My Camera Recommendations (Low Light)


Low light is the holy grail of photography. The shot above, for example, was taken outside at 1:50 AM. This is only possible by keeping the camera still and shutter open for 20 seconds. The subjects have to sit still the whole time, like old timey photographs. It is also possible to use a high ISO setting (literally the same ISO standard for companies) to get greater sensitivity to light. That means you can keep the shutter open less and maybe even hold the camera in your hand. The Panasonic LX3 is OK for this, but the new Canon G11 may be better. The New York Times also profiles two more pocketable cameras which may be just as good.

My goal, personally, is being able to capture what I see at night. I think a camera should be able to do this. However, with a long shutter cameras are actually capable of capturing what I cannot see, including otherworldly light. I suppose ISO could do the same things. However, I digress. For low light and general photography I’m interested in the new FujiFilm FinePix F200EXR ($320) and Sony WX1 ($500). The latter seems to have better image quality and does cool panoramas automatically.

However, I still think the FujiFilm F30 is the best low light camera ever made. I have owned two and thrashed them till they fell apart, but they’re magical. The LX3 I have now takes ‘better’ more printable photos but the controls suck and it makes a significant and awkward bulge in my pants. The long exposure trick is cool, but it takes me a minute to get the thing out and set it up for a normal party shot, which stresses me out. It does shoot really good HD video though. For something comparable (not an SLR, but not a compact) I’d recommend the Canon G11. It has great, intuitive controls, and now an improved low light sensor. No HD video, but takes great photos a bit easier than the LX3.

Not Megapixels

What’s interesting about the G11 and the other low light cameras is that they actually have less megapixels than competitors. That’s because it’s about quality, not quantity.  What you need for low light (and better pictures, generally) is a better sensor, not necessarily more megapixels. In fact, putting more megapixels on the same sensor produces granier shots. So the G11 actually dropped to 10 MP from 14 MP for the G10, which I think is great. Hopefully consumers will understand.

RSS feed | Trackback URI

3 Comments »

Harsha
2009-08-21 12:29:56

Indi,

My holy grail is the low light photos without flash .. I have a Canon 17-55 F2.8 lens I usually open the shutter flat out at F2.8 .. then bit of fine tuning on Picasa and It’s pretty sweet

 
n
2009-09-02 19:27:11

If you are a fan of ultra low light photography, you might want to check out cameras based on the micro four thirds format (not many available right now but they will start to show up, even here)

Unfortunately, as you point out, low light requires large sensors – and fast lenses. Compact cameras tend to have thumbnail size sensors and f2.8 or slower lenses – this is a terrible combination (exception your lx3 with its f2 lens).

You can get low light photos with compacts but this requires long (30 second+ exposures) – this is OK for still scenes but terrible for photographing people.

In summary: practical low light photography of anything other than still scenery using compact cameras is almost impossible right now, however micro-four-thirds cameras should hopefully offer a compromise.

 
2009-09-12 14:38:56

Holy Grail? Low Light? Learn how to use low light and a faster lens.

Enjoy…

 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

email indi AT indi.ca.


Recent Comments


You’re Nobody Till (45)

Regewaypere2: Asortyment uzupe?nia Outcast przestrzenna uciecha przygodowa i klisza Setnie Speedway. Nu?e na godzin? poprzednio wschodem s?o?ca nieruchomosci odby? wspomnian? z wykorzystaniem Benwolia przechadzk? w gaju sykomorowym mamy w...

Sarath Fonseka And Minority Politics (9)

tastyjujubes: Being more “Tamil 221; is not going to help the Sri Lankan Tamils to be honest. Being even more insular, introverted and ethnocentric is not going to help the Tamil people. The Tamils of Sri Lanka live on an island with a...

Ramesh: Tamils,particul arly those in the norh consider themselves a distinct entity separate from sinhalese people.So if they vote for sinhala political parties, there unique identity gets diluted.When they vote for a tamil party in numbers,they...

New New Kottu (4)

Saj: This looks cool. Without knowing about the upgrade i was accessing kottu from my phone.. Yea it looks like an app. Why dont u think about creating an app? :)

tastyjujubes: Have to say the pink colour used on the dark grey background on the top is a bit of an eyesore. Everything else looks great.

tastyjujubes: I remember the days when Sinhala was basically nonexistent and the blogosphere was dominated by a few folks with narrow minds – look at it now… It’s great.

General Sarath Fonseka Out Soon? (11)

tastyjujubes: I just wrote the above and then went to google news about Lanka and was met with this: Sri Lanka ‘must face war probes’ Sri Lanka must co-operate with any international investigation into alleged war crimes, ex-army chief...

tastyjujubes: Sarath Fonseka is a symbol of division. Even his release has divided society in general (well, at least Sinhalese society in general) and not united it going by the reaction of various people.

Lankan Thinker: I have a suspicion the government will restore SFs right to engage in political activity since his participation will effectively split the opposition votes – and is unlikely to attract any more support from the government&...

Buying Appliances Online (Singer) (5)

indi: Dude, she comes once a week and I pay Rs. 750. It’s a great deal I think.

Why Does India Suck At The Olympics?

Today on the morning show we talked about the Olympics, namely China’s emerging dominance. For me the bigger question is India. Why does India suck so much? In 2008 the US won 110 medals, China won 100 and India won… 3. India has over a billion people, some economic clout and is by all counts an emerging superpower, but they suck at the Olympics. Why?

New New Kottu

Janith has updated Kottu with rims and shit. Seriously, it looks pretty good. You could say the desktop look is cosmetic, but check out the mobile. Kottu now looks like an app with settings and menus and such. The biggest problem with K2 is me, ie, it now takes me up to a month to respond to emails. OMG I’m scared of my email. But Janith’s done this code and design update all by himself and it looks pretty good. Check it out. There was one bug with the previous page link. Lettuce know if there’s any more.

Miss Travel. Alternately, Mistravel

This is highly dubious. Miss Travel is a travel/social networking site that connects ‘Generous’ and ‘Attractive’ travelers. To, like, travel together, I guess. It all seems a bit like arranged prostitution and trafficking. This is part of a broader online trend to connect rich men to younger, attractive women. Sites like seekingarrangement.com connects women to ‘sugar daddies’ already. I guess Miss Travel is just taking that trend international. Wait, I checked, it’s the same guy doing both.

Buying Appliances Online (Singer)

Sri Lankan domestics never say anything, they just stop coming. My maid just stopped coming and when I finally pressed her she said I needed to get a washing machine. I was hoping to ride this one out, but I’ve run out of underwear and I have no choice. I finally caved and bought a washing machine, from Singer, ONLINE. I put the online in all caps because it’s pretty awesome. I ordered the thing in like 15 minutes on Saturday and they just delivered it today. It’s pretty awesome, this brave new world.