In article <N1T7b.435666$4UE.197390
@news01.bloor.is.net.cable.rogers.com>, geomorphologist@rogers.com
says...

The external flash would tend to sharpen images as it freezes camera
shake. I don't see how the external flash could have caused bluring.

I assume f5.6 is full open for your lens?  Stop it down one or two.  
Many lenses don't perform well wide open.  Your flash should compensate
with more light.

Is your lens clean?  Dumb question, but you have to ask. I also do
computer support, "is it plugged in?" is a common question.

Technical problem at Wal-mart? Maybe their machine was having a bad day.
Have a few images printed at a better lab.

Another test shoot is in order.  Shooting a wedding with new equipment
probably isn't a good idea.

Good luck,
Marc

I shoot medium format and don't know 35mm, but it maybe that your camera is
set for a program that expects to shoot ambient light and is only using the
flash for fill.

is the film screwed up?  did you look at the negs?  walmart? that's a real
class act.

did you hit some button to make the camera go into macro focus mode (if such
a thing exists on it.)

Hi everyone, thanks for all your suggestions! There's some more things that
i would like to add:

1. I used to hand hold my camera with slow shutter speed, ie slower than
1/60 and they came out nicely. I usually take landscape photos.

2. The photos are blurred in the same way, if it's caused by hand shaking,
then each one should blurred differently. They look that adding a soft
filter, whole image was soften.

3. I used tripod for some of the shots with a cable release, and as well,
they are also blurred in the same way as others.

4. I "just" remember one "important" thing...when I took those pictures, my
camera indicator showed that the shot was underexposed, ie. the bar went to
the negative side, quite a few stops actually. So, I now try to guess if my
photos are "all" underexposed...I was unaware of the indicator because I
thought the flash will "do" something to compensate it, and now i know it's
not!

5. And tonight I tried with another roll of film and found something that I
don't understand...when I used "A" mode and set f4 (the largest aperture for
my lens) with the external flash turned on, the shutter speed was fixed at
1/60s, with the indicator bar pointed towards the negative sign
(underexposed).

Question: does it mean that if I take the photo with this setting (with the
external flash), my photo will get underexposed?

Then I switched off the flash and the shutter speed changed automatically
(to a slower speed), and the underexposed sign was gone (that means the shot
was in right exposure).

Next, I used shutter priorty "S" mode and set the shutter speed to 1/60s
with the external flash on. It surely said it was underexposed. So I change
the shutter speed until it said it was at right exposure, at that time it
was already 1/10s with f4.8.

Question: If I used the above "S" setting, will I get a proper exposed
picture, even though the flash speed (sync speed??) is different from the
shutter speed?

Next, I used "M" mode and adjust the shutter and aperture until the
underexposed sign was gone. However, it seemed to me that the setting was
not affected no matter I used the external flash or not (ie. no matter I
turned on or turned off the external flash, my setting stayed the same --
unless I adjust it by myself).

Question: As the external flash never affect the aperture or shutter speed I
manually set in "M" mode, will I still able to get a proper exposed picture?

Finally, I tried "P" mode with the external flash and found the setting to
be f5.6 with 1/60s. However, it doesn't have an underexposed sign. Then, I
switched off the external flash and found the new setting was f4.2 with
1/10s.

Question: Which mode will you suggest me to use? I want the safest mode for
that important occasion. I will definitely use ISO400 films.

Thanks in advance!!

Janette

If you set your Camera to A mode the shutter speed will not be automatically
set to the flash sync speed, it will set it at whatever the ambient light
requires, the only mode that sets the speed is P mode.

You are just getting camera shake from the long exposure time that the
camera has set.  Next time use P or S and set the shutter your self.

Jean