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General discussion

Need Help With Camera Selection!

by helix57 Jan 15, 2011 9:15PM PST

My granddaughter is playing basketball in a Upward youth team. the gym she plays in has factory type lighting not flourescent. I have a Sony DSC-T50 but when I tried the high speed shutter there was not enough light, when I used the flash the pictures were a brown color, when I used auto the action pictures were blury. What options do I have? Will consider all types.
Thanks

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3 Posts
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Basketball
by snapshot2 Forum moderator Jan 15, 2011 11:46PM PST

You have run into the same problems as most people with a small camera.

The Achilles heel of the small camera continues to be, poor low light performance.

Plus your present camera presents another problem.
It takes excellent pictures (under good conditions).
The current trend in small cameras is adding more megapixels to a too small sensor size.
This results in noise (grain) in the pictures.
So anything you buy will not equal the picture quality you are getting now.

Your best choice right now is the Sony TX1.

http://www.steves-digicams.com/camera-reviews/sony/dsc-tx1/sony-cyber-shot-dsc-tx1-review.html

It will be marginal better in low light performance.
The picture quality is about as good as your present camera.

Things you can try (even with your present camera):

Do not use flash -- It is too weak to light up anything beyond 11 feet.
If you use flash, the camera is forced to use a shutter speed of 1/40th or 1/60th of a second, which are wrong for action photography.

Use as little zoom as possible.
Your lens loses light as it is zoomed.

Try different mode settings.
Any action setting sounds right but it is probably only right if under daylight conditions.
Try some of the low light or middle of the road mode settings.

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Camera
by helix57 Jan 16, 2011 2:11AM PST

Thanks for your reply. I have been reading the reviews about the Cannon G12, is this a camera that would help with the low light action settings? Cost is not really a major concern.
I had a SLR 35mm years ago, is the new DSLR a pratical option? I am not real camera literate, so not sure if DSLR would overwhelm me.
Thanks

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Low Light
by snapshot2 Forum moderator Jan 16, 2011 5:27AM PST

I had assumed that you were not familiar with manual controls on a camera.
My bad.
If you owned a 35mm SLR, you should know the basics about shutter speed and aperture adjustments.

The Canon G12 is one of the few small digital cameras that offers some real improvement in low light performance. The manual controls give you more of an advantage.

By using Shutter Priority and Aperture Priority settings, you have a better chance at getting some good photographs in low light.

The Canon G12 is a good choice.

You are also a good candidate for using a Digital SLR (DSLR) camera.
Since all DSLR cameras have a much larger sensor assembly, you can use high ISO settings with little to no noise (grain).

Adjusting ISO on a digital camera is similar to using high speed film on a film camera. The advantage is ... you don't have to change a spool of film ... just make an adjustment.

Here is a refresher course in exposure controls:

http://www.shortcourses.com/use/

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