Kodak Easyshare Z612

Good morning/afternoon,
This is my first post... so please, be gentle... :D

I recently purchased the Z612 a couple of months ago to take on my vacation to Florida. While the outdoor pictures were excellent, with the quality and zoom features. The indoor pictures were, well... not so great. Which I now has a lot to do with my settings. I was also disappointed at a recent fireworks show, where the pictures were blurry.

Can somebody please help me with which settings help take good pictures indoors using normal indoor lights. A lot of my pictures are blurred or a little dark. For indoor use, I like to just point and shoot, without the need for a tri-pod. Any help/information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Mr. Bill

Fireworks, you're going to need a tripod.
Or some stable support like a fence post would do.
But it needs to be fixed to the post, not just in your hand resting on there for support.
You're probably going to have an exposure of 5-6 seconds if you want to capture everything from the mortar tube until the shell bursts in the sky.

Indoors, you will want to turn the ISO speed up as far as you can.
It's a compromise, as when you set the ISO to 800, 1600 and higher, you will see more noise in the image.
But higher ISO speed means shorter exposure time, which gives less time for everything to move. Your hand, your subjects, all has less time to blur the image.

Thanks!
Fireworks, I can understand a tripod. I can live with that.

Indoors, what about flash brightness, shutter speed, and aperture? Will the ISO speed accommadate some of that, as well?

Exactly what is "noise"? Are you referring to fuzy or blurred pictures? As some, not technical people (not me), would question noise coming from a quiet picture. :) (sorry)

Thanks,
Mr. Bill