# Limits of Canon T3?



## Little Bob (Jan 14, 2012)

Hi, I took these pictures with my Canon T3 with an 18-55mm lens on AF. I was 4" or so away from the subject. The shots have been cropped a lot.

My question is: can I do this type of shot any better in terms of detail and clarity with the setup I have, or is this it's limit?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated before I go into buying lenses or tubes.

TIA, LB


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## Eden Marel (Jan 28, 2010)

Well I'm not sure.... but it probably isn't the camera itself, it's your technique of using the lens. The IQ of your pics aren't very crisp and kinda look like they are from a p&s, maybe didn't have sufficient lighting, or not using the lens correctly. 

I have trouble with my aquarium shots too, and I'm using the 100mm macro with a speedlite and it doesn't come out great, but I can do other macros just fine. I guess there is a trick to aquarium photography.


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## Wasserpest (Jun 12, 2003)

Hi LB, there are definitely a few things you can do to improve your shot. New lenses or tubes will not improve much, unless to change a few other things.

First of all, check your ISO setting. The EXIF info seems to be stripped from the image, so I don't know what it is set to. But I bet it is set to "Auto", and therefore, when the light isn't sufficient, it will set itself to something like 3200, which in turn leads to grainy pictures. You can either set it to something like 100 (best quality) or 200 or 400. The lower the ISO setting, the less sensitive is your sensor, and therefore you will need more light for the same exposure. Read up a bit on ISO since there are two sides to that coin.

On my camera (60D) I can limit the auto ISO range to 400, so depending on available light it sets it between 100 and 400 which works well. I don't think that would be avail on the T3, but check in the menu.

Second, it looks like you did not use a flash. When shooting under bad light conditions (planted tanks, you know, rather than sunny beaches) the available light leads to wide open apertures and long shutter times.

Lenses have max apertures (for example, 3.5-5.6 for the Canon kit lens, depending on focal length). Problem with this max setting is that a) the image quality isn't as good as if you step it down about two steps (say instead of 3.5, use 5.6 or 8) and second you get less depth of field (focus).

Long shutter times will lead to fuzzy pictures if the subject moves - even at a snails pace.

So, using the flash solves most of these problems, because it provides a burst of well-defined light. It creates some other issues, like a potential for ugly reflections from the glass, or with close-ups, the image might be partially shaded from the lens, but it is worth to play around with it and see the outcome.

With digital cameras, it is very easy to learn to improve your images and technique. We used to have to wait for a roll of film to be developed. Nowadays it is pretty much instant, and if you take a bunch of shots that don't turn out well it is so easy to delete them... :wink:


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## Little Bob (Jan 14, 2012)

Thanks for the input.
Eden--you're definitely right! There is a trick to aquarium photography. Many tricks as Wasserpest states. 
Wasserpest--I'm going to print out your comments and try to get through them step by step and hope some of your advice sticks.


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