Best Camera for NIght Shots?

On Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:25:06 -0700, Paul Furman <paul-.DeleteThis@-edgehill.net> wrote:
> Henry wrote:
>
>> I'm mostly taking photos of people and backgrounds lit up by
>> artificial light. In the past, I've found that the photos are blurried
>> as the camera needs a couple seconds to process the photo. I know a
>> tripod would help, but I don't want to carry it wherever I go. I am
>> hoping there's a camera out there (preferably slim and compact) that
>> can adjust for lowlight.
>
> Not slim but relatively small
> Used Nikon D50 $400 (Or Canon equivalent)
> Used 28mm f/2.8 lens $100
>
> If you can ask the people to hold still, a stabilized P&S should do OK
> but those aren't cheap or tiny.

The latter can be fairly inexpensive. Panasonic for one has been putting
stabilizers in even their entry-level models for a couple of years now.
So, it's possible to get a stabilized camera for $150 list, and probably
cheaper for an actual street price.

-dms

Hello Henry.

I don't want to get into the whole SLR 'V' P&S war, because it's just a
ridiculous argument.

You are mainly shooting people in low light. Even if the camera was on a
tripod, you would still probably get motion blur from the people as they are
constantly moving. Therefore you need all the available light you can get
so you can use a higher shutter speed, which will freeze their motion. One
way to overcome this is to have a bigger aperture on the lens, which will
let in more light, the other is to increase the ISO, which amplifies the
signal taken from the sensor. Or of course you can create your own light
(for example using the built in flash).

With P&S cameras, the aperture letting in light is minimal and the noise
levels at higher ISO settings are poor compared to an SLR (mainly due
smaller, cheaper sensors with small pixel pitch and bit depth). The
in-camera flash is also very small, too close to the lens and not very
powerful and there's not much you can do to change that.

P&S manufacturers try to compete with the SLR market by clever marketing
departments manipulated figures, but in real life you can't compare the two.

So, your choice at the end of the day. I would try to work out how many low
light night shots you actually take and how important they are to you
personally.




"Ali" <me.DeleteThis@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:osKdnZX5YbH1Mp_anZ2dnUVZ8t2snZ2d@pipex.net...
> Sorry, not going to happen.
>
> As Johnny said, an SLR with a fast lens. Tripod won't help.
>
>
> "Henry" <hank755_ca.DeleteThis@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
> news:1191357848.725784.182920@57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com...
>> I'm mostly taking photos of people and backgrounds lit up by
>> artificial light. In the past, I've found that the photos are blurried
>> as the camera needs a couple seconds to process the photo. I know a
>> tripod would help, but I don't want to carry it wherever I go. I am
>> hoping there's a camera out there (preferably slim and compact) that
>> can adjust for lowlight.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>