Yashica T4 Super - What is that red light for?

I bought a Yashica T4 Super P&S camera, but can't seem to find my

manual for it. There are two lights when I focus, one green and

another red. When I depress the camera button half way to focus the

red light turns on as well. After I finish taking the photo, the red

light flashes repeatedly for a couple of seconds.

What does that red light mean anyways? Any help would be appreciated.

I'm extremely new to cameras so if any of you can give me any tips on

how to use this camera better, I'd appreciate it.

I find this camera can make very nice pictures, but the camera action

is a bit slow, so when other people use it to take a picture, they

typically move immediately after they press the button and cause the

pictures to become blurry when the camera takes a half a second to

actually focus and shoot. Also I must comment on how poorly those

two lights are located. It is hardly visible when one is taking

pictures in the day time. I don't know if I am focused or not and

the sensitivity of the button doesn't help.

I also seem to have a bit of a problem taking pictures at night, they

seem to not come out very clear or rather dark. I'm using fuji 400

film.

Green light is for focus, red light is for flash.

The red light appears in auto-flash mode, red-eye reduction, and flash ON modes to indicate that the flash will fire.

In Flash OFF and landscape modes the red light warns of slow shutter speed (below 1/60).

Red light also appears during flash charging.

Modes are: (use the left button on top of the camera)

1) Auto-flash (default)

2) Red-eye reduction

3) Flash ON

4) Flash OFF

5) Landscape (infinity focus, no flash), also useful for shooting through windows

Modes 1 and 2 provide shutter speeds from max (1/700) to 1/60

Modes 3, 4, and 5 have shutter speeds from max down to 1 sec.

<p>

Here's a good place to start learning how to use that camera: <a href="http://www.photo.net/learn/point-and-shoot-tips">http://www.photo.net/learn/point-and-shoot-tips</a>.

<p>

From page 12 of the manual:

<ul>

<li>When solid red in flash-on mode: indicates that the flash will operate.</li>

<li>When solid red in flash-off mode: indicates that the shutter might be too slow for handheld operation</li>

<li>When flashing red (in any mode): flash is currently charging</li>

</ul>

<p>

Hope this helps.

Oh, and all modes except Landscape can be locked in--you stay in whichever mode, 1 through 4, that you select, until you select another or turn the camera off.

Mode 5 is a one shot deal; after a single exposure, the camera reverts to the default, Mode 1 Auto-flash.

If your problems with night time pictures refer to street scenes,

cityscapes etc. (rather than people photos and other close-ups),

the reason is probably that you're shooting in Auto Flash mode.

The camera will determine shutter speed as if your subject is

illuminated by flash, which of course it won't be if it's five meters

away or more - the flash on any P&S is quite limited in range, so

you'll end up with underexposed subjects.

Instead, turn off the flash with the mode button (for details see

responses above), find some support (tripod, a wall, tree, etc.)

so you can keep the camera steady during the long shutter

speed needed for low light, and shoot away. I've done quite a bit

of casual night photography with the T4 in this way, with

increasingly decent or even good results. For this type of

situation, the "Landscape" mode (push mode button four times)

is usually preferable, as focus is fixed on infinity. In Flash Off

mode, the camera will try to focus with the infrared sensor, which

can give unreliable results for distant subjects.

Regards, //Kenneth