New F20 User...Help!

[Jamesw]

I am a very new F20 User and member to this forum so please excuse my ignorance on how things are done :o
I bought an F20 because I wanted to take great pics at low light.
After a few uses I am not sure if I am taking pictures correctly. About 50% of them come out with unclear edges, even though I do use the AF lock, and what seem to be very saturated colours for skin tones.
There just doesnt seem to be much consistancey with the quality of pix that are made, although I'm taking them with the 'Auto' Mode on and focusing everytime. I read that the F20 could take very good pics at hight ISO levels. Example, a picture on a cloudy day had an ISO1600 and the picture is very very grainy even at 50% size. I was looking for a point and shoot camera and am unsure if I bought the right one.
The LCD also doesnt seem to change the FPS, if I have it set to 60FPS, unless I have the AF locked. (It does change when I change it to 'movie' mode then the picture is much more clear.) And I do have it on Auto so I was expecting a difference.
Was I expecting too much from the camera?

[tim11]

Jamesw,
Can you post some images? If you still have your HP camera, I'd suggest you use both F20 and HP to take one shot each and post both - both inside the house with FLASH OFF. Just scale down to smaller size and leave all EXIF info intact.
I wonder if you accidently set COLOR to CHROME, otherwise I wonder how it can appear saturated...
Even rainy days outdoors, I assume ISO400 is sufficient. Lower ISO should be used whenever possible and only all else fails that you resort to ISO1600. You can expect grainy image with ISO1600 when viewed at 100% on monitor, all it's good for is small prints or smaller images posting on internet. The same result is expected with some DSLR; as for other compacts, they either don't have such high ISO or if they do, images will be of trash quality.
I'm not sure what LCD is doing at 60FPS, I have never need to touch that yet.
Do you expect too much from 'the camera'? I think you expect too much from cameras. You may need getting some used to and you will realise the capability of F20 and appreciate it.

[Jamesw]

Thanks tim11! Advise well taken, I will try a few different things.
I hope it didnt seem that I was completely trashing the F20, it is a very big step up from the HP. And the pics that came out REALLY came out well!
I will post some pix. These were the ones I was talking about.
The use of limiting the ISO sounds like it will come in very handy.
Thanks again. :)

[Jamesw]

A couple notes on the above photos.

The first one was taken on a cloudy day on 'Auto', ended up being ISO1600.
Is it natural for the colour to look saturated on the skin at high ISO?

The second turned out really well. Sunny day at ISO100.

Huge difference. I belive I will have to practice more.

[P_Schneider]

Well I have not tried the F20 but I don't think it's that dissimilar from the F10 which I love dearly. I think that the rule of thumb is that you never use Auto mode on any of the F series cameras, the pics are just not there. You can get some great shots if you use the SP scene modes or you use manual mode where you choose the ISO, white balance, and EV settings. For point and shoot people I would recommend using the scene modes. There should be plenty of them for most occasions.