Wich specifications are important for nightphoto's

[Wouter]

Hello everybody,

I'm a junior when it come's to digital camera's. I used go out at night to make photo's with great contrast, useally with high iso-value or with long shutter-time. But i'm confused when it come's to a digital camera. Wich specifications are essential to maken sharp photo's at nigh with a minimum of light. I'm looking for a camera around € 400,- and I want to shoot in New York.

Greetz
Wouter, Holland

[Beanboy]

Should look for exactly the same thing in the digital world.

Finding a camera with a shutter speed of 15+ seconds and probably 30+ seconds shouldn't be a problem at your price point.

As far as ISO goes, high ISO settings on a digital camera can get noisy, how bad depends on brand. I'm coming from the non-SLR side of digital, so I'm not up on the low-end SLRs that 400 pounds could get you.

Short version: Shouldn't have a problem getting a digital camera for good night shooting at your price point.

-B

[dwig]

As "beanboy" said, it will be hard to impossible to find a good low light camera in your price range. The features to look for (somewhat in order):

1. Fast lens - there won't be one on any digital camera under $1000. You will find a few that aren't excessively slow toward the top of your range or slightly over. You want f/2.0 or faster but won't find anything faster than f/2.8, and even that will be hard to find.

2. Long shutter speeds - You'll probably find a decent range of cameras that offer long exposures but not all will. This is not a "popular" feature so it will take some digging to find this info for some models.

3. High ISO options - must models offer speeds up to 200 or 400 but some may offer higher.

4. The ability to shoot in a RAW format - Using images in this format, as opposed to JPEG, requires special compatible conversion software on your PC. One advantage of RAW is that, with the right software, you can do a better job of removing or reducing the image noise (the digital equivalent of "grain") that becomes more evident at the higher ISO settings.

[PhilR.]

You want f/2.0 or faster but won't find anything faster than f/2.8, and even that will be hard to find.

Actually, you can find faster than f/2.8. Several from Canon come to mind, including the f/2.0 G6. In fact, finding f/2.8 isn't that hard to do either.

Although it would be nice to have 2.0 or faster, you don't have to have it. One can do night shots with slower lenses - as long as you can lengthen shutter speeds, or use flash. It just depends on what is actually being photographed at night.....

PhilR.