Solutions for blurry shots from my P&S Sony T20?

[Homer_Bart]

I am a photography noob, so I'd need as much help I can get!

The problem: Blurry/poor photos.
Example:

I've tried every single setting available, putting everything in full auto or experimenting with the settings et al. It just doesn't work. I've hardly ever gotten good photos out of this camera.
Example of a good shot:


Solutions?

[Raparperi]

Try to take your photos during the daytime when it's bright, not at night when it's dark?

[killpanda]

Drink less coffee ?

[Homer_Bart]

Shot in the day, but still bad

[LeVeL]

tripod?

[the Interceptor]

Yeah, your problem is exposure time. When your target is too dark, your cam turns up the exposure time, which makes it impossible to get a sharp shot, given that you can not stop moving in total as long as the camera exposes.

Solution: use the flash. Might make lighting bad, but beside a tripod, it's the only option you have.

[Solberg]

You exposures are too long for hand held photos.

[Raparperi]

Yeah, the conditions in the second shot aren't that ideal either. It seems to be cloudy and the car is partially under the roof of the hotel entrance, so it's even darker. If you're not perfectly still, that shutter speed of 1/40s just isn't gonna be fast enough, especially if the target is moving.

[Buba]

The Sony cam should indicate when half-pressing the button what exposure it'll use, Mine even displays a "don't shake" warning symbol...

[Homer_Bart]

Hmm. THANKS for the responses!

Yeah... True... I've tried it with Auto Flash and everything looks better! Right now though, I'll learn to use my dad's film SLR....

@Buba: My camera says "400" and "F3.5" when I half press the button. hmm....

Thanks for the responses anyway!

[Shawn]

I'm late to the game, but it also seems your camera is just a bit weak as well. A modern P&S digicam shouldn't take such bad pictures on auto.

I know my dad's wife has had a multitude of Sony digital cameras and all of them have blown really hard. Even on auto settings, in a nicely lit environment the pictures come out fuzzy and soft... and the colour reproduction is not good.

So try and get a Canon, Nikon or some other brand of camera when you can upgrade - in my experience Sony digicams are pretty bad.

[Dr_Q]

Originally Posted by Homer_Bart

@Buba: My camera says "400" and "F3.5" when I half press the button. hmm....

Are you sure it didn't say 40 and F3.5? That's the settings for the image of the Continental GT. Basically under normal use the first number is fractions of a second. 40 should in theory be 1/40th of a second. As a very general rule to avoid camera shake it should be a 1/60th of a second or more. Some people can go very low if they turn into human statues and other people that seem to have caffeine induced vibrations may need a higher setting. The easiest way to learn is just to play around with everything to be honest and see what you like.

*EDIT*

If you can't get fast enough shutter speeds try looking in the camera menu for a setting called ISO. If you can change this it should help a lot. Change it higher to get higher shutter speeds and lower to get lower shutter speeds. The first shot of the cars at night was done at ISO 500. If this is your maximum ISO you MAY have a bit of a problem as the minimum ISO I would suggest with no tripod at night time is around the ISO 800 mark (probably 1600 in most cases). For the second image boosting the ISO from 200 to 400 would have done the trick. Obviously if you can't change this at all this advice is useless but to be honest most of my advice is useless anyway .