I’m looking to do a photoshoot that I’m calling “Scenes from a Movie that Doesn’t Exist”… so it’ll be a lot of shoots at different locations. So the question I have here is that the camera I have now won’t cut the ideas that I have. I need a digital camera that can work well indoors and outdoors, and where the colors will be vibrant or dusty where needed. Can anyone suggest some good, reasonably priced camera that might fit the bill? As an added thought, if the camera could capture motion reasonably well, that’d be good too. Not neccesary, but it’d be good.
Your OP is a little vague, but I’ll take a shot. It would seem that the combination of a reasonable point and shoot would fit the bill.
“indoor and outdoors” is purely a matter of light. I can’t think of a single camera that doen’t work well outdoors. Indoors would be a matter of strobes. Generally the built-in strobe will do quite a bit. But if you really want more light/control, look for one with a hotshoe. In that way you can control external strobes.
“colors vibrant or dusty”. Vibrant would be more a matter of the light. Dusty sounds to me like more of a post-processing (Photoshop) adjustment.
“capture motion”. Most point and shoots have an “action” setting for a faster shutter speed. If you need more control than that (for really fast action), then simply find a camera with a shutter priortity option.
Perhaps if you could describe more of why your current camera can’t handle the shots you’re after, it would shed some light. But from what you’ve described I don’t see why most point and shoots couldn’t handle the shots (I don’t see why you’d need an expensive digital SLR). I personally have a Canon Powershot, but so many can handle the requirements you list that the selection is huge.
Well, I currently have a Digitrex 3.2 megapixel camera. It literally is just a point and shoot camera, with a flash that drowns out everything. I’ve tried different techniques to lessen the impact of the flash, but it’s just a bad camera overall. No shutter control whatsoever on this camera. I’m going to be taking pictures of swordplay, basically, and most of the shots will be indoors, and I’ll be capturing the strength of the swords as well (how they shatter objects and things such as that, indoors.)
I forgot some of the things that will be posed with will be laquared, so they’ll be reflective - so I want to cut down on any glare where possible.
If you want high quality indoor shots without using flash, you’ll probably need to step up to a digital SLR. Most point-and-shoot models really don’t produce very good images above ISO100-200, but the newer SLRs from Canon and Nikon give excellent results even at ISO1600, whcih should allow for taking pictures in many indoor situations.
If you want good shots with some control, get a camera that you can set on full manual. You may also want to be able to change lenses. If you want to stay digital, get a DSLR (digital single lens reflex). Don’t use on-camera flash, except in special cases where the subject is backlot and you need the fill light. Off-camera, with one or more flashes will look better. Or, you the natural ambient light. For surfaces that are lacquered or shiny, use ambient natural light and take a reading of the incident light with a hand-held meter.
Take a look at the Canon A610, or if you can still find one the A95. Both give you full manual controls and the ability to take some very nice images. If you don’t want manual controls, just about any decent P&S from Canon, Sony, Nikon, or Panasonic will fit your bill. In low light, push the ISO slightly and use a tripod and no flash.
Your requirements aren’t that difficult, it’s more a matter of using the camera in a way to get what you want. As to the colors, I’d play with PhotoShop to get the look that you’re after.
Corrections to typos:
Don’t use on-camera flash, except in special cases where the subject is backlit and you need the fill light.
Or, use the natural ambient light.
“Capture motion reasonably well”? What do you mean by that? That the camera should be able to take MPEG movies? If so, forget about the DSLRs. I don’t think any of them have a movie option.
From the sounds of it, you want a decent “pro-sumer” camera with a fast lens and a hot shoe mount or ability to trigger a remote flash. If you are taking pictures of something highly reflective, you’ll want to use bounce flash or at least a highly diffused flash. A soft box might be in order (essentially a flash encased in a big box with a diffuser to spread out the illumination).
Any of the 8MP cameras from a few years back would probably work for you – Sony 828, Olympus 8080 (I think), and so on. If you get a 5MP camera, you’ll probably have less noise and better low light performance. But unless you have a decent budget, I wouldn’t spend all your money on a digital SLR and lenses – I’d buy a competent all-in-one camera and spend the rest on lighting equipment.
If you can’t afford an SLR digital, why not use a high quality SLR 35MM? they still take professional quality pictures. Your finishing can include a disc. I have a Ricoh that I wouldn’t trade for the moon, unless I could get the Ricoh SLR digital.