Camera Help- fuzzy photos

[blueflower]

I all, I am what you call an amateur in photography.
I enjoy taking pics. My camera is a Ricoh Caplio R5.
It seems like a good enough camera. My last one was a $100 kodak one from big W.

The problem is that when i take some photos- usually indoors, the photo is all fuzzy.

I am sure that it is a simple solution to fix, however not knowing what I am looking for, makes it really hard.

If anyone could help me, and or point me in the right direction I would be eternally grateful.
I really love fiddling arond with the photos on photoshop afterwards, but it seems useless if the photos are a crap quality to start with.
TIA and I hope someone can help me!!!

[sushee]

This is a really basic question but one my DH didn't know until I pointed it out to him, but are you pressing the 'shoot' button halfway down and waiting until the camera auto-focuses? The object/person you want to focus on should be in the 'box' in the middle of the shot, and in a lot of cameras, once the auto-focus 'locks' the 'box' in the middle of the camera goes green, or you get a 'beep'. Then you can press the button all the way down (without releasing it first) and you should get a clear photo.

[Laranna]

Hi blueflower, it's the lowlight indoors and camera shake which gives you the fuzzy photos. There's a few things you can try depending on what settings you can choose on your camera.

• Use the flash
• Use a tripod or rest your camera on a table or shelf and use the autotimer function
• If you have semi-automatic settings, try putting it on the Tv setting and increase your shutter speed.
• Choose a higher ISO around 200 - 400

HTH

[blueflower]

Thanks Sushee and Laranna for your help.

I have asked for a little tripod for my birthday in a couple for weeks. I have always wanted one! It oulw make those little family pics so much easier!

Now,
I had the iso setting on Auto, should I leave it on this or change it? Or should I change it for indoors, then when I am outdoors change it to auto?
I generally turn the flash off cause, I have a habit of taking the pic to close- so everyone goes really white! Bad habit I know!
My camera has anti shake correction function, should I leave this on for all the time?
I was looking in the manual, and the camera has different white balance modes. eg outdoors, cloudy, incandescentlamp, fleuro lamp. Is this what I should be trying to change?

I thought the problem might lie with our curtains- they are lace, and I thought they might filter the light- changing it in the camera- but it is the same when I take photos inside with the lights on. I have had other people take the same photo with their camera, and theirs turn out okay. I will be really bummed if I cant rectify it on my camera!

Sorry again for the silly questions!!!

[Astrolady]

Just check to make sure the lens is actually clean as well. This was happening to my mums photos and my husband took a look and the lens had a big dirty finger print on it

Love

[blueflower]

Thanks Kathryn! I cleaned it,there was a finger print on it!!
I also fiddled with the settings last night and worked out how to make it not fuzzy inside, but normal outside! There is a 'white balnce setting' si=o I changed it to incandescent lamp, I put the iso setting to auto, I cant remeber what it was set on, and I also turned off the 'slow shutter limit' which I think was set at 1/2, I took some photos tonight and they seemd to turn out alright.
Thanks heaps for your suggestions!
Oh and I also have made sure that the shake correction is always set!