Problems with the Sony CyberShot

[daGoz]

Dude
Spacemunkie may be blunt, but he knows his stuff, and no one called you an idiot. He is trying to help you and his advice is worth more than mine. We basically said the same things, he was just blunter about it.
I understand you not being able to post the full size pictures, but the EXIF data can be read out with many free programs and then you could post that. The EXIF data makes figuring out your problem possible. It will tell us the shutter speed, ISO, white balance and a ton of other stuff that would really help.
Your photos look to me like the camera is not seeing enough light or possibly the white balance is set wrong. That does not necessarily mean there was not enough light, it means your camera thinks there is not enough light for some reason. EXIF may show why.
The sensor in your old camera is probably about the same size as the sensor in this camera. With the individual 'pixels' being jammed closer together, there is more 'noise' generated at lower light levels (ie it takes more light for a picture of the same clarity).
I own several digital cameras, with the cheapest weighing in at $525 cdn on sale. My wifes camera was about $125 cdn and the pictures are pretty darn good, so I agree your camera should take better quality pictures than we are seeing, but pros like SM see our cameras as 'quite inexpensive'. We need to work harder to take the same quality pictures.

 

[Spacemunkie]

"The light wasn't the issue. Light hasn't been an issue in just about every single photo I've taken."

And therein lies your problem. Light is ALWAYS the issue. Without it you have no photos. Use it poorly and you have poor photos.

Post a pic with full EXIF - it's the only way to be sure that you've got the camera set correctly.

Believe it or not adding more megapixels to a camera's sensor can decrease the image quality - pics can become VERY noisy at equivalent ISOs. See Canon switching from a 15mp sensor in the G10 to a 10mp one in the G11. There has been a huge jump in high ISO image quality.

The images here would suggest that the camera is capable of taking a decent image...

Edit: Although it has to be said that pics are still pretty noisy even at 100iso...

 

[grimmo]

The problem with many camera nowadays is instead of letting a sensor take pictures at their native resolutions, they get bumped up to lure in buyers with their massive pixel counts(I like many sony products, but personally, I feel they are very guilty of this habit when it comes to their cameras). There are reasons why a high end 5k+ body only camera would list something that may only be cramming in an extra 2 megapixels. As Spacemunkie explained, the higher the pixel count on a sensor, the more noise you will get on a sensor, and most cheap point and shoots will be noisy. ISO settings, lenses aperature, exposure times, and the software in the camera(info recorded by EXIF) can all mess with what would seem like perfectly workable images.

While it is possibly to navigate the pile of sub-par products to find a decent gem of a camera that'll give you good quality images, this usually requires a good bit of research(which you yourself have admitted to having not done), now that you're stuck with this camera, all you can do is either figure out if there are factory flaws with the camera(which is possible, but unlikely), or just figure out the camera's quirks and figure out how to work around them.

If you want someone to figure your camera problems out though, you're gonna have to give them your image files straight up so they can check the shot's particulars. Otherwise, you may as well as be issuing us a ink blot test...

Personally, like with most tools, you get what you pay for. While decent cameras don't come cheap, they don't have to cost an arm and a leg either.