Advice please

ladytx

I have the Sony A200 (am thinking about exchanging to A700) with the kit lens 18-70 3.5-5.6, Sony 75-300 4.5-5.6, Tamron 28-75 2.8, Minolta 80-200 4.5-5.6, Minolta 50 1.7. I am coming from a Canon Powershot S2 with a 10X zoom. I am moving to the dslr because I was told that I can do low light photography (the Canon Powershot is not good inside). What I am wanting to do is be able to be in the house at night with low light (just the normal ceiling light on) and be able to zoom in on a moving child across the room and get a sharp picture with no flash or noise or yellow cast or blur. Is this possible? If so, how and with what equipment.

ziggy53

ladytx wrote:

... What I am wanting to do is be able to be in the house at night with low light (just the normal ceiling light on) and be able to zoom in on a moving child across the room and get a sharp picture with no flash or noise or yellow cast or blur. Is this possible? If so, how and with what equipment.

Reduced light is always a problem. I do suggest adding a larger bulb or bulbs to a light fixture and more light is almost always better. Incandescent lighting requires a lot of lumens because a dSLR sensor is designed for daylight and it is less sensitive to incandescent.

Reduced light means that the autofocus may not be able to work quickly or properly, so manual focus may be required. Accurate manual focus is also very difficult in low light.

Some of the modern compact fluorescent are fairly good at approximating daylight, but not as good as electronic flash.

A flash, used properly, is your best bet for indoors. Bounced off a white ceiling or wall it becomes diffused and can look very natural. At fairly high ISO, 800-1600 works well, you don't need an awful lot of flash power for a proper exposure.

Otherwise, your best choice is to shoot with a Nikon D3. The D3 is able to work under the most extreme lighting and, coupled with a Nikkor 50mm, f1.4D or 85mm, f1.4D, would probably give fairly good results. You still might need some carefully placed lights for best results. Probably around ISO 6400, f2 and 125th and then add light to match, still pretty low.

claudermilk

Low light is the main situation that reveals the limitations of cheaper gear. It's what drove me back to the (D)SLR fold. However, I wouldn't look at the Sony cameras as a first choice for that task. Currently the big dogs for low light is Nikon's D3 or D300, then Canon's xxD or xD bodies. Nobody else is even close from what I've seen.

The other thing you will find is the cheaper variable-aperture consumer lenses don't hold up too well. This is why we sickos drop the big bucks on fast f2.8 zooms or look at a pile of primes. Fast glass is important.