Why can't I get my Panasonic DMC-FZ47 to take sharp photos?

[lhousesoccer]

Last Christmas (2011) I "upgraded" my old Panasonic Lumix DMC-F5 to my current Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ47. I'm not a professional photographer. I'm a point-and-shoot kind of guy that likes to mess a little with manual settings. I liked the FZ47 because it gave you both options, and seemed to have a good suite of scene modes, plus their "Intelligent Auto" setting, which is supposed to figure things out for you. I'm about 50-50 hit and miss with getting decent quality photos. For the life of me, I can't figure out why certain shots just don't look crisp and sharp, and the colors, especially blacks, look grainy. I'm ready to sell the thing and get another camera, but first I thought I'd poke around a bit and see if there's maybe something I'm doing wrong. I don't know what it could be, since usually I use the automatic settings, like "indoor portrait", or "sports".

Below are some shots I took this weekend at my son's hockey game. I'm disappointed with the quality of the photos. The camera got good reviews, so I expected better results. One thing I've noticed is that if I use the flash, the photos look sharper, but it also looks washed out sometimes. I shouldn't have to use the flash constantly, just to get crisp photos.

Take a look at the shots below and look at the graininess in the black of the hockey jerseys and other dark colors. Any tips would really be helpful. Is it me or is it the camera? I never seemed to have this problem with my old Panasonic DMC-F5.

 

[480sparky]

The 'grain' in the black is digital noise, the result of using higher ISOs in low-end sensors.

As for the blurryness, that might be a backfocus issue, or even a dirty lens.

 

[tirediron]

Some, such as the one with the child in the green jacket, are shot at a high ISO (800) and low shutter-speed (1/25). This combination likely resulted in high digital noise and slight motion blur. To definitively eliminate any camera issues, place the camera on a solid surface in bright (out of doors, sunny)light and use the self-time to take a couple of exposures. The colour issues are likely a combination of the above and internal camera settings.

 

[lhousesoccer]

Thanks Sparky. So, any tips on how to address it? Mostly, I shoot with the scene settings, so the camera is setting the ISO etc. on it's own, right? Do I need to use a different scene, or go to manual settings?

 

[480sparky]

Not familiar with that camera, but you may want to see if you can set a maximum ISO.

Another softness cause might be digital zooming.

 

[ralphh]

I only see one photo here where the shutter speed is likely to be to blame - the others are 1/60 to 1/250.

Looking at the first one as an example... you have a 28mm (eqiv) lens, 1/250th shutter and a (more or less) static subject... assuming this wasn't taken turing an earthquake, it's not likely a motion blur / camera shake issue / shutter speed issue.

They're all (except one) shot using ISO 400. Frankly I don't know enough about your speciffc camera to comment on if that's the issue - whether ISO 400 is so noisy the noise reduction is killing the details. Is it always much better in bright light? If so it could be that, in which case there's not going to be much you can do about this - if it's at the limit of it's flash power and the lens is wide open (it is) and there's very little ambient light, esp where it's already down to 1/60th there's not really anywhere for it to go other than raise the ISO. The only solution would be to add more light.

Assuming /hoping it's not that...

Could, as sparky suggests, be a focus / dirty lens issue.

Is it definately focusing on faces? (either face dection on and working correctly, or you making sure you're focusing on the face)

You haven't got it saving mimimum quality or similar have you?