wrote:
: I have a basic 3 mp digicam (SD200 or IXUS 30). When I take pictures
: of the skyline at night, it's blurry and sometimes it has fuzzy dots.
: After reading the manual, I understand I have 3 choices in fixing my
: problem. Turn on the 'long shutter' option, but the manual states that
: it would add noise to the picture. The next option is the ISO speed.
: I understand that the higher the ISO speed, the more image noise it
: creates. The third option is 'exposure compensation', I'm not sure if
: this applies.

: I think I would need a tripod for night shots don't I? Then turn on
: the 'long shutter' mode then move the ISO speed to the slowest speed as
: possible. Is this all I could do for now? Thanks for the help.

You are on the right track. First you do need a tripod as it would be very
rare that a night scenery (not in a well lit room) shot would be hand
holdable. Depending on the camera (I'm not experienced with your
particular camera) you will probably have to both increase the ISO and use
a (very) slow shutter speed. But one more problem that you didn't cover,
focus. Your description mentions fuzzy dots. This makes me think that it
was dark enough that the auto focus could not find anything to focus on.
There are a few suggestions. You might try to find something like a
lighted building or a streetlight that is lit bright enough that a line
can be seen by the camera. Most auto focuses use an edge to focus on and
so if you center an edge or brightly lit line in the image it will focus
on that. Then continue to hold the half press and re-aim the camera to
compose the image. Or if your camera has manual focus try setting the
camera to infinity. Most lenses are at infinity beyond 12 to 20' and
scenery shots are generally well beyond that.

Unfortunately most P&S type cameras are very poor at night shots. This is
why many of us who like to occasionally "play in the dark" tend towards
DSLRs. The more manual control you have the more options. For example an
SLR set to bulb, set to the smallest f-stop (most open), manually focused,
on a solid tripod, with a shutter speed of 30 or 40 seconds can capture
some images that are just not possible in any other way.

Randy

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Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL