Understanding the settings on a 'point and shoot' digital cameras

okay, so I am home sick and quite bored. but I thought this was relevant to our use of camera because we are taking pictures in less than ideal conditions. i use a Fuji F20 which is about 250 years old in terms of digital camera technology.

I took these pics last night using 4 different settings on my camera (auto, night, landscape, and fireworks). I was reading a few older threads and came across a thread where Dan was discussing how much info is really on these digital camera images and how with a little editing, you can make a mediocre pic into a great ones...This led me to think about what I could do to adjust the camera to make it perform even better given the conditions. This thread is more aimed at encouraging you guys to consider the full performance capabilities of these tools as they are pretty impressive. it is kind of moot as I do not use this camera for diving.

if you know nothing about cameras and images...read here http://www.betterphoto.com/article.asp?id=135 , a very simple way of understanding the photography process

I could not adjust the aperture but the ISO and shutter speed I was able to tinker with

the first is shot using ss 1/6.5 F2.8 ISO200

this one is ss 1/10 F2.8 ISO800

ss 1/12 F2.8 ISO800

ss 1/60 F2.8 ISO800

Clearly the third shot is the best but it is still a compromise because I would have wanted to open the fstop all the way up to compensate for the low light. That would add noise but I could tone it down little by little until a great shot was captured.

clearly most of us have these camera because of the fact that they are simple and we dont have to think about the shot, BUT....there are times you find yourself in bad conditions or where you should have brought a better camera:@ and you just have this one....i would say that generally a higher ISO is better for underwater shooting because there is less light...and I would want as big of an f-stop as the clarity would allow to keep the shutter speed super fast because we and the object are both constantly moving