With a point and shoot type of camera that is set in the auto postion, all kinds of things come into play. If you are zooming way in with optical, it is a little more difficult to focus on the right thing. If you add to that equation low light, you are begging for disaster if you don't have anything to stabalize the camera on. When in the auto setting and in low light, the camera will automatically leave the shutter open for a longer period of time. Only a fractino of a second, but it is enough to pick up even the most subtle movements that you don't even know you are doing.

I have a kodak z710. It takes great pictures. 7 mega pixel and 10x Optical Zoom, it has some digital, but since I don't like or use digital I don't know what it has. I actually disable the digital zoom, so now I don't have to worry about the wife accidently using it. It has all of the auto features of most point and shoots, but it also has the customizable settings for taking other pictures. I really like learning new things about taking pictures, but it seems I forget more than I remember since I don't use it all the time.

With the right settings you can take some really awesome pictures. Below is one I took this summer out of my back yard. It is one of my personal favorites that I have taken, but if you look close...it really isn't that great of a picture. It has a little fuz on it yet, but I had the shutter open for almost 8 seconds to grab 3 different lighnting strikes. With the shutter being open for so long, even a breeze can throw it off it seems.



If I have enough money left after Christmas season, I will upgrade to an SLR or something closer to an SLR, but right now it isn't looking very promising.