Grainy Pictures I take pictures of hockey games- due to the low lighting and the speed of the game they come out blury and grainy. I have tried the custom white balance, no help. Also I went from 800 ISO down to 400 with not much difference. Any Help? Thanks, Chisel

If you are taking pictures in low-lighting conditions without flash, then the pictures will appear grainy. Set the ISO to a lower number (try ISO-100 to start with) and use the flash to compensate for low-light conditions.
This should improve the grainy appearance of your photos.

The flash has a range of up to around 10 feet at the wide end of the zoom, down to 6.5 feet at the tele end. Maybe you are using it on to big a distance or at to low ISO? Try setting the ISO to 800 and see if it helps. images get a bit more grainy at 800 ISO but are also less prone to camera shake, if you use it without the flash. The camera goes as high as 1600 ISO, but images get very grainy at that setting.

First go to the SETUP menu and make sure that the PLAYBACK VOLUME setting is set to a value greater than 0. Try increasing the shutter speed of any photos as CCD's will notoriously produce grainy images on slow shutter speeds. Grainy videos will indicate poor light, camera shake during filming or moving too quickly so the autofocus cannot function correctly, or using too low a resolution and will be especially noticeable at 640 x 480 when viewed on a large high resolution screen. If all the above make no difference then you may need to get the camera serviced.

Without ISO you will not be able to take pictures.
ISO is the old ASA which is related to film speed
ISO 50 is very slow film speed and may result in blur and some grainy appearance , same as if you PUSHED ISO up to 800 in low light.

Try setting it to ISO 100 and see if that helps.

You can still select auto, but its related to either shutter or aperture priority in relation to the set film speed ( now ISO 100)

The grainy effect has to do do with the ISO setting, try adjusting that. A higher ISO is generally better for darker conditions. I have noticed that this camera frequently takes grainy images.

Hi

Low light without a flash will always cause grainy pictures unless you have a very high end camera that can shoot at very high ISO speeds like 6400 and up.

Try changing the camera from the green camera 'auto' setting to "P" and then press the Menu button (I think it's Menu) and look for the different mode settings. There should be one for Night or Night Portrait or similar, I can't recall Sony terms and I don't have one here to check sorry.

Your other option is to use the flash, try it with Red Eye turned on if possible.

Hope this helps.

Thomas D.
Owner, Darntoothysam com

If you can adjust the ISO sensitivity to a lower number then the graininess will be reduced.

However, by reducing the ISO, you will need a slower shutter speed and a larger aperture. A tripod, table or other support may be necessary.

The "noise reduction" setting on the camera can also be adjusted a step up.

Taking pictures at full resolution and fine compression will also help.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Overall, at least try lowering the ISO, and using the flash brighter.

just switch to regular mode but the pictures already taken will unfortunately be like this sorry

grainy pictures are possibly casued by a very high ISO (sensativity) setting, you should be on 100 or lower for best normal shots. Higher settings are for low light and custom shooting in strange lighting or aperature/shutter speeds. Try full auto setting.

You have your ISO setting far too high - set 100 or 200 and get a magic improvement immediately !