Exposure and flash problems

One of the biggest disadvantages of a point&shoot camera is that they expect you to point and shoot without having to bother with minor details like shutter speeds and apertures. The 7010 is no different, offering no way of controlling the shutter speed directly. The best you can do is to set either the Night Scene or Night Landscape mode.

try AUTO mode only...no TTL or FP on display

All cameras have a body, memory, lens, shutter release, battery and some sort of control to select exposure type and time (auto, night, sun, shade, flash, etc.).

There are *many* variations of how these components are implemented on cameras - even by the same manufacturer. Some of the more expensive cameras give greater creative control to the user by way of offering adjustable exposure times and aperture openings, interchangeable lenses, and much, much more; instead of a simple "Automatic" or "Program" mode. The newer "point and shoot" digital cameras are getting better more sophisticated, but without extensive controls offered by the dSLR cameras, it will be nearly impossible to duplicate the "Wow" effect achieved by those cameras. Of course, a "point and shoot" camera is much less expensive and easier to learn, carry and use.

If you already have a camera, and want to know more about it - provide the manufacturer's name and model, and I'll see what info I can get you.

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Without seeing the image, it's difficult to pinpoint the problem. But, going on the description you've described here, my guess would be that your shutter speed is too low to record any movement sharply, or is recording movement you are making while holding the camera. Some things that you may want to review with the camera to ensure that you're shooting the images correctly:

First, if you can look at the image using a photo editing program, see if you can review the EXIF (also called metadata) file and look at the exposure. Generally, anything under 1/30th of a second will show motion blur introduced from hand-holding the camera. If the shutter speed is below this, you should consider using a higher ISO setting or opening the apperture (this equates to a lower "F" number, so "F4" allows in LESS light than "F2.8") to allow more light into the lens. Remember that doubling the ISO will allow you to make an exposure with HALF the light. The down side to this is that higher ISO settings, particularly in Point and Shoot cameras, introduce higher levels of noise.

Ensure that you are no more than 10 feet from your subject. Most on-camera flash units are much less effective beyond this distance.

If you are photographing sports/action, remember that a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second will eliminate most motion blur.

Also remember that most point and shoot digital cameras are "one chip" cameras and often have multiple tasks to perform while making an image (focus, exposure, flash, recording and writing the file are all performed at the same time...), so it's not uncommon to see delays (also called "shutter lag") in point and shoot cameras (DSLR's have multiple chips, and don't have this issue...). One way to resolve this is to depress the shutter release half way. This keeps the chip "hot" and ready to expose. Doing this with a point and shoot camera greatly increases the responsiveness to the shutter release.

Hope this helps and happy shooting!

If E blinks in the exposure counter, the film is improperly loaded. Reload the film.

Her is the link to the Olympus website where you can download the instruction manual

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_support_manuals.asp?id=298

What camera?
Is it a pocket camera where the lens in internal? that would explain some of it.
Go into your menu and look up ISO and make sure its not set to anything above 400 if you are worried about digital grain or noise.
for the sharpest image you should have it set to the lowest speed setting.

hope that helps,
Caleb

Inferior batteries from a dodgy site on E-bay -at a guess Sport out on some regular batteries. Shooting in brief mode I would think takes a larger whack out of the batteries than ordinary shooting I would imagine. What are the pictures of?

It is possible you were shooting in the NIGHT & PORTRAIT Scene mode. In this mode, the camera sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod - otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should select PROGRAM AUTO mode for low light situations where you are taking images within six feet of your subject and the flash is required for proper exposure.

It is possible you were shooting in the Night Scene mode. In this mode the camera sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should select Auto or Program mode for low light situations where you are taking images within six feet of your subject and the flash is required for proper exposure.

It is possible you were shooting in the Night Scene mode. In this mode the camera sets a slow shutter speed for the background exposure and fires the flash for the subject exposure. Since the shutter speed is slow, your subject should be still and the camera should be on a tripod otherwise blur can result. Since this mode should only be used when the above conditions can be met, you should select Auto or Program mode for low light situations where you are taking images within six feet of your subject and the flash is required for proper exposure.