When I try and take a picture indoors using my flash, there is a delay in the exposure...and then the photo is distorted and not useable at all. It's like the expisure is jammed or delayed or something. Help?!
Without seeing the image, it's difficult to pinpoint the problem. But, going on the description you've described here, my guess would be that your shutter speed is too low to record any movement sharply, or is recording movement you are making while holding the camera. Some things that you may want to review with the camera to ensure that you're shooting the images correctly:
First, if you can look at the image using a photo editing program, see if you can review the EXIF (also called metadata) file and look at the exposure. Generally, anything under 1/30th of a second will show motion blur introduced from hand-holding the camera. If the shutter speed is below this, you should consider using a higher ISO setting or opening the apperture (this equates to a lower "F" number, so "F4" allows in LESS light than "F2.8") to allow more light into the lens. Remember that doubling the ISO will allow you to make an exposure with HALF the light. The down side to this is that higher ISO settings, particularly in Point and Shoot cameras, introduce higher levels of noise.
Ensure that you are no more than 10 feet from your subject. Most on-camera flash units are much less effective beyond this distance.
If you are photographing sports/action, remember that a shutter speed of 1/250th of a second will eliminate most motion blur.
Also remember that most point and shoot digital cameras are "one chip" cameras and often have multiple tasks to perform while making an image (focus, exposure, flash, recording and writing the file are all performed at the same time...), so it's not uncommon to see delays (also called "shutter lag") in point and shoot cameras (DSLR's have multiple chips, and don't have this issue...). One way to resolve this is to depress the shutter release half way. This keeps the chip "hot" and ready to expose. Doing this with a point and shoot camera greatly increases the responsiveness to the shutter release.
Hope this helps and happy shooting!
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