S3700 blurry indoor photos

charliecip

New member
Could use some advice here if anyone can offer suggestions. This S3700 is new purchase for me but not my first Coolpix camera. Everything seems to be working okay, and have also used the wifi program as well with an Ipod touch, no problems there. My only concern is the indoor photo. The indoor photos more often than not will turn out blurry. The camera seems to have focus trouble indoors, but outdoors photos are fine. I am wondering if the problems lies somewhere with my settings. Whether I use AUTO ISO or manually set ISO to 400 or higher, the problem still will occur with the indoor photo. The problem will occur as well with VR on or off. Getting close to the point where I am thinking maybe this is a problem with the camera itself and not the settings. I have also tried reducing the pixel size to 2MP but that doesn't help either.

Any feedback or suggestions as what might be the problem would be appreciated. If I can't get this figured out I may have to return this camera to Walmart. I think there is a 15 day return policy and I am at day 7. Maybe I just got a 'lemon' here or maybe this is just an issue with the camera in general. My 12MP Coolpix S3100 (might have been a 3200, not sure) never had any problems with indoor photos.

Thanks,
Charlie
 

WayneF

Senior Member
Welcome to the forum Charlie.

More info would tell more about the situation....

Are these indoor pictures using the flash?

Is the blur due to subject motion or camera shake? (example, a moving hand is blurred but a still head or shoulder is not... or even the background walls are blurred?)

What is the actual shutter speed and ISO on these pictures? This is shown in the Exif data in your past pictures, and can be shown in most photo editors. Look at 3 or 4 of them (that are blurry), and let us know what you see.

For slow shutter speeds, that model appears to have VR (vibration reduction to help hold camera still at slow exposures), but still, conscious effort to hold it very still during shutter press will always help a lot. A quick jab at the shutter button is about the worst thing we can do. If not consciously thinking about holding it still, you're doing it wrong. :)
 
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charliecip

New member
Wayne, thank you for the reply. Yes, using the flash for indoor and have been checking the EXIF data on the pictures from the beginning. The data does correspond with the shooting parameters. I've had a suspicion one of my settings must have been off and I think I just nailed it down. In the AF Area mode setting, it was set to 'target finding'. I switched that to 'center' and I believe that was the issue! I don't recall changing that setting so maybe it was set like that from the factory, I don't remember. Just snapped a few indoor photos and they are looking much better! I feel like a dummy for not figuring that out sooner!

Charlie
 

WayneF

Senior Member
Yeah, I use a single center focus point in my camera too... It's good to know where it is going to focus. :) Glad you found an improvement.
 
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