Mrs B is currently using my old Pentax Optio, bought in Japan several years ago. She chose to take it to Japan, rather than my newer Canon SX200 - and there's a problem. The shutter is audibly slow, & you can see the results. Outdoor pictures are washed out. Indoor are better, but unless taken in pitch darkness, there's ghosting, because the damn thing is obviously open so long that unless you have a very steady hand it moves.
I've discovered that she'd not used it for almost a year, & had left the battery in. It was working perfectly well before that. The battery seems to charge. It shows as fully charged, but the battery low indicator comes on much sooner than it used to.
Opinions, please. Should we buy a new battery & check, or is it more likely to be a fault with the camera? If the latter, what might it be?
It's old, & limited, but the optics aren't bad (vastly better than a mobile phone camera). There's a picture taken on it at standard quality as the background on the 23" monitor I'm using now. It seems a waste to throw it away, if it's a minor problem.