Newbie help!

[chronic]

Hey newbie here, ive always been interested in photography but only got started after the digital revolution so bought myself a dinky little samsung NV3 7megapixel camera for my holidays.

The only problem is the setting or maybe the camera itself, i can for instance take a picture of a mountain out at sea thats at least 10 miles away and then zoom into the mountain with great detail. Amazing!

However if i then take a picture of a band on stage at a concert and try to zoom in on that they are just a blur? I dont get it?

Also when i take nighttime pictures i seem to get spots alot (i think the flash causes this?) I have not taken ONE good nighttime picture with this camera...

http://www.samsungcamera.co.uk/product/pro_view.asp?prol_uid=1675&cat_uid=75

Maybe iu need to mess with the setting more but i think ive tried pretty much everything unless its got something to do with white exposure etc...

Thanks in advance for the help...

 

[hacksaw35]

What your are getting at night is "digital noise"...the camera will raise the ISO (which is comparable to the film speed, or the sensitivity to light) to try and counteract the low light.
It is very hard to take a descent picture at night without a tripod, unless your camera has a very low aperture like (f/1.8). I believe the only descent shots you will get with your P&S at night will be within about 4ft where the built in flash can light up...but try it out at night with a little tripod and see what happens.