camera shake

[dyang]

so i haven't bought a digital camera in almost three years, and the pentax camera i've used is now getting buggy after some saltwater got splashed on it.

http://www.pentax.ru:8080/store/listok_new/images/optio_330_a.jpg



with this camera, i started playing with manual controls. one thing that i noticed was i couldn't get reasonably clear shots longer than 1/5 shutter speed. was this a result of pentax or the small, handheld type camera? can i expect better results with cameras manufactured today? does the small lens of this pentax model make it harder in low light conditions or no real effect?

i don't really need a 10x or 12x zoom camera so i wanted to avoid buying an image stabilization camera, but i also prefer to take pictures on the fly without tripods.

help? suggestions?

[John_Reed]

so i haven't bought a digital camera in almost three years, and the pentax camera i've used is now getting buggy after some saltwater got splashed on it.
http://www.pentax.ru:8080/store/listok_new/images/optio_330_a.jpg
with this camera, i started playing with manual controls. one thing that i noticed was i couldn't get reasonably clear shots longer than 1/5 shutter speed. was this a result of pentax or the small, handheld type camera? can i expect better results with cameras manufactured today? does the small lens of this pentax model make it harder in low light conditions or no real effect?

i don't really need a 10x or 12x zoom camera so i wanted to avoid buying an image stabilization camera, but i also prefer to take pictures on the fly without tripods.

help? suggestions?I'd say if you're able to shoot at 1/5 of a second and get sharp shots, you're doing pretty well without anti-shake; that said, I think that only Panasonic is putting IS in short-focal length cameras. The first one was their DMC-FX5, and lately they've introduced the DMC-FX2 (4MP) and the DMC-FX7 (5MP) Jeff is about to post a review of the latter camera on this site, and he's already put up a sample gallery for it. In my humble opinion, it may be really difficult to hold such tiny cameras as the FX2 & FX7 steady enough to do much better than you've already done with your larger Pentax, but your mileage may vary. Neither one of these cameras has a viewfinder, so you're forced to frame with the LCD only, can't hold it against your face for more stability. With viewfinder-equipped cameras that are quite a bit larger, i.e., my FZ10 for one, I've been able to get sharp short-focal length shots down to 1/2 second, and there's a "1-second" example for the Panasonic FZ3 posted in dpreview's review of that camera.