Rec for a digital camera for night shots

exampasser

Does anyone know of any inexpensive ($200 or so) digital cameras that does well for night shots?

neuropol

What kind of night photography? People, landscape, etc?

exampasser

neuropol wrote: »

What kind of night photography? People, landscape, etc?

I wanted to get a picture of a certain relative's (a true idiot) car that tends to spy on my house and tends to come around at night recently (so I have been told by a source), I wanted a picture for future reference.

neuropol

Canon Powershot S90

Why I recommend it:

1. Image Stabilization - If you're trying to be sneaky it'll come in handy, if you'll be stationary buy a tripod.

2. Wide Aperture - This will require the lens to be at it's widest, or zoomed out. No zooming!

3. Long shutter times - 15 seconds is the longest, which honestly may not be long enough. Hope for a street lamp.

4. RAW - Allows for better image manipulation, so even if it looks dark at first you may be able to "brighten" it a bit later.

It does not meet your price point, however. I wouldn't expect great results with any point and shoot. An SLR with a fast lens would be much better suited to this, but that totally blows your budget.

The biggest tip is to get a tripod. Even with cheaper cameras you will be using long shutter times, and will not be able to produce a usable shot without one. Also, turn off the flash. It's useless at more that 15 ft. or so.

exampasser

neuropol wrote: »

Canon Powershot S90

Why I recommend it:

1. Image Stabilization - If you're trying to be sneaky it'll come in handy, if you'll be stationary buy a tripod.

2. Wide Aperture - This will require the lens to be at it's widest, or zoomed out. No zooming!

3. Long shutter times - 15 seconds is the longest, which honestly may not be long enough. Hope for a street lamp.

4. RAW - Allows for better image manipulation, so even if it looks dark at first you may be able to "brighten" it a bit later.

It does not meet your price point, however. I wouldn't expect great results with any point and shoot. An SLR with a fast lens would be much better suited to this, but that totally blows your budget.

The biggest tip is to get a tripod. Even with cheaper cameras you will be using long shutter times, and will not be able to produce a usable shot without one. Also, turn off the flash. It's useless at more that 15 ft. or so.

Thanks for the advice. I do already have a tripod and my current camera( a fuji finepix s1500) can take decent night shots if I use long-time exposure with the tripod, the problem about using a tripod though is that it would draw attention easily. I do agree that a dslr would be the way to go as you can crank up the ISO setting more due to the larger image sensor. I might see if there any good used dslr's on ebay.

On a side note my computer found some back blocks on my newer SD card. The same thing happened with my older SD card, I don't know if I'm just having bad luck with SD card or if my camera is damaging them somehow.