S2 IS - Indoor Low Light using Flash

First post. I purchased my S2 IS for my wife in September 2005, and then subsequently allowed her to upgrade to a dSLR (Rebel XT) a few months later as she is a much better photographer than I am. I have therefore taken custody of the S2 IS, and generally I love it.

However, the last couple of weeks have left me a little frustrated on two similar occasions: the first at a friend's wedding, shooting indoors with low light; second, last night at a formal function, once again indoors with low light. Both scenarios involved using flash.

I always use the camera on Av, Tv or M modes to gain more exposure control. I was using the camera primarily on Av mode in the two situations above, and I was struggling to get the camera to focus quickly (it was taking several seconds for the camera to get the subject in focus on most occasions, which is not conducive for taking reportage/candid shots, which was my aim on both occasions). Mostly, the shutter speed was clocking in at 1/60 or less at F4.0. A lot of the shots I took were out of focus, probably due to camera shake at those low speeds.

Does anyone have any advice, hints or tips to improve camera performance in such conditions?

It would be fair to say my wife got some great shots at the wedding using her Rebel XT and Speedlight 430EX.

Higher ISO would help I am sure. The problem that I find with my S2 is that the noise increases to the point where I am not happy with the images. I have seen that there is an Accessory flash however dont know how well it works. I am also finding that my S2 also has focusing issues from time to time.

pumbaa wrote in post #2649528
Does anyone have any advice, hints or tips to improve camera performance in such conditions?

I don;t understand why you don't have the S2 at maximum aperture? Why f/4? On camera flash is never enough on any camera, P&S or otherwise. I would strongly advise you get an optical slave flash, the one from Canon is not very powerful and uses expensive batteries. If you shoot in Manual or Av mode there is no pre-flash so you don't need a special digital slave. Have a look at this thread for more information.

pumbaa wrote in post #2649528
It would be fair to say my wife got some great shots at the wedding using her Rebel XT and Speedlight 430EX.

No reflection on your wife's photographic skills but the speedlight alone costs nearly as much as your whole camera. Spend $100 or less on a slave flash for your S2 and you will see a big improvement with the S2.

Mgw189 - just checked that the ISO setting was Auto, so I'll try setting it to 400 and see what happens. Thanks.

MaxZoom - I agree that I need to open up the aperture more. I'll have another play around and see what happens, along with the ISO setting above. I appreciate the on-camera flash is limited, but I really don't want to go down the route of a slave flash right now as long term I'm tempted to upgrade to a dSLR anyway. I know I shouldn't compare the quality of photo between the S2 and a dSLR with external flash, but its difficult not to...thanks for your help

I would experiment with your ISO setting prior to actually shooting. I find with mine that if I go to 400 I get excessive noise that I really dont like at all. Here is an example of ISO 200