New User, lighting question

[nsummy]

I just bought a Kodak DX7630 and it's my first digital camera. So far I've had good results with it with the exception of some bad lighting. When I go to wrestling meets I will usually sit in about the 10th row which is fairly close, but not close enough for my flash to hit the subjects of the picture. The arena is pretty well lit, but my pictures come out extremely dark. Do I need to change a setting on my camera or is my flash just not good enough? Any help I can get would be great. Thanks!

[Sebastian]

Built-in flashes are seldom useful beyong 10-20 feet. One way to increase the flash range is to boost the ISO to maximum and to shoot with the aperture wide open (smallest f/stop number).

Good luck.

[Trevor Ash]

I'll be the bringer of bad news

Unfortunately, most cameras with built in flashes (heck, probably all of them) don't have enough flash power for that kind of distance. Even external add-on flash units may not be powerful. If you looked in the manual for your camera, it may show you the distance capabilities of the flash under the specifications somewhere.

The problem is that it's not as bright in the gym as you think it is. Your eyes are fooling you because they adjust so well. But the camera see's the truth.

There are some things you might be able to try to get it to work better for you but you might not see any improvement from it:

1. If you can set the aperture in the camera manually, set it to the smaller number you can (f/2.8 f/3.5, etc.)

2. If you can set the ISO manually, set it to the largest number you can (usually 400 is the largest). Keep in mind however that this will make the photos appear "noisier".

3. Get closer! Try an get within the range of the flash.

[Trevor Ash]

Built-in flashes are seldom useful beyong 10-20 feet. One way to increase the flash range is to boost the ISO to maximum and to shoot with the aperture wide open (smallest f/stop number).

Good luck.

Touche!