increasing shutter speed on optio s51

hey everyone. I love my s51, but am a horseback rider and all my action shots seem to come out blurry? Any help?

Can we assume that your 'blurry' shots are taken whilst you are on horseback? If so, is the horse stationary, trotting, galloping . . . ?

I have no knowledge of your particular model camera but I wouldn't reasonably expect any point 'n shoot camera if set to auto mode, to produce anything but 'blurry' images if one is astride a moving horse. You as the rider are moving in all three planes when the horse is anything but stationary (left to right, up and down, and forward (hopefully not backwards).

If your camera has a shutter priority mode or TV on a dial somewhere use that mode and wind the shutter speed up to the maximum it will allow and still allow a useable aperture. Then steadily decrease the speed until the images become unacceptable. That should then give you a minimum shutter speed that you should be working with whilst on horseback.

Failing that I have only 2 suggestions:

1: Replace the camera with one that has some manual control (if yours doesn't). Or at least borrow one.
2: You guessed it . . . get off the horse.

Regards

digital- set higher iso; film use faster film iso800 and try wider focal lengths. if possible use aperture priority at wide open.

thanks, the horse would be jumping when the photos are blurry.

It's not the easiest of cameras to use for action shots - you really need to be able to set a high shutter speed and a DSLR would be ideal.

However, if you can increase the ISO that would help, I don't think there's much else you can do with that model. Have you tried "panning" with the movement of the horse?

what's ISO? sorry...

It's the "film speed" or sensitivity setting on your camera, if you can set it manually it'll be noted in your manual.
You might also try manually focusing on your subject or prefocussing by pressing the shutter halfway then firing when the subject reaches the point you focussed on. Many compacts have slow reflexes...shutterlag, and af can cause you to miss the shot. Also helps to think of your camera like it was a hot cup of coffee and hold it real steady and don't stab at the shutter release, press it gently and don't do that "I'm nodding my head for no reason, as I press the shutter button" thing people sometimes do....