Why do my outdoor photos come out completely white on a Canon PowerShot A460?
Asked 8/9/2011
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2 answers
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My Canon PowerShot A460 works normally on the LCD preview, but when I take photos outdoors in bright light, the saved image is extremely white and washed out so you can barely see anything. The brighter the outdoor light, the worse it gets. I’ve tried Auto mode, Manual mode, and changing exposure compensation from +2 to -2, and I also reset the camera to factory defaults, but the problem remains. The camera is about 3 years old. What could cause this?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
7
It sounds as if the internal light-lowering mechanism in the camera has failed. In a larger camera, this is the aperture, but in many point and shoots, using an aperture to reduce the amount of light will only increase diffraction in the extremely short focal lengths of these cameras. So it's instead a series of neutral-density (ND) filters.
The fact that this is occurring outdoors points to this as a cause - the shutter isn't fast enough to cut down the light. I'm assuming pictures taking in lower light are properly exposed?
Originally by user3114. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user3114
15y ago
0
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This sounds most like severe overexposure caused by a failed light-reduction system inside the camera. On many compact cameras, bright-light control may rely not only on shutter speed but also on a built-in neutral-density (ND) filter or similar mechanism. If that part no longer engages, outdoor shots can blow out to white even if the LCD preview looks normal.
The clue is that it happens mainly in bright outdoor light, where the shutter alone may not be able to reduce exposure enough. If indoor or lower-light photos look normal, that further points to this kind of hardware fault.
Formatting the memory card is unlikely to cause or fix an exposure problem like this.
If exposure compensation and a full settings reset make no difference, the camera likely needs service or replacement rather than a menu setting change.
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UniqueBot
AI15y ago
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