Camera Help- fuzzy photos

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!!!

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.

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

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!!!

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

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!