Digital Camera suggestions for low light photos

[jennyerin]

I am looking for a new digital camera which works well with lower lighting. I have an older Nikon Coolpix which performs pretty well but is only 3mp and has a long delay with flash. I am looking to spend no more than $250, preferably less of course - after all this is a budget board... I do love the Nikon photo quality but am open to other suggestions.
Thanks!
Lynn

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I'm going to move this over to Photography Board. I think that you'll get an answer to your question over there.

 

[Golf4food]

You aren't likely to find a camera for that price that does well in low light situations. Even a $1,000 camera will do poorly in low light if it has a bad lense. Small point & shoot digitals aren't made for low light situations. If you need a shot without the use of flash and without being up close to your subject, I don't think you have any options in the small and cheap world.

 

[handicap18]

Its going to depend on what you mean by "lower lighting".

Do you want to use a flash or not? Do you want to use it for Disney related shots? If so, give examples of what your looking for.

There are some PnS camera's that do better than others, but in general, PnS camera's are not good for low light photography.

With a little more information you can get some better suggestions. Though for $250 or less your options will be very very small.

 

[jennyerin]

Thanks for the responses. I currently have an older Nikon Coolpix camera which although not great indoors, gives me a better shot than our newer Kodak Easy Share camera in the same situation. While it would be great to be able to get photos at Fantasmic, I realize that would require a lot more $ which is not in the budget right now. The main problem with my Nikon which has me searching for another camera (besides the fact that it is 3mp and small screen) is the long delay when taking a flash photo. Basically, I am looking for equal or better response indoors but with a quicker response. The Kodak one was nice with very short delay, but the quality of the photos was not as good. Are there newer P&S Nikons which have a shorter delay or another brand which gives a decent quality photo for my price range?
Thanks!
Lynn

 

[MCFADDEN5]

Does anybody have a Cannon point and shoot SX100 and what are they like.

 

[YesDear]

I believe what you are experiencing is not the camera taking a long time to recycle but the flash. If you are firing a full flash it takes it a while to get the power saved up to fire that full flash again. A P&S camera is trying to do a lot of things for you at one time. Most do not have the technology or battery resources to recycle a full flash quickly. My best suggestion is to make sure the batteries are new or fully charged when you are going to be in that situation. If you have an extra set of batteries put fully charged ones in right before you are going to take those types of pictures.

Most P&S cameras do not offer an off the camera flash but never say never.

I also agree with all the other posters above about what they said.

 

[bob100]

Most P&S cameras do not offer an off the camera flash but never say never.
.

but some P&S cameras (such as the Canon S5) have a "hotshoe" where you can use an external flash (but they are expensive!)

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I believe what you are experiencing is not the camera taking a long time to recycle but the flash. If you are firing a full flash it takes it a while to get the power saved up to fire that full flash again. A P&S camera is trying to do a lot of things for you at one time. Most do not have the technology or battery resources to recycle a full flash quickly. My best suggestion is to make sure the batteries are new or fully charged when you are going to be in that situation. If you have an extra set of batteries put fully charged ones in right before you are going to take those types of pictures.

Most P&S cameras do not offer an off the camera flash but never say never.

I also agree with all the other posters above about what they said.

I don't know if I agree about the flash thing. When I had my old P&S Oly C770 (4MP) it had a horrible shutter lag -- even though most of my photos would be taken w/out flash. (I hated the look of on camera flash even back then.) Many of the older P&S's were known for horrible shutter lag issues. It took forever, and by the time it would shoot the picture, the event (or whatever I was trying to photograph) was gone! It was frustrating as HE double hockey sticks. Just by getting a newer P&S my shutter lag problem disappeared.
For the OP, I bought a newer Panasonic TZ3 in summer of '07 (before I got my DSLR), and my shutter lag issue went away virtually overnight. It was decent for low light for a P&S and it has a "Smart Mode" in which you can set it & pretty much forget it. The newer TZ4 and TZ5 are out now. That may be an option for you to consider. I saw an ad in JR.com for around $300 for the TZ4 a while back.
With that said, I agree that to get the most flexibility in low light you will need to get a DSLR and fast lenses. If that's out of your budget, just know that just getting a newer camera will probably help eliminate the shutter lag issues. If you are shooting w/ a 3MP camera, it's probably several years old by now and technology has improved by leaps and bounds. You know, there are good DSLR packages available for around $600-800 that can be had and you can always start w/ just one kit lens and obtain more as budget allows. A DSLR made sense for me because it's something that you can grow with. I spent about $800 on my 2 P&S cameras before I finally woke up and realized I could have gotten a DSLR that will grow with me and allow me to grow as a photographer hobbyist.
Good luck on whatever you decide!

 

[YesDear]

I totally agree with you that older P&S cameras had bad shutter lag. What made me say what I said was that the OP specifically described the lag when when the flash was used.

Even with my SB-800 if I am shooting in darker circumstances and the batteries are not real fresh, I get flash lag. I still have a nikon coolpix 995 that can have flash lag.

So even with newer P&S cameras discharge a full flash they will take a while to recycle.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

I totally agree with you that older P&S cameras had bad shutter lag. What made me say what I said was that the OP specifically described the lag when when the flash was used.

Even with my SB-800 if I am shooting in darker circumstances and the batteries are not real fresh, I get flash lag. I still have a nikon coolpix 995 that can have flash lag.

So even with newer P&S cameras discharge a full flash they will take a while to recycle.

You're right I didn't play close enough attention to what she wrote.