Digicam question. My lack of skill, or limitation of compact digicam?

[DT4K]

I love my S45, but I was a little frustrated with it tonight.
Tell me if this is just a limitation of the compact cameras, or if I was doing something wrong.
I was at my son's 3rd grade concert. Probably 50 ft away from a decently lit stage where he and his class were singing a song. I had a really hard time getting a decent shot. It was too far for flash and without the flash, to get decent exposure, even at ISO 400, the shutter speeds were around 1/8 to 1/30. So no matter what I did, I seemed to either get not enough light, or blurriness.

I really haven't done that much with the camera yet, so I didn't try full manual settings. I just tried using Auto without flash, then using the Program mode so I could raise the ISO to 400.

Anything I could do to get a decent shot in this situation or is it just the fact that it is a small lens and needs flash or bright daylight to get enough light?

 

[ISAslot]

tripod!

However if there is lots of motion you're going to need some quarts lights or something

 

[Ornery]

Yeah, what ISAslot said.

It's going to cost a few bucks to get a camera with a lens that can tackle that.

 

[MaxDSP]

doesn't ISO have to do with film cameras?

<---doesn't know much about the camera world Text

 

[Mday]

the only good lighting for a digital camera is full sunlight or a room completely lit.

it's a limitation of your camera and yourself. you have to adjust the shutter speed to .5" or so

 

[DT4K]

Are there any digicams that are better at those kinds of situations?
What about the digital SLR's ?

 

[Kelvrick]

Originally posted by: Shanti
Are there any digicams that are better at those kinds of situations?
What about the digital SLR's ?

Big price difference between them an S45 though.

 

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: Kelvrick

Originally posted by: Shanti
Are there any digicams that are better at those kinds of situations?
What about the digital SLR's ?

Big price difference between them an S45 though.

Yeah, I know. But what I'm asking is whether something like a Rebel for around $1000 would do a lot better in a situation like that?

 

[StraightPipe]

well yes, optical zoom plays a huge roll. and the digital rebel has removable lenses, so you can zoom to the moon if you got a big enough lense on it

 

[iamwiz82]

These pics were taken with an S40.

A tripod wouldhave helped emmensely.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
well yes, optical zoom plays a huge roll. and the digital rebel has removable lenses, so you can zoom to the moon if you got a big enough lense on it

Zooming would make blurring worse...

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: Shanti

Yeah, I know. But what I'm asking is whether something like a Rebel for around $1000 would do a lot better in a situation like that?

Yep. A DSLR like the rebel would make all the difference in the world. Pair the rebel with the $65 50mm f/1.8 lens and you could probably get 1/90 f2.8 shots at ISO 400 or 800 for a decently lit stage. In addition, you could always use f1.8 and ISO 1600 for some VERY low-light situations. The resulting shots would still look better than ISO 400 on your S45.

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
well yes, optical zoom plays a huge roll. and the digital rebel has removable lenses, so you can zoom to the moon if you got a big enough lense on it

Zooming would make blurring worse...

...all other things being equal but if you could bump up the ISO or open up the f-stop so that shutter speed could be increased, then blurring should not be any worse.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Even 400 speed film is going to need 1/8 to 1/30 second exposure times with the F-stops that are available to point and shoot digicams. 400 speed film in an SLR with an F-1.5 lens might, might be just barely fast enough to take those sorts of pictures without a flash. It's a limitation of the camera, but not a limitation of Digital.

ZV

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: DBL

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: StraightPipe
well yes, optical zoom plays a huge roll. and the digital rebel has removable lenses, so you can zoom to the moon if you got a big enough lense on it

Zooming would make blurring worse...

...all other things being equal but if you could bump up the ISO or open up the f-stop so that shutter speed could be increased, then blurring should not be any worse.

You need so much faster of a shutter speed though. With a 50 mm lens, you need a shutter speed of only 1/50 second to avoid blurring of a handheld shot. With a 100 mm lens you need a shutter speed of 1/100 second to avoid blur. With a 200 MM lens, 1/200 second. 300mm, 1/300 second... And so on.

Considering that indoors with 400 speed film and a very fast F-stop of 1.5 you would be getting a shutter speed of about 1/60 second there is no way that you'd avoice blur with even a 100mm lens. Especially since a 100mm lens with an F-1.5 setting will probably cost about $6,000 to $12,000. A basic $400 100mm lens will be no faster than F-3.8. Just not fast enough for shooting in those conditions.

ZV

 

[DBL]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt You need so much faster of a shutter speed though. With a 50 mm lens, you need a shutter speed of only 1/50 second to avoid blurring of a handheld shot. With a 100 mm lens you need a shutter speed of 1/100 second to avoid blur. With a 200 MM lens, 1/200 second. 300mm, 1/300 second... And so on.

Considering that indoors with 400 speed film and a very fast F-stop of 1.5 you would be getting a shutter speed of about 1/60 second there is no way that you'd avoice blur with even a 100mm lens. Especially since a 100mm lens with an F-1.5 setting will probably cost about $6,000 to $12,000. A basic $400 100mm lens will be no faster than F-3.8. Just not fast enough for shooting in those conditions.
ZV

Hmm. Sorry but your wrong.

The S45 maximum reach is 105mm and its max aperture at this focal length is f5. For $300 and not 12k, one could buy a Canon 85mm f/1.8 lens, which on a 1.6x crop DSLR translates to an effective focal length of 136mm, far beyond the S45 maximum zoom. In addition f/1.8 is available at that focal length. That gives a conservative 3 stop advantage to the Rebel. In addition, and this is the kicker, the Rebel produces MUCH nicer output at ISO 1600 than the S45 at ISO 400. This gives another 2 stop advantage if one wanted to bump up the ISO.

This means that Shanti, had he used a DRebel with the 85mm lens would have seen shutter speeds of 1/64 - 1/250 at ISO 400 and 1/250 to 1/1000 at ISO 1600.

In addition, one could just use the $65 50mm, which is an 85mm effective on the Drebel and just crop and the resulting pictures would likely be many times better than the S45.

Low-light photography is one area where a DSLR shines and a DSLR easily stomps a digicam in this type of match-up.

 

[gentobu]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
These pics were taken with an S40.

A tripod wouldhave helped emmensely.

Nice pics!

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: gentobu

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
These pics were taken with an S40.

A tripod wouldhave helped emmensely.

Nice pics!

Not mine. These were taken by GoBdgrs. He posted these here.