Online Shoppers Blog - Become's Pocket Change

This past weekend I had an opportunity to spend some time with some friends I normally don’t get to see often. Needless to say picture taking was in order. I took pictures and my friends took pictures, using digital cameras. My pictures were coming out darker than everyone else's.

Crap. This is a problem. For those who do not know already, I am a huge U2 fan, and I plan to go to Hawaii in December to see U2 and Pearl Jam perform in Honolulu, and I want to take as many pictures as I can get away with. A concert setting is very challenging atmosphere to take pictures in. Not all cameras can cut it, as I have now recently discovered. Yup, my camera has failed the low light test. I am now on a mission. I need good pictures of my boys!

Fortunately, I belong to the U2 fan club, and on U2.com there is a chat community called Zootopia, from which I can get all kinds of information if I need it. Many Zootopians have already taken AWESOME concert photos, so who better to ask than them? Well I did, and I got many different models, but Panasonic and Canon were the top choices. It was a good direction to start with, but I still have no clue what to look for when needing to take low light pictures. Flash photography is frowned upon in concert situations, not to mention useless, depending where you are. One Zootopian friend, Debbie, made one post that I thought was pretty helpful. She suggested that I look for the following:

1. High Megapixel count
2. High ISO settings at all MP settings
3. Fast shutter lag time (just how many frames do you want to shoot in a short period of time)
4. Optical zoom length (forget Digital Zoom! This simply gives you very grainy images that usually don't look good in low light conditions)
5. Compact size. Do you want a camera to fit in your pocket? Some of the ones with long optical zooms are not going to do that.

She also strongly suggested going to a specialized camera store, and actually holding the cameras in hand to ascertain whether or not it will be physically comfortable in hand, which is good advice as well.

That is great Debbie, but what in the heck is “ISO”? Well, I looked it up. I found a helpful site that explained it well: Digicamhelp.com. What it said: “ISO is the number indicating a digital camera sensors sensitivity to light. The higher the sensitivity, the less light is needed to make an exposure.” OK, so Debbie was right: I need one with a high ISO setting. But one problem I have found with that is that without a flash, pictures come out blurry, especially when you are standing in the General Admission section, right in front of the stage. It is very hard to stay perfectly still in that area. Many other Zootopians suggested strongly that I find a camera that has the technology to correct a shaky hand in these situations.

*SIGH* Well, I still have not decided on a camera yet. Hopefully I will have it figured out in time for the concert. The picture (above) that my friend Dion Simte took with her Canon Powershot G6 came out great though.

Isn’t he lovely? : )

Jennifer