Photos at a party

[robmc12]

Hi all,

Just a quick question for you: I'm an amateur photographer, and mainly shoot for personal use. I find most occassions I use a camera are in low-light conditions, at a party or inside a club, where the moment exists only momentarily and requires a quick response to capture the frame.

I've been through a few digital compacts (my camera needs to be light and easily transportable), but unfortunately all I have tried take far too long to shoot. Both the Casio Exilim and Nikon Coolpix ranges I have tried seem to take 5+ seconds to focus, with 2-3 intermittent flashes, and often I miss the moment I'm trying to capture.

Can anyone recommend a small compact that has a quick low-light focus and will help me capture those fleeting memories? Quality is not as important and response and convenience to me.

Thanks,
Rob

 

[Holy Ghosted]

you may want to look into panisonics I have the Fz-50 and it works good it also has a manual zoom ring so it can be alot faster then others. here is a link to some reviews that are usually pretty detailed http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/
p.s. I think this is in the wrong place to ask you will get a better response in other place

 

[Hertz van Rental]

You may also want to read the Forum descriptions and the posting rules. This is the wrong section for your post.

 

[LaFoto]

Hi robmc, welcome!
I corrected your little error of posting in the wrong forum and have moved your thread to the Equipment and Services Advice section.
Specific Technical Assistence is more about the help to futher better a specific photo that is being presented there, see?

 

[digitalfrog]

I shoot nightclubs all the time and as you very well know the light is changing all the time and people are moving around... I doubt you will get much good results without an SLR and a good flash.

 

[Mike_E]

I'll vote for the DSLR, but not the flash in this instance. There are few ways that you can anger a group of imbibing individuals any faster than by popping a flash at them.

If price is an issue, look for a used Canon rebel or Nikon D50 and a 24mm f2.8 lens (I shoot Nikons but any DSLR will do). You can get other lenses later for other fields of interest. By using the P mode and an auto-focus lens you can take shots as fast as you can compose them through the viewfinder.

mike

BTW a D50 and a short lens will still fit in a coat pocket- a large pocket, but still.

 

[nagoshua]

Samsung has some great new compacts out atm, id check out some reviews. Panasonic do make pretty mint cameras too, i used to have an FZ-50 befure a got my 30D but if your mainly shooting in low light i dont think it would be for you, i had really bad problems with noise from ISO 400 and up.