Digital Camera for lighting work

[boatman]

... I'd post one here but can't work out how to attach it, ...

 

It's not possible to attach pictures to posts here, they have to be linked from an external site. Open an account with one of the many free picture hosting sites (I use Village Photos) and upload your pictures there. When you create your post, just click on the "Insert image" button above the edit window and type in the url of the place where the picture is hosted. It's also a good idea to preview your post to make sure the link is correct.

 

HTH

[paulears]

I have a Pentax K100 with a Sigma Zoom - and am knicked out with the images I get from it in low light theatre. I'll stick a couple up at full res on my web site, and then link to them - so the BR will resize them, but you can download the originals if you want.

 

Link to resized BR page (show my show)

 

If you want to download the full res images to assess the quality:

Ugly Sisters

Woodland Scene

 

Both these pictures were hand held - the uglies from auditorium level, around 20 feet away with the zoom, and the full stage from circle front with the standard wide-normal angle zoom the camera comes with.

[Light Console]

Thanks for posting those pics Paulears, I too have the K100D, but I don't have a website to post full res pics, plus as I work in a school, most of the pics would have to go via paintshop!

I recently tried shooting in RAW, and got some amazing star pics. I have hand held from the back of the auditorium most pics that end up on the display out in the foyer.

I have a few gripes, but after seeing the pics above, I know it is not just my camera! I have 2 areas that I get a red crosshair in, but this is only a few pixels across. I also get areas where it looks like the ink ran out. Look just above the shoulder of the Ugly Sister in Yellow!

[Paul Graham]

Thankyou everyone!

 

I'm looking at a Finepix S9600

s9600

Hopefully it will do a better job. The only thing I need now is a cure for the delirium tremens!

[thelxbloke]

I have just bought a Fujifilm s5700

 

Here are some show photos I have taken.

(most of these were taken 25m's back, from the booth)

Stevyrey Photo A Day - Shows Section

[Guest lightnix]

I've generally been happy with my Olympus 500UZ, although they were a bit optimistic with the 10x optical zoom, which does produce coloured fringes around bright objects at max. Luckily, I'm more of a wide angle fan :)

 

Megapixels are only part of the story, a decent lens is just as important and will add to the cost.

[antdoran]

Hi All,

 

Birthday looming and I am thinking if getting myself a digital camera, I have had a quick search and looked at a few older topics but they all seem a bit out dated.

 

So....

 

Does anyone know of any good camera's for low lighting conditions to take good quality photos of my lighting designs because I need to update me portfolio a bit!

 

I’m not too sure on a budget, possibly £200 I understand this isn’t much but I’m a student! If anyone has any recommendations above this price I will still look into them!

 

I have previously had cheaper 'point and shoot' type cameras which have never been very good!

 

 

 

Thanks

 

Anthony

[gareth]

Useful link

Another useful link

Another useful link

 

Amazing what a quick search of the BR archives can turn up, isn't it? ;)

[steve h]

with that price range you may find that investing in photoshop may improve your photos more than a camera, if you still have your old one that is!

 

As for a camera I use to have a Kodak p880 which was a brilliant camera for the price. Although having a bulky lens like an slr it wasn't actually an slr and so was much cheaper with only a small dorp on quality. Kodak also use schneider kreuznach lens which are some of the best out there. The current version of it seems to be the Z1015 IS which a quick google shows to be in your price range. The 420mm lens will help you take photos from the back of any room (although a tripod may be needed for that!) and the 1600 ISO will help with low light. I cant however say that I have used this camera but the spec looks good!

 

If you fancy hunting on a bit more then look for the ISO figures. The higher the number the better it is in low light (although the photo will grain the higher the number!)

 

Hope all this helps.

 

Steve

[antdoran]

Yes it is pretty amazing what a search can find. However as I mentioned I did search but everything looked abit old. I understand why posting topics when it is not needed can be a problem however I had looked at old topics but in this world technology changes very quickly. Gareth, this is not directed at you but this does annoy me, forums should be a nice place to be able to find good information from the people that work within the same industry.

 

I am sorry if this message seems pretty sharp, it was not meant in this way.

 

Useful link

Another useful link

Another useful link

 

Amazing what a quick search of the BR archives can turn up, isn't it? ;)

[Big Jay]

The point I think Gareth was trying to make is, if you cant look for youself (even though you said you did look) Why should other members be bothered to help you?

 

Of course, this is a good place to get information, but I saw a message in the Lighting forum asking what the dimentions are for a flight case, surely that is just lazyness if you cant find the information, the information which was given came straight from the manufactures website, that should be the first palce you look.

 

Show some respect to others members and they will help.

 

This isnt aimes at you btw.

 

Jay

[IRW]

Hi All,

 

Birthday looming and I am thinking if getting myself a digital camera, I have had a quick search and looked at a few older topics but they all seem a bit out dated.

 

So....

 

Does anyone know of any good camera's for low lighting conditions to take good quality photos of my lighting designs because I need to update me portfolio a bit!

 

I’m not too sure on a budget, possibly £200 I understand this isn’t much but I’m a student! If anyone has any recommendations above this price I will still look into them!

 

I have previously had cheaper 'point and shoot' type cameras which have never been very good!

 

 

Thanks

 

Anthony

 

If you don't mind second hand, have a look on ebay for an Olympus E-20. I got one of these when I was a student, and I would still be using it today if I hadn't have tried to take it apart to fix a micro switch and torn a printed circuit cable a few months ago. ;)

 

It could have done with a few more ISO ratings, but then again, I was very happy with most of the photos I took with it. (an example of which can be found here)

 

In terms of the links Gareth has kindly provided, and which I'm sure you found whilst you were searching, although a lot of the equipment mentioned in them may now be out of date, the theory behind it, i.e. what to look out for, will still be the same.

 

A couple of key words are aperture rating and shutter speed. I would be careful with regards to ISO ratings, as a previous poster mentioned, the higher the selected ISO rating, the grainier the picture becomes.

 

I hope this is helpful to you in understanding some of the comments in previous threads.

 

Ian

[bruce]

The point I think Gareth was trying to make is, if you cant look for youself (even though you said you did look) Why should other members be bothered to help you?

 

I think the point he was making is "there is already some discussion on this topic. Let's keep all the discussion in the one place, rather than spread across yet another thread. That way, it makes things easier when someone else wants to search for the same information in future.

 

We'll merge the threads.