Camera Advice (Low Light)

[yaddam205]

Hey i'd figure you guys would know a hell of a lot then I could ever so;

I am looking for an "inexpensive" (yes I know am I a terrible customer) Digital camera that works well in Low Light situations specifically LAN Party's. None of these photos will be printed all will be 1024x768 max online upload. That's why I believe I can get away with a cheaper camera.

Looking for anything in the sub $150 range if possible. Right now I found an HP R817 for an excellent price but don't know about it's LL ability. The other was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3K w/ Leica lense It's a great all around C-P-S camera and I love the leica lens but again have no LL feedback.

So please any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated.

[freecableguy]

go kinky bedroom shots!!!

[Soulburner]

Unfortunately almost all cheaper point and shoots have poor low light ability. Actually most cameras short of the DSLR's (big-sensor) have problems with low light shooting. The reason is they have a smaller sensor, which produces a lot of artifacts or "noise" as the ISO increases, which is what is needed to increase light sensitivity of the sensor.

With that said, from the looking around I did, I would check out the Panasonic TZ3. You may have to increase your budget a bit to get a camera that will do what you want.

Has ultra-zoom, small enough to secretively take it into concerts, decent low-light capability, and can burst at 3 frames/second.

There is also the Canon A710.

[thunderstruck!]

I would avoid Panasonic. They're sensors are notorious for being incapable of producing anything over ISO200 worth keeping. I'm surprised you recommended a Panasonic Soulburner, since I'm sure you looked into their midrange camera offerings before getting an S3.

As far as low-light capability in non-dlsr cameras, the best would be a Fujifilm F30/20 if you can afford that. It's not much over your budget and it is ideal for your use. I've seen ISO800 shots that looked better than my old S3 did at ISO200. It's also pretty small so it will be easy to get in places.

[b0bd0le]

things to look for:

high iso
what's the maximum shutter length/time?
image stablilzation?
and, how bad is the noise at 1600/3200/1000 iso?

[Soulburner]

Hish ISO ability has become more of a marketing gimmick lately. Just because it says it can do it, doesn't mean you should use it because on just about any compact camera anything above ISO 400 is pretty much useless if you want clean pictures. You can't even compare two different models directly because one cameras ISO 100 may look like another cameras ISO 800.

I recommended the Panasonic only because I saw a near identical thread on my photography forum, I don't have any personal experience with the camera. They don't get bad reviews though.

[thunderstruck!]

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf30/

[Soulburner]

I can vouch for Fujis personally. I always got pretty good shots out of my Finepix E550 (slighly older model than the one above).

Taken at ~7000ft:

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k245/BlackHawk2k6/Houston/DSCF1840mini.jpg

Houston Museum of Natural Science

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k245/BlackHawk2k6/Houston/DSCF1918mini.jpg

[sokece]

yaddam205;2165560']Hey i'd figure you guys would know a hell of a lot then I could ever so;

I am looking for an "inexpensive" (yes I know am I a terrible customer) Digital camera that works well in Low Light situations specifically LAN Party's. None of these photos will be printed all will be 1024x768 max online upload. That's why I believe I can get away with a cheaper camera.

Looking for anything in the sub $150 range if possible. Right now I found an HP R817 for an excellent price but don't know about it's LL ability. The other was a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX3K w/ Leica lense It's a great all around C-P-S camera and I love the leica lens but again have no LL feedback.

So please any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated.



There are two good brand with low lighting for compact Point Shoot camera, Fuji and Canon. You may want to do some more research about these two brand.
I bought Fuji F20 from amazon for under $150 and it is on the way. I was gonna go with Canon SD800 IS but the price way up there. The only disadvantage getting Fuji camera, it uses XD picture card. But this is not hold me not to get F20 because I need a new XD card anyway. I picked Fuji f20 because I don't need extra feature that F30 offer (Like manual shutter/aperture). If you're looking for point shoot camera. I think simple camera is better.

[Soulburner]

I did some more looking around and this one looks like it might fit the bill nicely:

http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=947

It supposedly has the same sensor as the larger F20 (http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=892) and F31fd (http://www.dcresource.com/reviews/cameraDetail.php?cam=942) so it should do better than most small P&S cameras in low light.

[古強者死神]

Fuji Film Finepix F30 is hands down the best point & shoot for low light. It has the best high iso hands down. Its iso 800 is better than the leading cannons iso 200.

I do almost exclusivly low light shots (bars & things) and since I like natural lighting I NEVER use the flash and I have yet to get one bad photo.

It does have a neat mode tho where it takes 2 pictures back to back, first without flash and the 2nd with so you can have both.

Important things to keep in mind, it has manually adjustible shutter speeds so you can bring more light in if you need, with max shutter speed (not practical but possible) I can take a picture of a pitch black room (cant see my hand infront of my face) and the picture comes out looking like the lights are on.

Ontop of the low light tho, it has the best battery life and fast picture to picture times and one of the fastest power on --> first picture times aswell.

I got mine for like 230$, it may be slightly out of your budget but its SO worth it. Infact they have a F31 out now so maybe you can find a discounted F30.

In the past I have owned 5 cheaper digital cameras and all of them became trash, take my word on it. Save and get somthing nice.

edit: oh keep in mind for low light you really want a AF sensor, that green light that lets the camera focus even in dark enviroments, without it you may get very slow focus or bad focus.

[Nephilim]

Another vote for F30/F31 :) Their Super CCD and Realphoto processor put them ahead of any other compact.

A big anti-vote for anything Panasonic, the VenusIII processor is a joke - welcome to smudgetown. Leica branded lenses mean nothing if the camera applies such aggressive NR that it destroys all the detail in the shot.