More Digital Photography Talk

[yelloyella]

After Christmas I saved up and bought myself a Nikon Coolpix P80. I felt this was a good camera for me, as I know a little about playing with manual settings and the camera has plenty of automatic settings as well. I previously owned two Kodak EasyShare cameras (ZD710, ZD700) but lost one and the other was stolen. I thought these cameras were great. They were easy to use and the pictures were good. I wanted a better picture and more setting options, so I decided I should try a more advanced camera when it came time to purchase one.
I also own a Nikon Coolpix L3 digital camera, which gives good pictures with great color, but doesn't meet my standards in terms of options and such. So enough rambling and to my point... I am having trouble with my new Coolpix P80. I am wondering if the problem is me, the settings I use, the subjects I'm photographing or the camera itself. I take a lot, and I mean A LOT, of pictures of my son and family and I'm finding that when I don't have the flash on, no matter the setting, the picture is blurry. I've talked to employees at Best Buy and they've told me to hold the camera very steady, blah blah blah... I'm not an idiot. Now when I take a picture with the flash on the subject in the picture is glowing and very bright, while the background is all dark and washed out. I've done a little bit of research and tried to change the aperture and the shutter speed to get a good picture, but then it looks too un-natural. Sometimes the camera gives a really great photo, but then other times it doesn't, which I understand is the settings and the surroundings and all.
I don't remember having this problem with my Kodak cameras... so I'm wondering what's going on here and I don't know if this is the place to ask, but I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me! I don't want to give up having a great picture, but do I need just a regular point-and-shoot camera for what I want?
I'm so confused 

[ShutterbugGail]

Hi yelloyella and welcome to the Q&A Board!

You have a very fine camera and, as you're discovering, it has a lot of bells and whistles so it will take some getting used to.

It's difficult to give specifics without seeing sample images and EXIF data but here are some suggestions based on the fact that you say your images are blurred.

First, make sure Vibration Reduction (Image Stabilization) is turned on. It is usually by default, but you may have inadvertently disabled it.

One of the first things I do when I get a camera is set the focus mode to single area focus. If your camera is set to continuous focus, multi-point or Face Recognition mode, switch it to single area focus and used these other modes only when appropriate. Single area mode gives you, not the camera, control over where focus takes place.

When you use single area focus, you may have to focus and recompose, as we explain here:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/basic-techniques/fe-lock/

Also make sure you're using fast enough shutter speeds for the focal length. Please read this brief article for the suggested shutter speeds and information about the relation of shutter speed to focal length:

http://www.digicamhelp.com/taking-photos/advanced-techniques/shutter-speed-chart/

As to your problems with the flash, again it's difficult to say without seeing sample images. But you may be using it outside the flash range, which changes according to the focal length used. If not and your camera has Flash Compensation, use it to increase or decrease the flash output. You may also have to use slow sync-flash for some photos....check your camera manual for details. Switching to single area focus may also help with this too.

Let us know if any of these suggestions help or if you have further questions.