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Originally Posted by jpdylon
The kodax dx-7630 I have has a variable shutter speed. If you don't want a blury screengrab, set the shutter speed at 1/60. That way it always grabs a complete scan and doesn't have a bar in the pic. If you have an easy-share kodak camera, all you have to do is set the camera to SCN, then choose the "In Motion" option, which will automatically set the shutter to 1/60.
If its set faster, you get the bar, or only half a screen. If you set slower, the screenshot just comes out overexposed and blurry. I find the best screenshots are taken while the set is the only light source in the room. Trying to do it with any other light just makes it turn out wrong.
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I have a Radio Shack "Flatfoto" digital camera with a very tiny flash (the camera itself is about an inch thin and the size of a credit card) and no adjustments for shutter speed and/or aperture; it is all automatic, set by a system RS calls "Autobrite". However, for the life of me I cannot see any kind of sensor anywhere on the camera to operate it, unless it's behind the lens. The camera takes fairly good pictures, but I do get overexposed pictures when trying to photograph an image from a TV screen (I have one photo I took several years ago with the TV on and showing a picture, with at least one other light on in the apartment; the photo came out very badly). The reason may well be that I have other lights on in my apartment when I am taking the pictures. Perhaps I should take your advice and turn off all other lights from now on when I snap photos off my TV set's screen. These fully-automatic cameras apparently are easily "fooled" into setting the shutter speed much too slow when there is too much light on the subject. Another consequence of having the shutter speed so slow is that any movement of the camera will blur the photo. Unfortunately, with my Radio Shack Flatfoto digital camera, there is no tripod socket on the underside of the camera
so I cannot use a tripod with it. I have another digital camera, a Polaroid model 620, that
does have a tripod socket, but no flash. The Polaroid camera goes through a set of batteries in a hurry, which is another reason I don't use it anymore; that and the fact that my computer no longer recognizes the camera when the latter is connected to the computer by way of an USB port. It recognizes the RS camera just fine, though. Oh well. The RS camera is better anyway because of the automatic settings, the built-in flash, and the rechargeable lithium batteries, which are charged from the computer when the camera is connected to the USB port.
BTW, the RS Flatfoto camera is great for people who want a digital camera, but cannot afford $300+ for a high-end camera such as Nikon, Canon, etc. or who do not want to be bothered with setting shutter speed, aperture and so on. The Flatfoto is available at any Radio Shack store and online at radioshack.com. I paid roughly $50 for mine, but that model has been discontinued. In its place is a newer model that has an LCD preview screen in place of the viewfinder. The newer model is slightly more expensive, but not
that much more. If my present Flatfoto were defective or if I were in the market for a new one, the FF with the LCD would be my first choice. However, I've had very good results with the Flatfoto camera I have now, so I'll stay with it for the time being (read as long as it works so well). It's small, but the pictures it takes are great; not as good as a more expensive camera with adjustable settings, but good enough for everyday snapshooting.