olympus c-310 zoom problems

[tracymort]

I'm having probs with my new camera.  The flash is way too bright but if you turn it off the shutter speed slows down so much the picture is really blurred.  get some awful red eye with it too.   Any ideas on how to sort these out?

[garygadget]

The only reason I can think of why a camera which isn't faulty would be too bright is if the subject is too close to the camera, or some of the automatic settings have been overridden. Alternatively, if you've got a very bright subject against a black background, it might overexpose your subject trying to 'even out' the picture.

For the red-eye thing, check if the camera has an anti-red eye setting (which just fires the flash at low power for a few seconds to get the subjects irises to contract), or take multiple photos close together and use the later ones only (this has the same effect as the anti-red eye) - a real plus with digital is you don't have to print every picture you take.