although not the good exposures when the flash is firing).

prognosis is not looking good TBH, but before you return it (you CAN return it, right ?) or put it in for repair I'd definately get someone to look it over. If you're in dublin go into gunnes on camden street, or either of the two camera exchanges, or Conns Camera and just ask if someone can give it the once over.

CabanSail

It sure sounds like the Aperture is shut down though the camera thinks it's open.

If you know someone with a Nikon Camera you could try swapping lenses & see if the fault follows the Body or the Lens.

DaireQuinlan

CabanSail wrote: »

It sure sounds like the Aperture is shut down though the camera thinks it's open.

If you know someone with a Nikon Camera you could try swapping lenses & see if the fault follows the Body or the Lens.

Sounds as though it could be the body. The S3 is based IIRC on the nikon F90 with the digital bits glued on. I've never handled the fuji cameras, but I know the F90 should probably fire away happily without a lens attached in manual and aperture priority modes, so the camera should get a nicely exposed blur if nothing was wrong with it.

OTOH there could be something to do with the way the camera & digital parts interact that might prevent this from happening. It might refuse to open the shutter if there's no lens attached to protect the sensor or something. So all bets are off

CutzEr

Well.. I'm not sure what originally went wrong, but it seems as though the lens was not in correctly.

Everything is working now, except that when you take a picture, it doesn't display a 3 second preview of the picture.. I can just go to preview mode and look at it there

I don't really mind this, it's fine. I can live with it :P It's second hand and about 5 years old, I'd expect something to be wrong with it.

You can lock now.

DaireQuinlan

CutzEr wrote: »

Well.. I'm not sure what originally went wrong, but it seems as though the lens was not in correctly.

Everything is working now, except that when you take a picture, it doesn't display a 3 second preview of the picture.. I can just go to preview mode and look at it there

I don't really mind this, it's fine. I can live with it :P It's second hand and about 5 years old, I'd expect something to be wrong with it.

You can lock now.

well thats good so. For everything else read the manual I'm sure there's some way of setting it so that there's a preview after you take the shot.

CutzEr

There originally was a preview that came up, but with all the settings I changed, I must have just turned it off.. Heh, I'll have a look later.

Thanks everyone, thanks for you all.

AnCatDubh

thanks for the update.

Thread closed at the request of the poster.