Best compact for gigs

[TCarnell]

Hi everyone,

I hope someone can help.
I'm looking for some advice on which compact digital camera would people recommend for taking good quality shots at concerts and music gigs where low light levels and fast action may be factors.

One with a decent optical zoom would also be useful.

I realise it's probably a big ask for a compact to fulfil these criteria, but if you don't ask...!

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tony.

[chris-p]

You're best option is going to be a bridge camera but you don't mention your budget.

I would suggest you have a look at the following cameras:

Fuji FinePix S200 EXR £315
Canon Powershot SX20 IS £300
Canon Powershot SX120 IS £160
Panasonic DMC-FZ38 £260

[flake]

It is a big ask, in fact I'd go so far as to suggest that most entry level DSLRs would struggle here. You don't say how far away you will be, or how close to the action you want to get, and that can make a huge difference, the longer the focal length you use, the faster the shutter speed needs to be, and the only way to get that is to up the Iso, and that will affect image quality quite badly with noise. Anything over Iso200 is going to be what moct photographers would regard as unacceptable in terms of noise from most digital cameras.

There are however a few which are a little better

Canon S90 is very small but has an f/2 lens which allows twice as much light as an f/2.8, but this is at wide angle only. It has the same sensor as the G11 which is larger than most compacts and gives 'better' low light performance.

Canon G11 Photographers choice but it still suffers above Iso 200, if you can live with this then image quality is very good.

Lumix DMC-LX3 A competitor to the G11 with similar performance.

Panasonic GF1 A slightly larger camera than the compacts, but a larger sensor and interchageable lenses it deals with noise far better than the compacts and may perhaps be the best choice.

Olympus Pen E-P2 Perhaps the best performer of the group and similar to the GF1 it was only launched 5th Novemeber it costs about £580 with a 14 - 42mm which is interchangeable.

[Linke]

Why is nobody mentioning the Sony WX1? (And I'm turning in an ad for Sony here, but) That new sensor they have is just great. The camera comes with a 10mp CMOS sensor, but with a different build than usual, which makes the sensor actually like two times more lightsensitive then a regular CMOS. It's packed with the latest G-lenses that has a nice 5x optical zoom (eq. 24-120mm). Only downside might be that the aperture of f/2.4 changes rapidly when we zoom in to about f/5.6. But it has the Optical Steadyshot built in, which means we can still photograph very blur and noise free at ISO400 and shutterspeeds of 1/8.

[chris-p]

Originally Posted by Linke

Why is nobody mentioning the Sony WX1? (And I'm turning in an ad for Sony here, but) That new sensor they have is just great. The camera comes with a 10mp CMOS sensor, but with a different build than usual, which makes the sensor actually like two times more lightsensitive then a regular CMOS. It's packed with the latest G-lenses that has a nice 5x optical zoom (eq. 24-120mm). Only downside might be that the aperture of f/2.4 changes rapidly when we zoom in to about f/5.6. But it has the Optical Steadyshot built in, which means we can still photograph very blur and noise free at ISO400 and shutterspeeds of 1/8.

It's not actually 2 times more sensitive though. It's a different architecture using front lit technology which just means more light gets to it - it's not more sensitive. The main problem for gigs with this camera is that it's low noise system works by overlaying several shots which means poor edge definition in high contrast environments.

And it's hardly "noise free" at ISO 400!

[jezuit]

look on the web for concert pics with canon g9, i wont quote settings etc but look at the results some are stunning for low light phtography with a compact, i would make sure you can use bridge cameras and dslr cameras before you go, if not your camera may be taken of you till after gig, if this is the case smuggling is your other option, its up to you where you hide it though,. regards jezuit

[huze5]

try a kodak easyshare m863. very small yet great quality. 8.2 mp with hd stills. face detection. digital IS. the list goes on and on.

[ianpinion]

Either the Canon G10 or G11 are still the best two compact cameras currently available for these conditions but neither will perform as well as a DSLR with a large sensor.

[Elvis Fontenot]

In my experience, it depends how close you get to the action - if you're right by the stage, then a G11 will be fine. Here's one I took where I got lucky in terms of being close up
http://www.flickr.com/photos/efsb/4132473576/

The G11 responds similarly to the settings I'd use on a DSLR - ISO 1600 1/60 of a second. I've also used it with a teleconverter off Ebay, which makes it a bit bigger, but OK if you've got a couple of big pockets...!
Taken from way up in the Gods at Birmingham Symphony hall -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/efsb/4333806891/

[northumbrian1]

If you can still get it, go for the Kodak DX6440 (which has a 4X optical zoom), I've used this for five years plus and not had any problems with it at all, inside concerts and outside. When I bought it it was $600.00 but I believe that Kodak has reduced the price for this and anyway if you go to Amazon they will certainly redduce its cost that the reccomended price tag. I've moved on to a more beefy DSLR Nikon now (D3000) and find what I was missing in the two lenses I got with it(18mm-55mm; 55-200mm) plus other lenses I can add later to fill out my repertoire...