Camera Problems - Is It The Camera Or Is It Me?

[koalasrule]

I have a Nikon L1 Coolpix digital camera that is about 3 years old. It generally takes really good photos, but I noticed that on my last holiday last December I just didn't seem to be able to take a decent indoor photo with it - nearly all the photos I took indoors came out blurry and indistinct. It occasionally happened with outdoor shots as well, but not nearly as often. It doesn't seem to matter whether I select single shot or continuous, I get the same result with indoor photos. I took some outdoor photos of my horse yesterday and they were of outstanding quality, really clear, so I think the camera still works fine, I just can't figure out why I can't take a decent interior photo with it. I used to be able to - I have some excellent family photos from Christmas a couple of years ago. I'm just wondering - is the camera getting a bit past it, or is it me that is the problem? Can anyone help?

 

[aviation_man]

I know this could be an obvious thing, but is the flash on? Blurriness is mainly caused by lack of lighting or indecent exposure, but really point and shoot cameras don't have exposure settings.

 

[koalasrule]

I'm not sure if the flash has been on or not. I know that I went to a big horse show and took three indoor photos, two were absolutely crap (quite blurry) but one was clear as crystal. Perhaps I should have a play with my camera at home with/without the flash to see what happens?

 

[Bodaggit23]

Some point and shoot cameras are very sensitive to movement when shooting.

I had an older 2 megapixel camera that took much better "on the fly" shots than a newer 4 megapixel camera of the same brand.

But, if I put them both on tripods, the 4 megapixel camera took amazing shots.

 

[MBGraphics]

The blurriness could be one of a couple main things:
1. The shutter speed is to slow, which makes the camera detect your movement much more, therefore making the photo blurry.
2. the AF is either very in-accurate or you are to close to the subject (which most likely isn't the case..)

You should post a few of the photos, it would make the verdict a bit easier to reach

 

[elitejp]

Shooting indoor does not offer enough light for cameras to take great pictures. The camera adjusts for this by slowing the shutter speed down (among other things) which means that if there is any movement or its an action type of a shot you will get motion blur. Take a look at the exif information on your photo and you should be able to tell what the problem is.