close shots....

I was wondering this. I was trying to take a shot of my chameleon the front of the lens must have been about 1-2 feet away. It would not focus...I had to move back and zoom in. Why? I did have the 55-200 lens on. is that why? thx.

Also at night....should my iso be high or low in order to take night or dark shots? thx.

first off Welcome to the forum


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The 55-200 minimum focus distance is 3.61' so you were just to close. If you want close up photos you will need to get a macro lens

You will have to raise your ISO in order to shoot in low light or use flash. You manual will have all these answers.

Tracsoft - Don Kuykendall said:

You will have to raise your ISO in order to shoot in low light or use flash. You manual will have all these answers.

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Or use a tripod and a longer exposure to allow use of low ISO.

thx guys. I appreciate the advice. one last thing....what do you mean my long exposure? I will read up in manual.

Good question but theres no clear answer.
A long exposure to me, is a shutter speed that will blur stationary objects when handheld. Hence the need for a tripod to hold the camera steady.

The actual shutter speed that could be considered a long exposure (slow shutter speed) will vary depending on the focal length of the lens and how steady you can hold a camera. If you cant shoot at 100 ISO by hand without blurring from camera shake, you need to use a faster shutter.
Raising ISO will allow you to use a faster shutter speed, but for a scene where shutter speed is not an issue, a tripod is your friend and will allow you to keep ISO with a shutter speed that would be too slow (long exposure) to be taken handheld.

Legendary70 said:

thx guys. I appreciate the advice. one last thing....what do you mean my long exposure? I will read up in manual.

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I may be wrong but I believe a typical exposure is something like 1/40th, 1/50th, 1/60th,1/100th all the way up to 1/4000th of a second and the ''long exposere'' they are refering to can go from 1-3 seconds up to 30 seconds, best done with a tripod. It just allows a lot more light onto the sensor.

By the way, there's an "exposure triangle" that photographers need to know regarding shutter speed, aperture and ISO.
Each one affects the others.

Do a search on exposure triangle for more info and feel free to ask again if you can't get your head around it.

Legendary70 said:

Also at night....should my iso be high or low in order to take night or dark shots?

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As with most things in photography... It depends.

Personally, I shoot very low ISO, even at night (ISO 100, 200) because I like the sharpness, have the equipement and don't mind doing the longer exposures. A higher ISO will increase your shutter speed and shorten your exposure times, assuming equal apertures. Some times it really pays to experiment to find the right combination.

Otherwise, I guess I'd suggest using Aperture Priority mode, turn on Auto ISO and let it go to 3200 or so with a minimum shutter speed of 1/125 and your should be good to go. Mostly.

very imformative guys. thx.