Please Help A Newb!

[UrbanGent]

( i didnt know where to post this.. so you may notice i double posted, sorry )
Hey guys ive got some questiosn thats would be nice if you could help me answer, I just bought a cheap Concord 3040 AF digital Camera. it is a 3.1 MP camera. I just find it wierd that sometimes my photos come out nice and crisp.. and of a quality that I like, while other times it seems quit blurry.. all on the same settings. I notice that shots in the dark arent very crisp.. even when flash is on. And here is where i am most confused, the camera has an option to change from V Resolution ( 512 x 384 ) 1mb (1024x768) 2mb (1600x1200) and 3mb (2048x1538). It is wierd because i notice that my pictures seem to be the crispest in V Resolution, it would be my unerstanding that 3mb with the most resolution, and space being taken up, should be the clearest nicest photo? but it doesnt seem to be, any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks everyone!

[another view]

When shooting in dark conditions, you need a longer exposure to get a properly exposed image. I'd guess what's happening is that the shutter is staying open long enough to expose the shot properly, and the camera moves a little during exposure. If your camera tells you what shutter speed it's using, anything below 1/60 should be on a tripod (you should be able to hand hold a longer shutter speed with practice, but this is a good starting point).

Resolution really doesn't have anything to do with sharpness, at least in this case. Personally I almost always shoot the biggest file I can. That way I have the resolution for a bigger print if I need it. The gurus say that you need to print at 300dpi, but you can probably get away with a little less like 240 or maybe even 180 but it's a personal choice. With a resolution of 2048x1538 at 300dpi, your print size would be 6.83"x5.13". In the real world (with a good sharp picture, of course) you could easily get a nice 8x10, maybe a little larger.

[Clemmie]

I'm mainly a Film shooter, but I do have a 2mp Kodak CX6230 that I use for quick web posts and eBay ads. It handles five different resolutions, and has a mind of its own as to ISO and shutter speed ranges. In my experiences with it, I can concur with your findings on the relative sharpness at the different resolutions - and with a-v's observations on how lighting affects the camera.

These digitals are NOT like shooting with Film. The CCD has different sensitivities than film does, and the electronics constantly adjust the ISO value (and not always sensibly) according to the overall lighting. They will do their best in bright lighting - the brighter, the better. There is no such thing yet as a digital that can match film in less than prime lighting conditions, not even in 'pro-grade' equipment. And you've probably also noticed, that a digital lacks the 'instant response' needed to capture moving subjects.

The sensor in your camera collects light with ALL of its pixels, regardless of which resolution you have it set for. When you are shooting in the lower resolutions, it is able to utilize many pixels of the CCD feed to form one pixel of the final image - whereas when you set for highest resolution, it's pixel for pixel. The more pixels of information it can use per pixel of output, the smoother the final image will appear to you.

You wouldn't want to try to make an 8x10 enlargement from that lowest resolution your camera has. 512x384 is quite obviously for "web shots", and isn't enough information for a print machine to work with. The 1mp setting, though, carries enough information to where a print machine - such as a Kodak kiosk, or a lab's Fuji Frontier unit - can do an 8x10 quite nicely.

The 1mp setting, on your camera, allows it to use 4 pixels of the CCD's capture (in a 2x2 square pattern) for each 1 pixel of the finished file size. You will find that this speeds up the 'response time' to take a picture, as well as the effective shutter speed - helping to reduce the number of blurred shots, while supplying enough information for good prints.

I don't know what to offer you on the flash pictures coming out dark - except that probably the flash isn't up to the task, which wouldn't surprise me on a Concord. My Kodak has the opposite problem - flash shots are routinely overexposed. Both conditions can be corrected on the computer, to some extent - but too much light is easier to correct for than not enough light, it seems.