S550 question

[2kMarauder]

I'm new to the forum, but I searched before I started a new thread. I didn't find anything so here we go...

I got a Nikon S550 digital camera for Christmas and I am a little disappointed with it at this point. I don't really know much about photography so I will blame myself for the poor pictures the camera is taking, lol. My previous camera was an HP 3.2MP, I'm not sure of the model number. It used batteries like they were going out of style, and it was about 5 years old so I figured I'd upgrade.

I took a few indoor pictures at Christmas and they were grainy looking so I figured it was b/c i didn't have it set to "indoors". We just had a really bad ice storm here in Kentucky and I took pics of the damage around here. Once uploaded to my laptop the pictures were worse than my old 3.2MP camera. What am I doing wrong here?

[Frog]

Welcome to the forums.
It would help if you post a couple of the pics and give us the exif data.

[2kMarauder]

Okay, sorry for being such a noob...but what is the best way for me to post pictures on here? I've found the exif data by right clicking on the picture and viewing the properties. Thanks for any help!

[Frog]

Click the go advanced button. If loading from your hardrive, click the paper clip you'll see at top. A browse window will pop up. Find your photos and click upload.
Make sure your pics are re-sized to no more than 800 on a side.

[2kMarauder]

I attached the two pictures. The difference is much easier to see when they are made into my desktop wallpaper for instance.

This is for the truck in the yard
Hewlett-Packard
Photosmart M305
F-stop f/3.5
exposure time 1/183
ISO speed ISO-100
exposure bias 0 step
focal length 9mm
max aperture 3.082
Metering mode Average
Subject distance 100m

This is for the truck in ice/snow
NIKON
COOLPIX S550
F-stop f/3.5
exposure time 1/205 sec.
ISO speed ISO-64
exposure bias 0 step
focal length 6 mm
max aperture 3.6
metering mode Pattern

Is this the information you need? Thanks again!

[2kMarauder]

Anybody know how to make my picture quality better? I recently took more photos indoors and they are absolutely terrible compared to my old 3MP camera. I am really getting disappointed in this 10MP camera.

Thanks again.