hey guys i got a odd question. i have a couple year old sony digital camera. 5 mega pixel picture quality if i remember right. anyways the other day i pick it up and go to take a picture but its very blurry. i looked to see if the little flower was on the screen and it was ( i was told thats for close up pics). i tried taking it again but still had the same results. i tried close up pictures and distant pictures both had the same results. i looked at the lens and it looked clear. i grabbed my lens cleaning pen and brushed it and used the cleaner pad. still no help.

any ideas? i baby this camera and it has never done this before???

Are you shooting in full-auto mode?

Are you getting a positive Auto-Focus lock when you depress the shutter half-way down?

I would recommend performing a software reset to clear any weird settings that may have been accidentally toggled.  Usually you can do this through the menu, or there might be a tiny recessed button you need to press with the tip of a ball point pen somewhere on the chassis or behind the battery door.

I'm a little confused.  Did you change modes from close up to regular shots (shutting the flower off)?

thanks for the quick reply. i went ahead and reset the camera and it seems to be working now. i can zoom in and get a clearer shot than i could b4. dont know what i did but i must have done something wrong???

i got another question for you. on the turn dial there is a movie mode, play back mode, green camera, P , M , SCN,  and set up selection. i know what all of them do except the P, M. the green camera is for normal picture taking and the scan i usually set it on sports mode so it takes quick pictures.

most of the pictures i take are outside action photos. i also try to take night (low light) action pictures but they usually dont come out because of the slow shutter speed.

any help?

Quoted: thanks for the quick reply. i went ahead and reset the camera and it seems to be working now. i can zoom in and get a clearer shot than i could b4. dont know what i did but i must have done something wrong??? i got another question for you. on the turn dial there is a movie mode, play back mode, green camera, P , M , SCN,  and set up selection. i know what all of them do except the P, M. the green camera is for normal picture taking and the scan i usually set it on sports mode so it takes quick pictures. most of the pictures i take are outside action photos. i also try to take night (low light) action pictures but they usually dont come out because of the slow shutter speed. any help?

The P is probably Program mode.  The camera will select what it thinks are the best settings, and you are able to influence them slightly using the controls.  M is probably full Manual mode, meaning you must choose the aperture and shutter speed yourself.

FYI, the most common problem point-and-shoot photographers suffer from is a misunderstanding of focus.  As mentioned already, press the shutter button down half way with the focus indicator over whatever you wish to focus on.  The camera will beep/light up to let you know it has a positive focus lock, then you press the shutter button the rest of the way down to take the image.

copy that. when you do that it usually has a green box or multiple green boxes that pop up. that must indicate how good of a focus lock i have?

Quoted: copy that. when you do that it usually has a green box or multiple green boxes that pop up. that must indicate how good of a focus lock i have?

That is the multi-point AF locking on to various points in your frame.

You can usually change the focus bias from multi-point to center-frame in the options.

If you haven't already done so, I would recommend downloading and reading the user's manual for you camera.  There is a lot to learn from it.

If the little flower was on the screen that means you had it in macro focus. If you look at the dial you'll see the flower symbol there.