DSC p72 blurring

Digicams obey the same rules as any other optical systems. Not enough light on the subject will cause shutter speeds to drop to levels low enough to cause camera shake blurring, or subject movement blurring. The "hand" in the viewfinder is just alerting you to the fact that the shutter speed is slow enough to cause either or both in the picture. The only way to avoid slow shutter speeds is to put more light on the subject. Either increase the lighting if you can, or use the flash. You may manually select higher ISO settings to increase your shutter speeds, but "noise" will increase. See what noise level is tolerable to you and the type of pics you take. I regularly shoot at shutter speeds down to 1/4 second, but the percentage of sharp shots is quite low. Practice holding the camera as steady as possible, and brace the camera whenever possible. If you're shooting allows use of a tripod or monopod, then that will help with the camera shake. Try to anticipate your subject's movements and time the shot accordingly.

Hello Steve, I've bought that very same camera myself, and i feel quite happy with it. I do know what you're refering to since i've dealt with that problem before. About the Blurring "effect", i'm affraid this is due to a lack of focus regulation from you. In this camera it is possible to achieve very good results once you control the Metering and Focus in an accurate way. In other words you'll have to take over the Focus and Metering control regularly. As you may know the Focus Options are (if i'm not mistaken) , infinite, 7m, 3m, 1m, 0.5m, center, multiple. Basically if you're indoors there's no need to use the infinite, center or multiple focus (except in specific situations), which you may keep to outdoor Shots. Indoors, you'll get far better results, intensively using the 0,5m, 1m, 3m or 7m. Hope i didn't put it to much confuse. Summing it up a bit, you'll have to use more often these controls according to each single situation. Please, let me know something wether it worked or not. Regards