Expert: John Oliverio - 9/22/2009

Question
i have sony digital camera. im facing a problem. when light is dim i set that onto night light and when capture image foto always gets blurry n shaky means i have to hold it v tightly as a small shaking n movements results in blur............i never get a clear pic when set to that. but the thing is with dim backgroud i made a movie from sony camcorder which is v clear. and yes i have set camera flash mode as well. plz tell me what to do/? is soemthing wrong with settings?

Answer
Beenish,

Actually, your camera is doing what it is supposed to do.  The "night" mode is designed to be used with a tri-pod.  The idea is this:  You are taking a picture of a person with something like a night-time city scape in the background.  If you were in a regular auto mode, the flash would fire just fine, but the lights in the background wouldn't record.  In "night" mode, the flash still fires, but the shutter stays open longer to let the background lights record in the picture.  You need the tri-pod because of the long shutter speed.  Just shoot in a regular auto mode and you should be fine.... as long as the flash can reach your subject.

Sláinte chugat  (looked that up on the internet!)

John