I have a Canon Powershot S2 IS and I cannot get the macro feature to work. There is a spider in her web just outside and I'm trying to get a photo before it rains and the camera will just not focus on the spider.

Here is what my manual says, but it makes no sense to me (who writes these things anyway?):

Press the macro icon to activate Macro mode.

Macro Icon appears on the LCD monitor.
When the zoom bar is displayed on the LCD monitor during zoom operation, the zoom range that is not available for Macro shooting appears in yellow. WHAT!??

If you zoom to the yellow range, the zoom bar disappears and the Marco icon is grayed out. In this case the shutter button still works, but shooting is the same as normal non-macro mode.

So I tried SUPER MACRO SHOOTING:

This mode allows even closer to the subject than standard Macro mode, magnifying the subject further. In addition, the background can be shot differently from the standard macro shooting effects. Shooting is possible when the distance fromthe front of the lens to the subject is in the following range:
0-3.9 inches, problem I don't want to get that close to this spider. Yuk! It's a pretty little spider, it's yellow with black markings but I don't know if it bites!

Anyone out there familiar with Macro shooting?

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, September 2, 2006 - 01:32 am:

Heaventree, Sarah just got an S3 IS, so if you still need help with this issue, maybe we can be of assistance!

By Heaventree on Saturday, September 2, 2006 - 08:56 am:

Yup, yup, yup Please

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, September 2, 2006 - 04:24 pm:

Here's the corner of one of Jasmine's bandannas. The dots are about 1/4" in diameter.


Here's a closer-up shot.


I just moved the camera itself, back and forth to get closer in. The Zoom on the camera didn't really work. It just made everything all blurry.

I shot two more, with a penny for comparison.

Regular macro mode


Close-up macro mode

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, September 3, 2006 - 06:45 pm:

Bump

By Heaventree on Sunday, September 3, 2006 - 09:17 pm:

Thanks Dawn, sorry for the delay in responding it been really busy here with Cameron's birthday, the sale of our house (Yeah!) and house hunting.

It looks like you have to get really close to the subject to get a good shot, that's going to be a problem for me taking pictures of bugs, perhaps I need a better lens, maybe for Christmas .

Anyway I'll try practicing a bit more on less threatening subjects, like what's left of my flowers outside.

Thanks!

By Dawnk777 on Sunday, September 3, 2006 - 09:39 pm:

Maybe flowers would be less creepy! LOL! Yeah, I was pretty close to Jasmine's scarf to take those pictures!