Which camera will give me great nigth parade shots?

[LPZ_Stitch!]

Hi, I pretty much decided on going with the Fuji F31FD but I do have another question for you wonderful people. When we will be going back to Disney in October, how will I know which ISO to use for Spectro, Boo to you, Fantasmic and rides(i.e. Pooh, Splash , pirate rides) in order to get good results? Also, must I avoid using the flash for all the above shows/parades/rides or only for Spectro? I did read a few articles about the way ISO works but when they say to use a high ISO, is it high ISO1600 or high ISO3200? (Considering that I will be making 4X6 prints only). Thanks a zillion, Jozy

You will have to experiment with your camera until you are comfortable with which ISO setting you need for the given lighting available. Just take lots of different night shots until you get a feel for it ... there's no hard and fast rules.

Remember that even with a camera that's good at high ISO, you'll have more noise. So the best bet is only to use "enough" of the high ISO settings to properly expose your shots.

 

[YEKCIM]

Hi, I pretty much decided on going with the Fuji F31FD but I do have another question for you wonderful people. When we will be going back to Disney in October, how will I know which ISO to use for Spectro, Boo to you, Fantasmic and rides(i.e. Pooh, Splash , pirate rides) in order to get good results? Also, must I avoid using the flash for all the above shows/parades/rides or only for Spectro? I did read a few articles about the way ISO works but when they say to use a high ISO, is it high ISO1600 or high ISO3200? (Considering that I will be making 4X6 prints only). Thanks a zillion, Jozy

I suggest you do plenty of experimenting with the camera, prior to your WDW trip, using various ISO settings, to see what level of noise is acceptable to you. I have a Fuji S5200 that goes all the way from ISO 64 to ISO 1600. The 1600 *might* be acceptable for 4X6's, but just barely. OTOH, ISO 800 shots are generally very good. Following is a FOTLK ISO 800 shot, to illlustrate that:

Also, and please forgive me for muddying the water further, but are you comfortable with the F31fd's 3X optical zoom? Personally, I would want more than that, but that's just me. Just a thought.

~YEKCIM

 

[ukcatfan]

This brings up a technical question I've had for a while. How does the *camera* (or the lens, in the case of some DSLRs) know when it's in focus?

Does anyone have a link explaining how it works? I looked it up on Wikipedia, but I was hoping for something a little more in-depth....

I cannot go to technical b/c I just do not know, but I am pretty sure that it knows that it is in focus when it finds the most contrast. I believe that is why experts say to focus somewhere that has edges and then re-compose the shot b/c if all it has to look at is flat, it is difficult to distinguish the edges properly.

Hi, I pretty much decided on going with the Fuji F31FD but I do have another question for you wonderful people. When we will be going back to Disney in October, how will I know which ISO to use for Spectro, Boo to you, Fantasmic and rides(i.e. Pooh, Splash , pirate rides) in order to get good results? Also, must I avoid using the flash for all the above shows/parades/rides or only for Spectro? I did read a few articles about the way ISO works but when they say to use a high ISO, is it high ISO1600 or high ISO3200? (Considering that I will be making 4X6 prints only). Thanks a zillion, Jozy

It all really depends on the situation, but sometimes the flash decision is made for you by WDW. If they say no flash, then you need to look towards high ISO. There are times when flash is allowed, but not preferable anyway. An important thing to remember is that the flash is only effective for a matter of feet. If you are using the flash, then make sure the ISO is set to a low setting or on auto or you risk washing out the photo. Plus it gives you unnecessary image noise.

For indoor rides, flash is usually not allowed and for outdoor rides it is not effective or usu. even needed, so generally flash is not an issue for rides. For shows, unless you are in the front row the flash is probably not strong enough to make a difference anyway. You also do not want to blind the performers b/c it can make their job dangerous. Often you are told to turn off the flash at shows. For daytime parades, you might actually have a use for the flash. Forcing the flash in daylight can help if there are shadows in your frame. Keep that in mind for all daytime shots. For night parades, it depends on the lighting and the subject. I never use flash for Spectro b/c it exposes the framework of the floats and really kills the magic. Plus it can wash out the light from the bulbs. I mixed it up with the MNSSHP parade. Some shots just would not work well with a flash, but others did. It has very different lighting than Spectro. To do this switching, you need to know how to change your flash and ISO settings quickly.

What ISO to use comes down to the shutter speed and aperture used. With a p&s, you can pretty much keep the aperture wide open and not worry about not having enough depth of field, so in low light I would use the widest setting (usu. around f/2.8 on a p&s). That allows for a faster shutter. Then adjust the ISO to get the proper shutter speed. I am sure someone else is better than me at this, but I would say that a shutter of 1/60 is good for a subject with little motion like a portrait shot of your kids. It partially comes down to getting a feel for it. You obviously cannot use the same shutter speed for a parade that you use for shots of someone running.

One last thing to remember is that using a wider angle allows more light in, so for low light it is best to keep it wide. You can always crop the picture later in software.

Kevin

 

[Groucho]

I'd take a look at this thread for Spectromagic-specific info. It is exceedingly difficult to photograph well, and depending on what you'll be happy with, may be downright impossible with a point-n-shoot.

Using the LCD to frame your photo (aka the "zombie walk") is really not ideal for a few reasons, including that you're more likely to have shaky hands. Using a viewfinder is really the best, as you do with DSLRs and some point-n-shoots (usually long-zooms have electronic viewfinders so you still see what the camera sees, unlike the basic PnSs which just basically have a little glass hole.)

YEKCIM, the Olympus DSLRs (and I believe the other "four thirds" DSLRs like Fuji and Panasonic) offer a "live view" on the LCD, but with compromises... I don't think it auto-focuses until you take the picture (so you won't see a focused photo) and it cuts down on how much light reaches the real viewfinder, making that smaller and dimmer than it should be.

If low-light performance is one of the top priorities, I'd definitely avoid the Canon S3 or any other camera with the 1/2.5" sensor. Fujis are probably the best with their larger 1/1.7" sensor, some models of other brands have 1/1.8" sensors. Even those are about 10 times smaller than a DSLR sensor, though, which is why a DSLR is so much more suited to such tasks.

 

[scrapbookworm]

I have a Fuji Finepix S5100 that took awesome photographs of Spectromagic. I was also able to hold it still enough to get a great shot of Spaceship Earth at night (took a few tries). You definitely can't use a flash. You must have a high ISO/film speed. My camera isn't quite an SLR, but it has some SLR-like settings. I'm pretty sure I had it set on ISO400 and Automatic, or ISO400 and Night time. I experimented with it as the parade was starting, and found the best combination. My pictures were clear and vivid. No tripod.

 

[Jozymouse]

Thank you all for the precious information. I got myself a Fuji F31FD and cant wait to receive it. Thanks again for the great advices and suggestions!!

 

[YEKCIM]

I think you will find this to be a great little camera, based on reviews. Be sure to post some shots from Mickey's World, next time you go!

~YEKCIM