Camera shake and blur

[scininja]

Hi all, just found this place through a google search, really good stuff. My problem is blurry shots. I was an S10 user for a few years and just recently updated to the G3. i LOVE this camera, i find myself caressing it whenever i'm holding it. anyway i'm getting a ton of blurry shots and its starting to get a little frustrating. 50% of my shots on any given day come out useless (it's hard to tell from the preview). Most of the time i'm shooting while just walking around, so i don't have the liberty of setting up a tripod. i understand how the shutter speed and aperture affect a photo, i just don't have the experience to know what works in certain situations. the S10 and every other camera i've ever had before the g3 was pretty much point and shoot. So if anyone has any recommendations i'm all ears. In the mean time i'll continue to experiment and jot down numbers in my notebook like rainman.

[scininja]

let me add that most of the blur occurs in low light situations.

[civis]

Shutter speed is what's going to determine blurring (or not), and it's not always possible to get a fast enough shutter speed (and still get adequate exposure) in low light situations. If you can't make the aperture any larger, you can up the ISO speed manually, which will allow faster shutter speeds, but may give you more "noise" (and that you can use something like NeatImage ( www.neatimage.com ) to deal with fairly well).

These are a very handy (and cheap) alternative to a full-size tripod, just fold it up and stuff it in your jacket pocket or even the back pocket of your shorts/pants:

http://search.campmor.com/webapp/commerce/command/ExecMacro/search.d2w/report?SearchBy=ProductName&ProductName=ultrapod&ManName=NULL&sub=search

[Biko]

Put camera on TV mode, means you set the shutter speed. Set it at 1/60 and above will stop/minimise blurring, depending on what you are shooting.

Keep a check on aperture setting to see if camera can cope with dark conditions otherwise change iso as mentioned above.