Thread: Camera Help

Tweet

I was just wondering what kind od digital camera do you use to take pics of your haunt? I might be in the narket for one and I want a camera that takes good pics of :

- black light figures
- Nightime pics with floodlighting
- Pumpkins that are lit at night

Basically I want a camera that takes really ghood pics at night. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Well my brother has a sony cyber shot one i believe and we took pictures and video of fireworks we shot off on July forth and turned out great so....I didnt get to use it much but if i had the cash i would buy one for sure.

you basically need a camera with M for manual. For night shots take a reading without flash, you will need a tripod or a wall to balance the camera on and you will get movement in the final image, but this adds to the photo.

Originally Posted by Scottish Scarer

you basically need a camera with M for manual. For night shots take a reading without flash, you will need a tripod or a wall to balance the camera on and you will get movement in the final image, but this adds to the photo.

I second the motion (or lack of...) by using a tripod. Along with the manual exposure settings on the camera one with a manual focus setting is a HUGE plus!! The little PHD (press here, dummy) digital cameras are netorious for focusing on a dust particle 2 feet in front of your subject.

Biggest hints I can give:

Use a solid tripod
Set your camera on manual everything that you can.
Use a solid tripod
Don't use flash, or use sparingly
Use a solid tripod
EXPERIMENT!!! The biggest advantage of digital cameras is that it costs the same to take 100 pics as 1. AND you can review IMMEDIATELY!! Set your apature for the highest and take shots at every shutter speed from slowest to fastest. Then move to the next apature setting and do it again.

Remember, it's night, so the light aint gonna change much. Soon you'll be able to "dial in" your best setting. Write it down and stick it in your camera bag. Whenever you take night shots start there and bracket around.

Happy shooting!!

I have a Canon Digital Rebel .......its an SLR. It was a gift for xmas from my Aunt & sat in the box a year before I had time to figure out how it worked!lol I don't know much about cameras but this thing takes the best pictures I have ever had.

Good advice from above....USE THE TRIPOD. It really does not work w/o the tripod for night photos. For me this is the 1st camera that you don't have to buy film for, I just use the disk shoot my pictures download into my pc and erase the photos on the disk to shoot again.....So cool......us old people are still learning about all the new toys!!lol

I highly recommend this camera!

Muf

Yup, a tripod is an absolute must for night pics without a flash. Also, any movement in the picture will cause blurring even with a tripod. Even if you use manual settings, the aperture needs to be set longer in order to allow enough light into the lens for a good pic. The longer you set that, the more the movement blurs the pic. I haven't seen anyone be able to avoid that. Mini tripods for $15 work just fine.

With that said, I've been very happy with my Canon A570IS which has tons of manual features that I still haven't figured out. The 570 is a year old or so. The current equivalent would be the A580IS or A590IS which has a longer zoom. You should be able to find one in the $150 range give or take. It's really got lots of great features for a point and shoot camera and it takes AA batteries, so if you get caught somewhere with a dead battery, you can just buy some at a local shop without having to wait for your batteries to charge. I use Lithium batteries because they last for ever. I've had the camera for a year with regular use and I'm only on my second pair of Lithium batteries. In the beginning I used regular batteries and they'd be dead in a couple weeks.

Hope this helps.

I use a Kodak digital camera with a tripod.
It takes great pictures & has a variety of settings to use. Agree with what was posted earlier as well.

Nikon Coolpix P80

Can't remember, Fuji something. but it really doesn't matter. Like everyone else said, as long as it's got the capability to take "night" shots or manual, then it's good.

I didn't even get a tripod yet. Stepladder works pretty well.

Whatever surface/tripod you use, you aim, depress the button and MOVE AWAY without jarring it.

It is impossible to take a decent shot only using ambient lighting while physically holding the camera. The lens' shutter must stay open for much longer to expose the film/digital recording, meaning that even your pulse can mess up the exposure and make it blurry. Breathing is the biggest problem, some people hold their breath to try for a less blurry shot.

I had to take quite a few photography classes in college for my degree and can blather on about it at any time, so I apologize for the length...

for allot of my pics i use a small olympus point and shoot, but my main camera is a cannon elan 7n slr and i will probably be getting a cannon 40d or 5d soon.

I also recommend using a good tripod and no flash unless you really know how to bounce flash, and you must get a camera with a MANUAL MODE