A complete beginner seeking advice

[bluebottomedfly]

Hi everyone, I'm completely new to photography, well you know I've always taken pictures but now I want to take much better pictures, Im only useing a Kodak z980 though as Im not technically minded and a DSLR is too much for me.
The problem Im having is that my indoor pictures quite often come out blurry, I read a review on my camera and it says that it starts producing noise at ISO 200.
Im wondering if I buy an external flash would this help the situation?
But thee review says this ""There are five white-balance settings on the Z980 and weirdly, flash isn't one of them. Actually, manual white-balance set isn't available either which begs the question why Kodak have included a hot-shoe to attach flashguns to the camera. Auto white-balance won't be able to compensate for flash as it needs to see the colour in front of it and it can't with flash. It looks like activating the pop-up flash changes the white-balance settings because the images do actually come out quite well balanced".
So, do you think an external flash would help or not?

 

[munch]

The only disappointment with my Kodak Bridge camera is flash photography. I have used an external flash and that has improved the quality. See if anybody you know has an external flash and borrow it.
Blurry pictures might mean you are moving the camera as it flashes. If you don't have a tripod, just set the camera up on a table and take some photos from that and see if that improves your shots.

 

[lawrie29]

You need to weigh up with ISO what you are prepared to accept.

Have you jacked the ISO up to beyond 200 to see whether the noise is acceptable to you? Many camera reviews are done by people who play with all levels of cameras all day long. As someone who has worked in car rental, I much prefer the full leather interior of a Mercedes and find the fabric and plastic of a Fiat horrible. But that doesn't mean that I would not drive a Fiat if it was given to em (Or a merc for that matter). I know what I prefer, but the Fiat would be acceptable.

Increasing the ISO means you can use a faster shutter speed, so you will get crisper images. I always feel that a sharp, noisy image can be used, even if you just convert it to B+W. A blurry image goes in the bin, so better to have noise than blur, IMO.

With regards to external flashes, I have one on my Fuji bridge, and TBH don't even think about the WB when using it. (maybe I should!). WB is something that most people when viewing a photo won't worry about. It may well be that your camera has a setting for an external flashgun and that sets the WB accordingly?

Get a flashgun, even a cheap Jessops or Yongnuo will do more than sufficiently, and see what you think. There is a good used market for them, so if you don't want to use it, you can always flog it on here and not lose everything you have spent.

 

[Carter64]

Electronic flash is, to all intents and practical purposes, the same WB as daylight, at typical sunny noon. I know there's variations but these are too small for anyone but purists to worry about