Sorry no hints on the camera front (don't have one myself) but you do realise that you and Prol might bump into each other at the gig...
For someone who loves music so much, I make surprisingly little effort to get up off my arse and go to any live performances. I'm therefore feeling quite pleased with myself that in the past couple of days I've bought tickets for two separate events: Sinéad O'Connor at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on November 9th, followed three days later by Bright Eyes at Camden Dingwalls on the 12th.
Much though I love my 35mm SLR camera (a Canon EOS 100), I've decided to buy a digital one as well. The SLR's bulkiness is cumbersome and I rarely take it out on social occasions, meaning that I take very few pictures of people and absolutely none of the sporadic gigs that I attend. I also find that its size is a little intrusive and makes both the subject and me feel somewhat self-conscious.
Despite a few weeks of research, I still don't really understand the buying criteria for a digital camera that well. However, I'm determined to make a purchase soon, so I can master the basics throughout October and then take pictures at these two concerts. Any hints or recommendations are welcome, particularly related to cameras that can handle the low-light conditions of most indoor social events (which I understand is typically digital's weakest point).
Posted by Hg on Thursday 26 September 2002 at 21:31.
Received 13 comments so far.
Comments
Canon makes a digital camera out of soya milk... I mean, I have a digital camera made by Canon. It's a Power Shot S10. It's very small, allows me to store 100 pictures at a time, easy to download, and I've never had a problem with it. I keep it in my pocket which makes it easy to always have it with me. I've taken over 6000 pictures with it. Print quality depends on setting, printer and paper. I paid $300 for it. There is a slight delay in the picture taking, so you have to tell people to 'say cheese' for 5 seconds (odd results). For $1500 you can get a really good digital camera (superb picture taking), but they are the size and weight of a small car. In the end, what do you want out of life Stuart? Long live black and white film... and soya milk
Well, yes, I also recommend a Canon. The Canon Ixus 330, to be precise. Look, I know nothing about photography, so I have no idea whether it can handle low light conditions at social events (although it seemed to cope with my birthday, in a dark Notting Hill pub, and I was DRUNK while taking the pictures) - but who cares about its technical powers anyway? It's in lovely shiny metal and you can run your hands over it and make cooing noises as you do so. It looks LOVELY. What more do you want from a camera? Eh? EH? :-)
As ever, I will agonise over tech specs for two or three weeks just to satisfy my conscience and then I will find a way of persuading myself to go and buy the one that looks prettiest.
On this basis I had already all but decided on the Ixus, to be honest, but then Amazon suggested the Konica KD-400Z. Also looks very cool, fifty quid cheaper than the Ixus 330 and with a stonking 4.0M pixels.
Need to compare the specs in more detail at the weekend, there's probably a catch. I'm hoping there's not and it's just a case of Canon charging for the brand and Konica realising that it has to be much cheaper to get people's attention.
My experience has been that my digital camera handles low light levels better than my ordinary one. It's one of the reasons birdwatchers like them - because they pick up more light you can use them to take a photo through the lense of a telescope (like this)
I swear by Olympus, as I've told Stuart before. It's a gut feeling, but tests seem to back me up:
I have the most recent Dutch consumer guide in front of me, and they tested 31 digital cameras.
Their Best Buy choice is the Olympus C-300 (430 euro), it has the best quality/price relation.
Their best bargain choice is the Olympus C-220 (300 euro)
Gosh... Olympus, twice. I may be on to something here.
Their top 10 in full:
Olympus C-300 (430 E)
Fujifilm Finepix S602 Zoom (800 E)
Olympus E 20 P (2000 E)
Canon EOS D60 (3000 E)
Canon Powershot A40 (400 E)
Ricoh Caplio RR120 (400 E)
Fujifilm FinePix 2800 zoom (450 E)
Nikon Coolpix 885 (600)
Canon Digital Ixus V2 (500)
Sony DSC P71 (520)
Stuart, listen to Caroline... she takes pictures at gigs. Lots of 'em. And they're excellent... the camera doesn't need to look good.
wish I could be in London in November.... very jealous (and bored) in Boston.
Comment by Sue on Friday 27 September 2002 at 21:49.
he's awfully vain, isn't he? (Let's talk about him like he's not here....). He doesn't need a purdy little camera to make him look good though!!!
i actually am looking for a digital camera so i may end up taking your advice (caroline's, not stuart's!). I recently bought a digital video camcorder that can take photos, but the photo quality isn't as good as a camera. But I still think I don't have what it takes to get a good photo. caroline's 'cranberyy vodka' shots from last fall still float about in my brain. they really captured that night.
Comment by Sue on Saturday 28 September 2002 at 03:18.
Of course he's vain. Maintaining this level of astounding physical beauty requires constant attention.
silly me, i thought it was the coffee, cigarettes and pints of stout that made you so pretty...
Comment by Sue on Tuesday 01 October 2002 at 05:26.
Sounds like everybody likes the Canon cameras ... I do too. I've had a Digital Elph (Ixus) for six months now, and I love it. It fits into my pants pocket or purse, it takes great pictures at low light without flash, and it has 2.1 megapixel - plenty for good enough resolution, even for nice prints.
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