Flash Digital Photography

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What's the best compact digital camera for low light photography without flash?

I'm looking for a compact digital camera, it will be used indoors for doing surveys in factories. Often it won't be possible to use a flash due to the presence of highly reflective stainless steel structures and plant. So I'm looking for the best performance camera in low light without a flash, plus it has to slip easily into a coat pocket. Any other features are not so important, except battery life. Any specific recommendations based on personal experience would be great. Otherwise is there a particular digital camera specification that tells me about its low light performance, so I can directly compare models? Thanks

I gather your three main criteria are low light sensitivity, small pocketable size and long battery life.

You will need a camera that you can manually adjust the light sensitivity to a higher ISO rating. I recommend a camera with an ISO of 800 or greater. The reason being, at higher ISO setting you may take a picture at a faster shutter speed, which translates to less blurry images. Beware though that the higher you set the ISO, the pictures will appear far grainier (the technical term is "noise"). Some cameras may have less noise at higher ISO ratings so try to make some comparison shots at the store using the same ISO speeds.

There are a few slim cameras in the market like Casio Exilim and Sony CyberShot. I have a Panasonic DMC FX01 which is a slim camera but the max ISO sensitivity is mere 400. Another camera I have is the Samsung NV11 which is slightly wider and bulkier than the first but is light sensitive up to ISO 1600. Both have incredible battery life but I can't recommend either one based on your needs. Take a look at Casio Exilim EX S10: it is small and light with ISO settings from 50-1600.

Digital Photography 1 on 1: Episode 57: Rear Curtain Sync: Adorama Photography TV


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flash digital photography5
flash digital photography5