Q: I have an Olympus C-765 Ultra Zoom. This is a great camera for long-distance shots with a 10X zoom and 4 megapixels. What setting should I use to get this camera to take good pictures inside a school gymnasium at a wrestling match? All of the photos come out blurry, or if I use the flash, it makes them dark.

Also, what would you recommend for the next step up in a digital camera? I like how lightweight this camera is for taking to rodeos and on trail rides. The only drawback to this camera is how long it takes to download to the memory card when I am trying to take a series of shots at a rodeo.

CINDY WELDON, Minneapolis, Minn.

A: To try to capture indoor action with the C-765 you can raise the ISO setting to 400 and use aperture priority (A on the dial) with the lens set to the smallest number (2.8 or 3.7 in your case). This is not likely to satisfy you, though. With a compact digital camera, even a very good one such as yours, you are limited when taking pictures inside and in low light, especially when photographing action such as sports.

There are three factors common to almost all small digital cameras that are limiting you: the size of the digital sensor used to make the picture; the optical "speed" of the lens; and a weak flash.

A small camera means a small sensor. This small sensor is limited in how much light it can collect. To illustrate, put a dime and a quarter next to each other on a table, turn out the lights and illuminate them with a flashlight. The quarter, because of its larger surface area, picks up more light.

Taking the quarter and dime analogy further, if you try to fill up a sheet of paper with them, you can fit more dimes on the paper than quarters because they are smaller. This is what happens when you see small cameras with very high megapixel counts -- the sensor stays the same size, but the pixels are made smaller so more of them can be squeezed on.

To compensate for the small size of the pixels in compact cameras, electronic amplification is used in low light and high ISO settings. This degrades image quality noticeably, causing a grainy appearance that destroys detail in the picture.

Next, the speed of the lens. This refers to the amount -- brightness -- of light it lets in. Again, with almost all small cameras when you zoom to get a closer look at your subject, the lens collects less light. This is shown by the 2.8-3.7 specification of your lens -- zoomed out it is 3.7, which is a loss of around 25 percent. The camera will compensate with slower shutter speeds, which creates the blur you are experiencing.

Finally, the flash. Built-in flashes aren't good for much more than 15 feet at most. Combined with the limited low-light ability of the sensor and the zoom lens, indoor pictures of action are pretty much a lost cause.

So, if it sounds like I am telling you that your equipment can't really handle the task -- you're right.

The "next step up" will solve all your problems. What you need is a digital SLR. Digital SLRs use a large sensor with large pixels that can be used at ISO 800 or even 1,600 and still yield good quality images. They also focus and shoot very quickly so you can take many pictures in succession without the camera locking up to download to the memory card.

The Nikon D50 would work well for you. It currently sells for $699 with a good starter lens -- quite a buy! You can add a lens such as a Sigma 55-200 to match the zoom range of your Olympus, which still will work great on those trail rides. Just because you are adding a new camera to your arsenal does not mean your Olympus isn't useful anymore.