Utter Numptie Who's A Bit Stuck!

[Dai Capp]

Hello

First I have to say I'm a real novice when it comes to photography so go steady!

I am after a digital camera that will take good indoor and low light pics. I have a 5 year old Olympus digital compact currently which takes good pictures outside in the day time but take it indoors or out at night and the pics are really poor - either really under exposed our they blur really badly. I found this out on a holiday to NY - pics from inside Grand Central or general city shots at night were all rubbish!

I've been told that the Fuji S9600 is a good basic camera capable of sharp low light and indoor pics but I wondered what you folks recommended for between £200 and £400 new or second hand from a dealer...

Thanks for your thoughts...

DC

[MartinP]

I can't really help with a suggestion for a camera (I'm sure they'll be many along soon though), but if you want to take night shots with any camera, then what you must have is some sort of camera support (tripod, bean bag etc) as I'm guessing the reason you've had poor results with your existing camera is not being able to hold it still for the long exposure times required. What to buy is down to budget and what you want to lug around with you - I find a Gorillapod very flexible for my point and shoot and it easily slips into a large pocket, and at the other ends of the scale I have a carbon fibre Giottos tripod for my DSLR.

If using something like the Gorillapod, another tip would be to use the self timer rather than press the shutter button to reduce the camera shake.

Hope that helps.

[Dai Capp]

I've gone for a Canon EOS 400d in the end. Read up yesterday as I had a day off and loads of time and it came down to a choice between a Nikon D60 and the Canon. There seem to be some great deals on the 400d presumably with the 450d out now and given that I'm no photography god thought I'd take advantage.

Hope I've made the right choice - it's just the basic Canon EOS 400D Digital SLR with 18-55mm Lens so nothing fancy. I'll have a good play with it over the coming days and no doubt come back with some really daft questions

Cheers

DC

[selwonk]

A great Canon-biased forum:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/