I recently upgraded from an Olympus C-4040 to a C-5060. I am not a professional photographer and have plenty to learn but I do take outdoor evening music festival photos for some websites. I was getting very nice photos from the C-4040. Almost all of my night time photos I recently took of a live performance with the 5060 turned out unusable. The 4040 had a very good 'auto' setting where my night shots turned out fine. I can't seem to figure out what is the appropriate 'auto' feature to use with the C-5060 for night photos (I did try using the pre-set nightime setting that is on the camera but they still didn't look as good as the 4040's). Any suggestions and helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

Can you post some sample images so we can see what went wrong?

Generally, a "Night" setting is for working with slow shutter speeds, on a tripod. I'm guessing there's a lot of motion blur and camera shake in your photos. I think you should probably be using the P (Progam) mode.

Post some images so I know more. We can definitely help you with this.

You lost a stop of lens speed (more at longer focal lengths) going to the 5060 from the 4040. That alone makes a bit of difference.

Try increasing you ISO setting to 400.

thanks for your response regarding my question on the olympus c-5060. i will post a few photos this weekend.

i am happy to have found this site!

John, attached are samples of my recent night time photos with the C-5060. Many of the photos I took that evening I dumped right away--they were way too dark. I believe the following photos may have been taken using the nighttime auto setting. I will be attending an outdoor festival this coming weekend which will have similar lighting conditions as in these photos. I appreciate any input you can offer.

and, here's an example of how several photos turned out too dark...