I turn camera on, red light flashes and screen shows for one second only, over and over. impossible to take picture. This happens with 2 brand new cameras. Vivitar vivicam 8018, Batteries brand new. Memory card is inserted.

Have you replaced the lamp recently? they can fail if they are on when the storm happens? Please post your model # for more info.

Try turning the screen all the way around and close the screen so the screen its left outside where you can see if that doesn't work you will need to replace the ribon that connects the screen to camcorder.

The flashing red light in the bottom right is the indicator that the camera is writing to the memory card. If you have shot in RAW this will take a little longer than recording a jpeg as the RAW files are larger. While this is happening the screen will go blank for a short time.

Take out memory card form camera and turn it On, if camera stays On and shows normal view that means memory card is bad and causing problem.
Put new memory card in camera and take pictures.
Thanks.

Try this. Go to your tools menu, look for something like power saver or display off and change the duration that the screen stays on.

Hi,

Your pictures are blurry because the camera did not focus properly on the subject.

First, turn on the camera in any picture taking mode (or video mode), then look at the screen or viewfinder. There should be four white corners in the center of the camera display. This is your targeting area.
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1. Aim the camera at your subject so this center area is directly on it.

2. Press the shutter button lightly, not all the way down. Wait for a second or two WITHOUT RELEASING YOUR FINGER. If the white corners turn green, keep the finger on the button and press it all the way.

(Once the screen flashes black, a picture is taken and you can release the finger).
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If the targeting area turns red and blinks, then the camera has not focused. You can to try to focus again by following step 1 and 2. If a picture is taken when the targeting area is red, then the picture will be blurry.

If there is no targeting area, then you can still focus by aiming the camera at your subject. Now follow step 2. A green box will appear on the subject, then a sharp picture can be taken.
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The red arrow that flashes means that the pictures or videos are being written onto the memory card.

Also, try to be steady when taking pictures, because slight hand movement can cause blurry images too.

Page 25 in the DMC-FZ7's english manual will also explain how to focus.

How do you get the camera back to the original settings

Turn off red eye reduction and you'll only get one flash.

after i take a picture on my nikon coolpix the screen goes black for about 30 seconds before you can take another picture.

Sorry but that is just because the flash is recharging.. It turns the screen off so it can charge the flash faster.. No worries it works fine :)