Washed out pictures after taken

Try messing around with the settings so different pictures are achieved. is there flash? (I personally never use flash in any pictures I take). Just setting the ISO to manual doesn't do anything, There are specific values, setting it to a lower may help, there's also white balance and exposure you should take in account. The camera also isn't that great of a camera and I'd suggest getting a new one.

You may have the ISO setting too high.
Try ISO 200

First, here's a link to a free download of your manual. You should review it from time to time and consult it when you're stuck on a problem. The page numbers in my answer refer to this document.

The settings that impact overall image quality are:

1) ISO Sensitivity (Page 51). This is the sensitivity to light. A properly exposed picture taken at ISO 100 could be taken at ISO 400 in just 1/4 of the time. This means if the subject is blurry at ISO 100, you'll have a better chance of "freezing the action" if you shoot at ISO 400. Overall, the lower the value, the better the picture. Lower ISO values are ideal for bright, sunlit pictures. Higher values tend to be grainier, and are better suited for dark, overcast days and indoors under artificial light. I found shooting my DMC-ZS3 that ISO higher than 400 are too muddied for my liking - try the settings to see what is acceptable to you.

2) Picture Size (Page 52). Pictures that are set for 5M, 6M and 7M (5, 6 & 7 Megabytes respectively) contain a great deal more information than a picture taken of the exact same subject at 0.3M, 1M and 2M (300kb, 1 and 2 Megabytes respectively). A seven megabyte (7M) picture holds over 20 times more information than the 300kb (0.3M) picture of the same subject. This can be hard to detect on our small screens in the camera, but when viewed on a computer monitor, it starts to become noticeable - quickly. Viewing on a 17" computer screen is 8 times larger than the 2 inch screen of the camera - this is effectively "enlarging" the picture.

3) Picture Quality (Page 53). The TZ2 offers just two resolution settings. Standard and Fine. The Fine setting saves the most information possible about the picture and is much better choice than Standard. If high quality images that can be enlarged is what you're after - Fine should be where you leave this setting. Standard can be good choice for web graphics and simple 4x6 prints if you wish.

These settings do come at a cost however. In the example above, between the 0.3M and 7M pictures, you could take twenty (20) very low quality pictures on the 0.3M setting OR a just single high resolution picture in the same amount of space on the card. This means needing to carry more SD (or SDHC) cards or larger capacity SDHC card if you find you current card is filling up too fast with the high resolution / quality settings.

I hope this helps and good luck! Please rate my reply. Thank you.

You could turn down the ISO to a lower setting.

Try shooting with ISO value of 200 or less; or set to "Auto".

If you're missing the manual, you can get it in English, here. Page 76 briefly discusses ISO settings. This camera can select an ISO as high as 1600. ISO has to do with graininess of film - the higher the number - the more grainy the images. Higher ISOs are selected when light levels are low and no flash is used or is usable (such as when the subject is too distant). Some photographers use higher ISO settings with high shutter speeds to stop fast moving objects (like wheels on a race car). The grainier the film, the quicker it captures light. Fime grained film takes longer to capture light.

Generally, pictures taken outdoors in sunshine look best when ISO is 100 or less. 100 is a good choice for well lit indoor pictures, too; but may be better with an ISO of 200. ISO works like this:

If a picture can be properly exposed with an ISO of 100 in 1/15 sec, it would require only 1/30 sec at ISO 200, or 1/60 sec at ISO 400. When you double the ISO value, the exposure times are halved. What's the big deal about 1/15sec, 1/30 or 1/60 sec you might ask? Easy! the picture will probably be blurry at 1/15 and even 1/30 sec exposure time, due to the camera recording even the slightest movement of your hands. You'll need to supply a tripod or do something else (such as increase the size of the opening of the aperture or f-stop) to get a properly exposed image.

I hope this helped - if it isn't an ISO problem - let me know. Good luck!

Be sure you are using an auto mode. Have the white balance set to "auto wb"...the ISO to "auto ISO" or somewhere between 100 to 400.

Do you have your ISO set too high? Lower the setting or use "auto ISO".

Could be that ISO settings were accidentally changed. The main annoyances with high ISO setting are the noisy (grainy as you say) images. Check the iso settings if you are shooting in modes other than automatic shooting.

The ISO is set too high, lower the ISO to 200 or set it to auto, try it you will find that the noise from photos will dissapera

Difficult to say without seeing some examples. Could you upload a few to your gallery for us to take a look. One possibility is the ISO is set too high. Go into your cameras settings and look up the ISO reading. Set it to its lowest setting (Probably 50 or 100) and take a few shots and see if that makes any difference. I have a C750 which does suffer with noise at higher ISO settings, but the lower setting should give very good results.