Cybershot problem w/ how photos look screen to comp

[leo811]

hello!

this is my first post here. hopefully someone wil be ablt to help me before i just give up and invest in a new camera...i have a cybershot dsc p-5 i bought in 2002. it has been a great camera and worked fine until about a yr ago when i noticed my pictures were dark when i uploaded them to the comp. on the camera screen they were fine, but darker on the comp screen...the problem has progressively gotten worse to the point that now if i take pictures indoors its a crap shoot whether or not they will come out without having to be altered later...i have messed around with the settings for the OEV (which i dont really know about, but seems to affect the light situation), but that doesnt help universally. the setting was always in the middle and for yrs the camera worked fine, so there is def aproblem... someone suggested maybe its the battery, but i got a new battery and the problem stil exsists. someone then suggested maybe its the memory stick (im stil on the original ones i bought), do they go bad?...sony store peeps werent helpful and said they never even heard of such a problem? suggestd i send it to service. for a camera 5 yrs old im not sure thats worth it? whats the life expectancy on digital cameras?

any s****tions are greatly appreciated!
thankx in advance,
kim~

 

[Nodsu]

No, it is not a problem with the memory stick.

Do the images look dark on other computers too? Is the image OK both in the preview and the playback mode on the camera?

Maybe try a different image format? "TIFF" and "normal" should be the usable options.

Do you have something in the camera menus that lets you reset everything to defaults?

 

[leo811]

nodsu,

the image is fine on the screen and in the playback. only when i view it on the monitor is there an issue.

i have viewed it on someone elses monitor and it was a bit lighter, but not so much to make that big a difference. i would have thought maybe i need a monitor upgrage, but when i upload and order hard copies then i would assume they would come out the lighter version?

i will try the TIFF format. although i never used that, not sure how it wil affect things i use photos for, as i dont know anything about TIFF?

thankx will post TIFF results soon
kim~

 

[xRussx]

Did you use the same software to open the pics on the other computer?

What software are you using?

Have you checked the EXIF data on the images?

Does everything esle on your monitor look ok? including the pics you've taken before the problem started



TIFF is a large file with very little compression.Used when working on photos to protect image quality,then you change it back to jpeg or giff depending....NOT for sending over internet,emailing ex.

 

[leo811]

xrussx,

one was a mac and one a pc
the mac is my friends i dont know the software
my pc just opens the folder containing the pix
i dont know what kind of software?

EXIF? never heard of this.

everything else looks fine on the monitor.
i did look at some older pix and some looked
darker than i remember, but im going by memory

 

[xRussx]

So I'm guessing you didn't get a cd with your camera?If you did and have'nt used it, try it....Being the same on both monitors (dark) Suggest it may not be software but I'm not ruling it out.

If you look in "All programs" you will find what is opening your images in there....eg. canan zoombox browser or photo shop, ex.

When you tell me what opens the images I'll tell how to check the EXIF this will tell us if it is a camera issue.

Also go to the cameras menu and see if the EV has been altered by mistake...Just so we know.

 

[leo811]

ok so, i just d/l pic from my cell phone and am having same problem. could it be a problem with the transfer cord?

 

[xRussx]

leo,
FIRST! We really need to see if viewing your images with different software makes a difference.You need to uninstall what you have that is opening your images.You will find them in "All Programs" examples are in my last post.

Then go here http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopalbum/starter.html

It is free to down load,...open your pics with Adobe 3.2 and let me know the result.

 

[Nodsu]

Again, it is not a problem with any media. The flash memory, cables, RAM, the hard drive - none of them can alter the images like this.

Maybe you used to have your monitor set to high brightness or had some sotware that did automatic gamma correction, making the images look brighter for you while they really weren't?

 

[xRussx]

Nudsu,I will take your word that it's not the media ex...however
leo says it has "progressively gotten worse" ..I can't imagin the "automatic gamma correction" doing that.And it is unlikely that both computers he tried it on had the same software,set to the same gamma corrections.

The twist is that the images are fine on the camera screen.It could well be just a camera gone bad,seems it has progressed to this. Knowing what software he's using will help some.

 

[Nodsu]

The images are saved as standard JPEG. So unless the camera is doing gamma correction for JPEG images internally (why on earth?), it has to be something in the computer. Especially since the same issue is present with images from another camera (the cell phone).

leo: maybe post one or two of the worst images here so that other people can check them?

 

[xRussx]

The images were dark on the Mac monitor also...The Exif data will at least tell if the camera settings are set right,however won't tell us if they are working right.

Digital cameras' are little computers,and they do f/up.