What digital camera is good for low light

luminated

As the heading really.

I have a Panasonic TZ8 (small compact camera) but am well disappointed in the shots taken inside whether home or any other buildings. Churches are dark but I still feel without using a flash I want to get shots that aren't just ridden with graininess.

So I am thinking what to do a my tight £200 max budget which will not get a DSLR, unless off Ebay, or somewhere like London Camera Exchange. Also will only get second hand if I go for Bridge camera instead of my little compact.

So....................... stuck ............. unless someone can give me a few ideas.

pull62

You might just get a secondhand Panasonic LX3 for £200. It has a fast lens (F2) and will perform a lot better than what you currently have in low light. Is a great little camera.

vax2002

£200 best lowlight dslr
canon eos 400D
or a second hand canon eos 20d
but the 400d has the edge for low light.

lawrie28

You need to have a wide aperture lens (this is the F number, the lower the number the wider the aperture. Most lens have a wide aperture when they are not zoomed in)

You also need to consider a high ISO capability. The higher the number the more light is captured, but go too high and the image will go grainy.

You could get a used DSLR body with a Used 50mm F1.8 lens for less than £200. THis would be a fixed (or prime) lens, so to zoom you have to get closer.

The other option to consider is what you are shooting. If inside churches, with no people, then a Tripod may well do the trick as you can have a longer shutter time without blurring the image to allow sufficient light into the camera for a well developed shot.

If you are shooting moving targets, like people, this will help you, but it they move it will be a blurry shot.

A dslr will give you better low light capacity than a bridge or compact as they have a larger sensor (though some argue that a larger sensor is not always better in low light) and are also designed to cope with these situations better than a compact.

For £200 you should get soemthing, but more would be better.

The other choice is to convert you grainy shots to B+W and they then have a retro film camera look.

go to talkphotography.co.uk and have a nose around. Plenty will have asked same question on there.

DWatts

lawrie28 wrote: »

You also need to consider a high ISO capability. The higher the number the more light is captured, but go too high and the image will go grainy.

In some cases this is true, but most cheaper cameras will look awful on anything but the lowest ISO settings.

But the essential two things for low light are a large sensor and wide aperture lens. You won't get good low light performance from a compact camera except the newer micro 4/3rds which have a slightly larger sensor. It's not quite DSLR size, but it's close.

Essentially all it comes down to is available light. You want a wide aperture lens because it lets more light in. You want a large sensor because it's a larger surface area for the light to hit. The more light that can possibly hit the image-generating sensor, the better it's going to perform in situations with minimal available light.

A camera that can shoot RAW will probably help, too - since you can adjust the exposure to a degree after you take the picture.

closed

have you explored the manual/aperture or shutter priority modes, or always use automatic?

roddydogs

Good job you havent got a real "Cheepo" Panny TZs are one of the better compacts.

luminated

closed wrote: »

have you explored the manual/aperture or shutter priority modes, or always use automatic?

Yes I have fiddled quite a bit.

I did own a Canon SX10 until I dropped it (another story) and that was much better at low light stuff so I know it depends on the camera.

When I bought my TZ8 I was expecting more from it than it is capable of.

Pre DLSR I owned a number of SLR cameras so am familiar with manual settings.

luminated

roddydogs wrote: »

Good job you havent got a real "Cheepo" Panny TZs are one of the better compacts.

Yep and I guess I AM too fussy