taking low light pictures with point and shoot camera ?

[greewe]

I have a Nikon CP 8700 camera that I plan to take to Disneyland this summer. I have great luck with outdoor shots, but never any good indoor shots of shows without a flash. They are dark and blurry. I also take indoor track and field pictures of my kids with the same results.

How do you recommend taking indoor low light pictures with moving subjects without flash?

I know a DSLR would be my best bet, but can't afford one at this time. Hopefully someday!

In the past I have set the ISO to 400 and the shutter speed to 1/250 and let the camera set the aperture. Even if I don't zoom in, but the pictures are still pretty dark and blurry. I have tried fixing the darkness in photo shop and removing the grain with ninja noise. I try to really stabilize the camera to minimize camera shake.

Is there a better way to take this type of picture using a point and shoot camera?

Thanks so much. I'm pretty new to this and am still trying to figure it all out!

 

[YEKCIM]

I have a Nikon CP 8700 camera that I plan to take to Disneyland this summer. I have great luck with outdoor shots, but never any good indoor shots of shows without a flash. They are dark and blurry. I also take indoor track and field pictures of my kids with the same results.

How do you recommend taking indoor low light pictures with moving subjects without flash?

I know a DSLR would be my best bet, but can't afford one at this time. Hopefully someday!

In the past I have set the ISO to 400 and the shutter speed to 1/250 and let the camera set the aperture. Even if I don't zoom in, but the pictures are still pretty dark and blurry. I have tried fixing the darkness in photo shop and removing the grain with ninja noise. I try to really stabilize the camera to minimize camera shake.

Is there a better way to take this type of picture using a point and shoot camera?

Thanks so much. I'm pretty new to this and am still trying to figure it all out!

Offhand, I'd say that the 1/250 shutter speed is the culprit. For low light, you need a s-l-o-w-e-r shutter speed, not a faster one. If it were me, I'd crank the ISO up to as far as I could w/o getting objectionable noise (about 800 on my Fuji, 1600 on my Nikon), set the aperture wide open, using aperture preferred auto, and let the camera do the driving on shutter speed.
Depending on the amount of available light, you may still not get a fast enough shutter speed to stop the action. Panning may help, but depends on the circumstances. It may simply be that the lighting is just not sufficient for stopping motion. Even a dSLR has limits beyond which it won't go. It's not magic; it's physics, and the law is the law.

Good luck.

~YEKCIM

 

[Groucho]

It probably depends on what type of shows you're talking about... if you're talking about rides (like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, etc), those are going to be pretty much impossible to get a decent picture from, no matter your equipment (when was the last time you saw any really good amateur non-flash ride from one of those?)... live shows may or may not be similar...

If either you're moving or what you're trying to take a picture of is moving, it's going to be very difficult - you really have no choice but to max out the ISO and hope that you can clean up the noise acceptably later. If it's mostly still and you can hold yourself fairly still (or better yet, use something to stabilize the camera), you should be able to get good results with a longer shutter speed - it's all in keeping the camera still, though.

The absolute best results would be where you're taking a picture of a static object, the camera is supported securely (tripod/Gorillapod/etc) and you use a remote shutter release or the 2-second timer to eliminate camera shake... that should give you quite nice quality.