New with G6 question on quality

After reading all the good reviews and viewing online picture samples that looked great, I bought the G6. However so far I am very disappointed with the picture quality, especially indoors. I am moving up from an Olympus 1.3 and so far the G6 pictures are only slightly better. I do admit that I have only taken about 30 pictures so far and I am still playing around with all the settings. And here in Montana this time of year it is cloudy and so there is not much in the way of natural sunlight to help things out. In general the pictures look ok, but I am getting a lot of blur and peoples faces are all grainy. I took some pictures inside the local mall, with lots of indoor lighting and using the flash and they are just not turning out very good. With auto mode everthing indoors is taking at F2 and 1/60 second. All are taken at large and superfine. Outside pics are better, but not like what I was seeing online or what I expected. Any ideas, suggestions, thoughts on what is going on? From all the reviews and discussions I don't think this is the norm for this camera so any help would be much appreciated. I am also getting LOTS of red eye. Here is a link to a few examples of what I am talking about. http://gallatinvalleyc​omputer.com/html/examp​le1.htm Thank you.

I must be honest i they are not what i would expect from a G6

Here are a couple i took using the buit in flash with my G6:

http://alnath.fotopic.​net/p8944450.html
http://alnath.fotopic.​net/p8944456.html

I agree they should be better. The question is, what am I doing wrong? What settings would work better in these situations?

This is not a question of settings but focus. In your photo look at the window blinds. Notice how it is in focus. That is because when you aimed the lens you placed the focus on that and not your true subject.

I am not sure if you have done so yet but if you read the operation manual you will find a chapter on how the camera focus. Once you learn how the camera sees things your photographs will improve. The G6 is a great camera but in order to harness its power you have to learn how it sees things first.

Best of luck.

I think that you have a great camera - you just need to take some time to learn the "ins and outs" of shooting with a G-series camera. You are going to get the best results when YOU take some control over the photography process. I would at least use the camera in "P" mode and manually set the ISO rating at 50 and LEAVE it there. Thay may help with the graininess that you are seeing.

The blur could be from the 1/60 shutter speed that it wants to choose. I would suggest that when you want to avoid blur on indoor photos that you switch over to TV mode and select a shutter speed of at least 1/125 to "stop" the indoor action better. Again, you taking more control.

I would also set the camera to "center focus" only and make sure that what you want in crisp focus be in the green box in the center of the screen. The G-series cameras are contrast detection focusing cameras and vertical contrast is the best. If you are taking a shot with no vertical oriented contrast spots - tilt your camera 90 degrees and that should help.

I hope that some of this helps.....

Thanks for the tips. The ISO in those pictures was all at 50. And I did try with a setting of 1/125 but then they all came out too dark. 1/60 does seem a little slow and I don't want to pack a tripod with me every time I am indoors somewhere, that isn't practical. And I didn't read all through the book on focusing before those shots, but the green square(s) was always centered on the middle of what I wanted in focus, mainly the faces. When I get closer, say within 6 ft. , the pictures are a lot better. But then the quality goes down very fast for every foot or so that I move back. I do not know much about digital photography, it just seems that it should be taking better than this. I will read again the section on focusing and play around with it some more. I know the problem is with me and not the camera, I thought maybe there might be something obvious that I was doing wrong that would be a quick fix. I will admit I am not patient when it comes to reading manuals, but if that is what it takes I will do it...lol Thanks for the help.

Also, the best accessory that you can get for your G6 with regards to indoor photography is, by far, the Speedlite 420EX flash. It's going to be another $150 investment - but it is worth every dollar for crisp, evenly lit indoor shots.

I wouldn't think that your shots should be too dark at 1/125 - the G6 has falsh sync speeds up to 1/250 - which is a great feature of the camera. Make sure that you don't have your flash exposure compensation turned down in the FUNC menu.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

Looking at your shot, from my own experience I think there's a little bit of camera shake along with what the other folks point out. Maybe the shutter speed was too slow.

BINGO! From what I can see, your shots are taken in a shop of some sort, and any indoor shot without a tripod is asking for trouble unless you are capable of using much higher ISO's. Someone on another forum once said; take the generic rule of focal length equals shutter speed, then double that for digital was on to something IMHO.
I noticed also that you were trying to cover quite a bit of area with your built in flash. I believe the 420EX external flash would be a huge help in this sort of shooting, as Bauerman has already suggested.
Good luck, and let us know how you progress with your G6.
-Bruce

Also make sure your flash sync was with first curtain, not second curtain. It's under the MENU options. That could be your problem, especially on the first shot with the people. Also, with what you are doing, you are going beyond what the internal flash can handle.

wow, are you sure the film iso is set to 50? all the shots I have taken with my G6 look gorgeous, and I have no noise when I use iso 50 (anything else is another story). I am not sure what the camera was focused on cause the girls in the picture are not in focus.

I am 79 yrs and do have a little camera shake
So I went to a Monopod whenever possible
I use the Manfrotto Automatic Monopod
With a tilt adjustable head
Really easy to use
Makes a great improvement

well. - G6 is a very 'unequal' camera. -- sometimes (more often than you expect.) bad AF
--and sometimes pic quality of 300d or d70. - I think,not looking too much at AF problems,that this is the best compact camera on the market now.-- but ,its true,I am also sometimes sad that my G6 make me nervous TOO often. - hope g7,with new larger DIGIC,will be better. - I hope so... - IF NOT ,I must come back to the 'old style of Olympus 8080'.