beam shots have to be done in low light. or darkness. I am suggesting early morning shots for your outside pics as the light quality will be best and produce too much glare.
Oh OK, thought you meant the beamshots, my recent round of photos (including the example photo above) was taken outside under shade and it was an overcast cloudy day, so I guess that was a good time to take them.
You don’t Need a tripod; you can lean your camera against a book or something.
Everybody’s a photographer, which is why there are so many opposing answer’s to a relatively simple question. :person_facepalming:
Some of the stuff said here is just totally bogus information…
The issues are more related to battery life, and frame rate than memory. The larger the image, the more processing is required to convert it to a JPEG or store it as RAW. So the image quality impacts both the number of shots you can take on a single battery charge, and the rate at which you can take them. The larger the image, the more time it takes to process it into a JPEG and the bigger the resultant file is, the longer it takes to write it to the storage medium. A good CF or SD card is good for about 60mb/sec, so a high resolution 6mb JPEG will take 100 mS just to write to the CF card, so you are already limited to a burst rate of about 10 frames per second. HD video generally requires a class 10 memory card because of the required bandwidth to write the images in real time.
Not meaning to be rude matheww, but most of what your’e saying is just around the corner from the real truths. For example, most of what is being said here is pertaining to a point and shoot camera, as alluded to yourself. How many point and shoot camera’s take a CF card? How often is the smallest aperture the sharpest image? Image diffraction sets in around f/11 on most of those, and most camera’s period, so advising the smallest aperture is a mistake in and of itself.
60mb/sec? Really? That’s so 3 years ago!
HD video shoots at an equivalent 2MP per frame, so it’s hardly related to what we’re talking about here, and it shoots in a compression mode as well.
I realize you probably meant that most high end point and shoot camera’s have an ND filter system built in, or a digital rendering thereof, but the way you wrote it makes it seem your’e talking about DSLR camera’s, which is simply not correct.
Too much information confuses even a fairly knowledgeable hobbyist, all this misinformation just can’t help anyone!
The best thing for anyone to do is learn their own camera. Study what it can do at a place like dpreview.com and then go out and apply it. Every camera is different, all the advise in the world isn’t really going to be helpful unless it’s coming from someone that uses the same make and model gear.
One simple trick? Use the night mode for long shutter speeds and tape over the flash, it comes on automatically in most camera’s using night settings. 
(A tripod is virtually a must!)
+1
Cheers David
Yes I’m hoping to keep this thread limited mainly to info pertaining to point & shoot camera’s
Yes I’m finding this is quite true.
Thanks, I will try night mode and a tripod, I tried “sports” mode for longer exposure, but the photos were grainy. On my Fuji the flash can be turned off even in night mode.
Grainy was from a high ISO. If possible keep the ISO down and use a longer shutter speed. You’ll also want to keep the largest aperture possible for the beam shots, smaller number, if it’ll let you set that. Also use a timer if there’s one in the camera so that you aren’t touching the camera/tripod when the shutter trips, this will give you more keepers.
dpreview has a review on that camera, might help you understand what settings to use if you browse through it. Finepix Z33WP
It’s getting a little long in the tooth, things have changed a lot since 2009 in photography.
Edit: Page 3 of the review sums this up “Looking at the output of the Z33 closer, sharpness and detail are towards the bottom of the pile in terms of sharpness and detail resolved at lower ISO settings. There is noticeable noise in the shadows even at base ISO, and comparing 100% crops from the Z33 against the D10 shows just how much difference there is between the top of the group and the bottom. ”
I think that shows why you’re having issues, or part of it. Remember not to use digital zoom, it really causes graininess. Remember too that with this particular camera even a base ISO setting shows grain in shadows, so at the lowest ISO setting you’re still going to get semi-noisy images taking beam shots, depending on how bright your flashlight is.
Have to disagree with a couple things here.
IMO with a P&S, there is really no reason NOT to shoot at max resolution (and the least in-camera compression if it’s an option). Memory is cheap, and you can always resize images down if needed. However, you can’t “add pixels” later, at least not without degrading image quality. Like many, I tend to crop photos quite a bit in post, and if you are working with a small image size to begin with, you are limited on your final crop dimensions.
Another issue that Dale mentioned is ISO. Typically, the sensor’s native ISO setting will deliver the best results. On most P&S cameras, this is the lowest ISO setting available. Increasing ISO (sensor gain) results in increased noise (or “graininess”). However, there is a trade-off, as lower ISOs require longer exposures (longer shutter speeds) at a given f-stop. With plenty of available light, it’s not an issue. When the available light is low, this can result in blurry pics if the shutter speed gets too long to maintain proper exposure. With fixed, non-moving subjects, this can be remedied by using a tripod and/or setting the camera down and using the timer function.
Regarding resolution as it relates to aperture: Everything is a compromise! While diffraction does affect sharpness at the small end (higher f numbers), a wide-open aperture can induce/magnify aberrations as well. A happy medium is usually 2 or 3 steps down from wide open. If your max aperture is say 2.0, try shooting at 2.5 or 2.8. There are many factors at play, so that is just a generalization. Also, if shooting macro shots, the DOF (or lack thereof) becomes more of a factor. The closer you go (higher magnification), the more you will have to stop down the lens to maintain the desired DOF. This is usually automated with most P&S camera’s “macro” setting.
Maximizing image quality largely depends on what your camera automates, but there are a few things you can do/try if able:
1. Shoot at the lowest (or native) ISO, with the lens aperture 2-3 steps down from it’s widest, with the most available light (for macro, smaller apertures will be required to maintain DOF).
If available, shooting in AP (Aperture Priority) mode simplifies things a bit, and is a useful “semi-auto” mode.
2. Set the camera to the highest resolution, and the lowest level of compression if possible.
3. This may be obvious, but make sure your lens is clean!
4. Use a tripod and/or timer function, or anything to minimize/eliminate camera-shake. Good/sharp focus is step #1. Without that, everything else is irrelevant.
5. If the camera has a “digital zoom” feature, turn that off.