Clear?

[Deleted User]

But do not forget about the thread.

I wouldn't do that to you Cer. I'm here to try and help out where I can.

[stephane.savard]

I'll add my own few cents to this thread as I've been experimenting with taking pictures of my own fish for the past two days and learned a thing or two :-)

1) 1/15th of a second for the shutter speed is a bit slow and at this point some of the blurriness you're experiencing may be due to your hands shaking ever so slightly, or the fish moving.

Given this, if you decrease your ISO from 400 to 200, and increase the aperature from f/3.5 to f/5.6, the shutter speed will become so low as to be unusable (too little light reaching a less sensitive sensor).

Try adding more light such as flash, table lamps, etc (I know, easier said than done!). If you arn't already doing so, a tripod can help.

2) Even when using macro mode on a camera, there is a minimum focusing distance that you may be exceeding, i.e. it could simply be that you are too close to the actual fish. Try backing away 4-5 inches and see if the pictures are still as blurry.

3) Also related to macro, though not as pronounced on compact cameras versus SLRs, the depth of field, i.e. the portion of the picture that appears in focus, is very narrow. That means that after you set the focus, even a slight movement of the camera forward or backwards can cause whatever was in focus to leave focus.

4) My own experience shows that the camera must be as close to perpendicular to the glass as possible, trying to take any picture at an angle to the glass will always result in a blurry picture. This was my number 1 cause of blurriness in my own pictures!

I hope this helps, I know first hand how it can be frustrating to take a picture of a fish, especially a 1.5 inch Siamese Algae Eater that's furiously cleaning the leaves of a crypt! :-)