When I printed the photos none of them was even close to film-based photos

There is not any in camera developing. This is not a digital camera it is a film camera wherein we put a film cartridge with a specified number of shots into the camera then thread the film leader to the takeup spool, close the camera advance the film a few frames, then we are ready to shoot. After the specified number of shots, 24 or 36, film is rewound into the canister, camera back opened film canister removed then taken to the lab for processing.

With digital cameras, blurred photos are almost always a result of camera shake. You need to hold the camera still even after pressing the button, as there is often a short delay before the shutter fires.

Many digital cameras have a two-stage shutter press- first pressure causes the camera to focus, then the follow through pressure takes the picture. If you are rushing this, you may get unfocussed shots.

Finally, make sure that you have not left the camera in Macro mode. This is a special extreme close-up mode offered by some cameras, and it does not allow autofocus on objects at normal distances. The icon for Macro mode is a little flower.

If none of these is the problem, there may be a fault requiring service (probably not economically viable unless they will do it under warranty).

The SnapSights SS03 is a non waterproof camera supplied with 200 ISO film so you clearly have the SS01 model for 800 ISO. Both cameras have fixed aperture and shutter speed and rely on the wide exposure latitude of print film. 100 ISO is ideal if you have a camera with a wider aperture than yours, but if you use it then photos will be three stops underexposed; you'd possibly get away with this on land but underwater shots typically have more shadows than highlights and you'd lose a lot of photographic detail. By using 800 ISO the camera will produce photos which are noticeably grainy and with high contrast demonstrated by less detail in shadow areas and overexposed highlights, but for most purposes the photos will be acceptable and far better than none at all.

Colour negative film has a wide exposure latitude so you may wish to experiment with using 400 ISO or even 200 ISO. 400 will be one stop underexposed, but the printing stage can compensate to produce shots which are less grainy with better shadow details but which will lack some highlight detail. This can be partially compensated for if you tell the processing lab to "push process" your film at 800 ISO, but this will usually cost extra and for just one stop under I wouldn't bother, 200 ISO is really stretching it though and you may find that results are unacceptable unless you push process. Ultimately, it all depends upon how dark and how deep you go, but at much below 1,5m everything gets a strong blue colour cast anyway unless you use a powerful underwater strobe light mounted away from the lens axis.

Basically your camera is designed just to give you a taste of underwater photography and is very limited in what it can achieve. Even with a good specialist 35mm underwater camera such as the Sea & Sea MotorMarine II I usually find that I only have one or two usable shots on a 36 exposure roll, so if you do get the underwater photography bug then invest in a decent quality underwater digital model which accepts a proper external strobe lamp. The ratio of failed photos is similar, but at least you can review and delete them immediately without expense.

If it takes normal pictures even with the black display, your LCD display is likely shot. If photos come out black, chances are that your shutter is stuck in the closed position. Sorry, but there is no safe DIY fix for either problem The camera will require professional repair.

Hi,
Heres the instruction manual for your camera :

http://www.olympusamerica.com/files/C2500l.zip

Good luck!

Check to see that the camera is not in "macro" mode, which would only allow focusing at a close range, but not allow focusing at beyond about 2 meters (look for the "flower" symbol to tell you that macro is activated). Could also be an out of adjustment lens, due to impact or force. Also check to make sure it's not as simple as a dirty lens. Digital cameras are more succeptable to blurry pictures from a smudged lens than film cameras were. Of course, that wouldn't explain why close shots are OK but distant ones aren't. Probably the first two suggestions.

have you set it to macro mode? (little flower icon on the right cursor) this function will allow you to get within about 2cm of the subject, however do not use the zoom as the lens cannot focus close enough. To get results any closer you will be looking at an slr and a budget on a few thousand! If enabling macro and not using zoom to allow the lens to focus doesn't get you close enough in you can always enlarge and crop images. have a look on www.picture-skew.blogspot.com i've taken some macros of flowers and bugs, this camera can capture the hairs on an ants back or the individual lenses of a flys compound lens eye.

persevere with this camera, for a very small budget you will get amazing results, ISO refers to the speed of 'film', it comes from the dark old ages of 35mm film cameras. Basically a low ISO is the lowest sensitivity to light and gives the best image quality, however as the ccd is less responsive to the light the camera holds the shutter open for longer. The higher the ISO the more sensitive the ccd but the greater the noise and lower the quality of picture.

Books, try looking for more photography orientated books and less digital camera based books. An upto date photography book will tell you all the technical information about how to take a good picture for any given senario.

if you would like any further advice email me (address on the blogspot)

A panoramic photo on 35mm film is just cutting off the top and bottom. even if you can't set the camera that way, you can ask your local photo store to print any shot that way for you. Usually 2x the price of 4x6.

Still photos (what you think of as printable photos) and movies (video clips) are completely different beasts, unfortunately. In order to extract or print individual frames within a movie, you will need some sort of movie player/editor software. Standard "photo"-oriented software won't know how to deal with video clips.