Why does my digital camera take a lot of blurry pictures?

[Pixiedust34]

I have a Vivitar Cam5385 camera with 5 megapixels and bought it in 2005, so it's not new but it's not that old, either. I don't remember how much we paid for it, but it is a cheaper-end digital camera.

Too many pictures we take come out blurry. I know it's not "operator error" because when we use our kids' digital cameras (4 MPs, not as high quality as our camera), the pictures with their cameras always come out great and not blurry.

Does anyone know why my camera would take too many blurry pictures, and if there's anything I can do to fix it? TIA!

 

[mabas9395]

Do you know what settings you are using and can you post any examples?

 

[tinksdad]

Could be the auto focus is not working properly. Is there anything that is focused?

 

[mabas9395]

dp

 

[ukcatfan]

It is most likely picking a shutter speed that is too slow for you to be able to hold the camera still enough. Is it happening mainly in low light conditions, or also in bright light? That is where some examples will help us. If you know what I am talking about, try posting some that still have the EXIF data attached. Many software editing programs strip this data off when you save and some photo hosting sites do not allow it to pass through to others. It is the data that tells us the shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, etc.

Kevin

 

[tiggr33]

When was the last time you re-formatted the memory card(s)? I have an older digital camera I keep on our boat and it produces blurry pictures if I don't re-format the card after every upload. Doesn't matter how new the card is, or how many times a card has been used. I have to re-format each time I use that camera.

 

[ukcatfan]

When was the last time you re-formatted the memory card(s)? I have an older digital camera I keep on our boat and it produces blurry pictures if I don't re-format the card after every upload. Doesn't matter how new the card is, or how many times a card has been used. I have to re-format each time I use that camera.

Could you give us a little more information on that b/c I just do not think that is physically possible. Certainly no offense to you and I could be wrong, but as far as I know blur must be introduced in some manner through the optics. It might be that the shot was out of focus, the camera moved on a long shutter speed shot, etc. but the memory card transfer is completely electronic. If there were any data loss in that process, it would show in the form of corrupt files or entire strips of the picture missing.

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

I have to agree with Kevin. A digital photo is just bits and bytes, not analog. Any corruption of the image will result in digital-type errors (blocky section, parts of the photo "shifted", etc), not analog-type errors like blurring.

If your camera requires the card to be formatted after every use, there's something wrong with it for sure. You should never need to re-format every time... also make sure that you're not removing the card from your camera or PC when it's being written to.

Pixiedust34, the big question is what's causing the blurring... either the camera's not focusing correctly, or it's motion blur caused by the shutter staying open too long. Have you tried shooting in different scene modes, and does that make any difference?