Help with indoor shots (low light) Fuji Finepix 3800 please

[GaryH]

I recently purchased the Fuji 3800 and am having a miserable time getting my indoor/low-light shots to look halfway decent. I first tried the auto setting (w/ flash) and every other shot came out blurred. It was suggested to try the "action" or "sports" setting so the shutter would not stay open as long and now the shots are in focus but have a distinct red tone/tint to them. Are the two related?

I can fix this with editing software but want to have the camera in the correct setting too. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

[steve6]

You must hold the cam very steady even with flash as it may only be syncing at 30th sec. It may also be struggling to focus in low light.

If you are sure about the focus lock and are using a very slow shutter without flash you'll need a tripod and still subjects. There is no magic formula - trial and error. Night/low light shots are always difficult especially to the inexperienced.

The colour problem is perhaps a white balance problem - try manual white balance.

[rimbo]

I'm a Canon user myself but the advice is still the same. All of these cameras find it difficult to focus in low light conditions. If you can switch on all the lights in the room you are taking the pictures in and use the flash that certainly helps. I wouldn't use the action or sports settings unless those are the kind of subjects you are taking pictures of. Is there settings for macro, portrait and landscape or similar on your camera? I usually set mine to portrait and stand about 5 or 6 feet away from the subject . Also, try and take them from an angle to avoid red eye (looking straight into the camera lens). And yes that sounds like a white balance problem, indoors under artificial light set it to tungsten or fluorescent (depending on available light) or if you can take a manual reading from a white card then do that.

Rimbo 8)

[voxmagna]

The Fuji 3800 might be a brill. 3Mpix cam in decent light, and it does have the new sensor for lower noise - but it's sensitivity is only 100ASA. So your low light problems don't surprise me. Auto focus and white balance will be the first thing to go. You must also be getting slow shutter speeds. My guess is if the shutter warning isn't on, your cam probably has got enough light to autofocus and white balance. I've not tested my 602 yet, but I'm wondering if the cams focus phase might be done in the first flash in redeye mode.

My first 1Mpix cam was 64ASA. It took great pics outdoors, even when the sun was so bright I couldn't see the lcd to frame the shot. But indoors with available light, I could take the same shot seven times on a tripod, the auto white balance and focus would be different on each shot. In the end, I would preset the white bal. (assume correction in editing) and just pray for good focus. This was rare, since focus 'unknown' always got set to near distance.

When I tried shooting candle light dinner parties using flash that was disastrous. The only technique which got a pic. was to focus on the candle by half press of the shutter, frame the shot for the flash pic. and sort out the colour balance errors afterwards. Colour balance you can fix, focus you can't. You could try a laser pointer, look here:

http://www.stevesforums.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4143

I'm sure the 3800 is better.

[MentorRon]

Blurred shots with flash (I assume you mean out of focus, which is different) are usually caused by the camera not focussing. You may not be noticing the "AF!" warning in the EVF and LCD. You can get this even outdoors in the shade. If so, find a brighter or more contrasty object at the same distance to focus on.
You will also get TRULY 'blurred" shots (you or your subject moved and objects are streaky) if you DON'T use the flash in low light, as either you won't hold the camera steady enough or your subject won't hold still enough. The camera will sometimes warn you of low shutter speeds with an icon of a hand in the EVF/LCD.
The hardest thing to do is take pictures of kids playing indoors without flash, unless you have at least an 800 ISO setting. The 3800 is only 100 ISO.
Remember that even with 35mm point and shoots, most people use 400 ISO film indoors. I've never heard of anyone using 100 ISO film indoors with or without flash and getting good results beyond a few feet.

[solo]

Agree with everything everyone said above.

For my own education, I gathered the info I have learned on this subject (from personal experience as well as from the experience of the good people on this and other forums) and written a short article on it. Might be of some help...

http://www.photoxels.com/tutorial_le..._lowlight.html

Regards,

My
----------------------------------
Digital Camera Fact Sheets
http://www.photoxels.com
'A Smile Is Forever'

[voxmagna]

Solo...

Bottom line: Good luck on indoors low-light action shots with current crop of digital cameras! If you absolutely must take this kind of pictures, get a high-end digital SLR camera. No problem there.

My Fuji 602 is in 'the current crop', it's not a 3800, but it does have an ISO range from 160ASA to 400, with 800 and 1600 at 1Mpix with a f2.8 lens. I take indoor pics with and without flash OK, I think autofocus uses the fast 1600ASA pixel combining feature. There are cams with faster lenses than mine!

I think you picked the wrong cam to represent your 'current crop', but the article was a good read!

[GaryH]

I had the flash set to "slow synchro" in auto mode. I thought I had checked this but obviously not. Switched it back to the normal flash mode and everything is just wonderful. Very stupid "newbie" mistake, too bad it took me a week to figure it out. Auto mode works like a charm now, pictures are in perfect focus and color looks superb!

Thanks again for all the advice.