Hello fellow 365ers, hope you are all having a good day :)
I have a Sony a300 camera which was bought for me 2 years ago for my birthday.
We took it on honeymoon and the sea in Bali left a lasting impression on the camera sadly. A wave caught the battery side, we dried it out then the next time we used it, there was a bang and the battery cracked. We ditched that battery and used our spare and the pictures were perfect.....but the flash doesn't work :(
The camera flips up the flash when it needs it but the flash itself is caput!! We took it back to Jessops and apparently the part is no longer made so I cannot replace it.
Does anyone have any ideas? We have considered buying another identical camera from ebay and using it as 'parts' as my hubby is good with that kind of thing, but before we possibly ruin the camera further.........any thoughts?
Most of the time I use my Nokia N8 camera phone to take my pics, but on the occasions I get to use my posh camera it frustrates me!
@musicguy1982 Thank you! I'm a real amateur photographer and don't know what half the buttons do on my camera, but that damn flash holds me back so much! Thanks for the recommendation, think I may add that to my Christmas list for Santa!! :)
yup I agree the in camera flash on most DSLRs are near as useless for taking decent photos anyway there is so much more you can do with a seperate flash unit including using it remotely (in combination with a reflector umbrella and a stand it is an awesome piece of kit and the whole set up will probably cost you less than buying a second hand camera for parts
@emmaroobers You know, one thing you might do whilst you're looking for a replacement and/or making decisions on repairs - and this is just food for thought - make yourself use the camera anyway. Pretend that's the only camera you're ever going to have, and you HAVE to learn how to get pictures on this broken camera. I think you'll surprise yourself by how much you might learn, and how much you might challenge yourself beyond the same group of settings that you're used to.
Oh yeah, and if you don't have one, get yourself a nifty fifty lens. That combined with a lower-level speedlight would be cheaper than buying the second camera.
@beautifulthing I have tried to do this but sometimes it refuses to take the photo or comes out blury but I can only tell once it is on the laptop rather than viewing it on the flipout screen. It still takes fantastic outdoor photos but indoors is a real struggle. Perhaps I need to take your advice and turn my cannots into cans instead! I will set myself a challenge to use it in the next few days, thank you!
@musicguy1982 You are a gem, thank you! My hubby is going to get a list when he comes home from work today! I need this, this, this, this and this!! Still cheaper than handbags and diamonds which don't interest me that much!!!!
@emmaroobers Oh, yeah, you definitely want to have what you want to have - I know how that feels to have your camera break on you somehow and be stuck in the meantime. I have been there and I was full of sad! And, at the time, I was painfully poor, and couldn't replace or fix what I had. So, I would definitely move forward with replacing or repairing yours - but this might be something you could see as a challenge in the meantime! :)
My camera like this was an old Nikon Coolpix 5400. This camera is srsly older than God, I think, but it was my 'first' and it took, for a point and shoot, AMAZING macro photos. When it broke, I was verklempt - my friends actually pitched in and bought another one for me on eBay. I had that one for about a year and and then it broke too - I've still held onto it though, because I have this fantasy that I'll get it fixed sometime. It would probably cost 3x what the camera is worth, but still. :)
@beautifulthing Oh you do make me chuckle...older than god! You have amazing friends though for buying you a replacement to relieve you of you all kinds of sad. I'd love to get a lense to do really close up pics too, so think I really should start a shopping list, but in the meantime I do like the idea of the 'just use it woman' challenge! As soon as I get the parcel shelf back on my car, I am going to keep it in there everyday and use it instead of my phone!
@beautifulthing In fact, I'm meeting my friends new kittens tonight so I will take my camera and just see what happens. Thank you for the virtual shove!
I'd not suggest trying to play around with fixing a flash yourself. I tried it on one of my older ones and after it "bit" me a few times (yes I kept playing with it after the first time) I gave up. Didn't think I'd manage to electrocute myself but after a few good shocks I figured it was time to get up.
Totally agree with what other said. Learn to use it! You'll be better for it. Hopefully the kittens are sleepy (well after you've had a good play) If they're settled down you can easily work on learning your camera and how to photograph them without the flash (I'm not a fan of flashes anyway!) and they won't go running off on you.
Increase iso, open your aperture and especially be aware that you're in low light conditions and hold yourself still while taking the photo. Zoom in on eyes in the LCD to review and if the eyes are blurry take it again.
@neda Thank you for the advice. I'm going to set some time aside this weekend to read the manual properly and really take notice of what I'm doing. I'm going to need all the help I can get to get decent pics on this camera now! I did take it with me to the kittyboos this evening......but was defeated and ended up taking snaps on my phone (dammit!)
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My camera like this was an old Nikon Coolpix 5400. This camera is srsly older than God, I think, but it was my 'first' and it took, for a point and shoot, AMAZING macro photos. When it broke, I was verklempt - my friends actually pitched in and bought another one for me on eBay. I had that one for about a year and and then it broke too - I've still held onto it though, because I have this fantasy that I'll get it fixed sometime. It would probably cost 3x what the camera is worth, but still. :)
Totally agree with what other said. Learn to use it! You'll be better for it. Hopefully the kittens are sleepy (well after you've had a good play) If they're settled down you can easily work on learning your camera and how to photograph them without the flash (I'm not a fan of flashes anyway!) and they won't go running off on you.
Increase iso, open your aperture and especially be aware that you're in low light conditions and hold yourself still while taking the photo. Zoom in on eyes in the LCD to review and if the eyes are blurry take it again.