Zooming in without getting a blur

Thiefyouko

I'm new here so forgive me if this is the wrong place to post this. I have a Nikon D3100 and I want to know how can I zoom in without the pictures getting blurry. The only way I can take good pictures is taking it from a far view and hardly zooming in. Do I have to enable something or focus on a certain spot? Thanks for the help.

robbo

It's possible you have the lens set to manual. Check the switch on the lens - its either M for manual or A for auto. Switch it to Auto and try again.

Its also possible that you're not giving the camera time to focus. Half-press the shutter release button and the camera will read the situation and make settings accordingly. Then when you are ready, press all the way. Hope this helps. Get back if it still doesn't work.

Moose

Howdy @Thiefyouko - In addition to the things @robbo mentioned, it's possible there's not enough ambient light to obtain fast enough shutter speeds to freeze subject movement or even your hand movements. When using a zoom lens in anything but bright daylight, it's very hard to obtain sharp results when hand holding the camera or when trying to capture fast action.

If you're shooting motionless subjects and scenes, you'll need to use a tripod to get your hands off the camera. If you're shooting moving subjects, you'll need to use a higher ISO and faster shutter speeds (1/250 or higher) to freeze movement. Hope that makes sense and happy shooting! :)