Blurry photos with canon powershot SD1000 7.1?

Question

I like to avoid using flash in most of my photos so the pictures are more natural. However, when I take photos with any sort of movement in it (people walking, hands waving, ...) the photo ends up blurry.

When the flash is on, the photos are clear but I don't like the lighting the camera gives the photo.

Is there a setting to change this? I would really like to take pictures with people jumping in the air for example, but it ends up blurry. Also, my hands are quite steady, so i doubt the problem would be my hands.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try shooting in brighter conditions, boosting the iso speed, and widening the aperture. For most handheld pictures I don't like letting the shutter speed go lower than 1/125 of a second.

Answer 2

It sounds like the camera is compensating for the lack of light by leaving the shutter open longer, which lets in more light for the exposure but blurs anything that moves.  One thing you could do that would help a little bit is increase the aperture as high as you can (lower numbers are less light, higher numbers are more light).  That would allow you or the camera to increase the shutter speed somewhat, decreasing the blur effect.

Answer 3

You can increase the ISO setting.  The SD1000 allows you to set the ISO as high as 1600, however at that setting the pictures get awfully noisy.

The default however is ISO 100.  Try changing to to 200 or maybe 400 and see if that give you enough shutter speed to freeze motion without having to use the flash.