Whats a good low light point and shoot?

[peter_kim2]

I was just looking for some opinions on a good point and shoot. I

usually use my old minolta rangefinder or canon slr for daylight.

But I'd like a small point and shoot to carry around at night that

will take good pictures without flash (so a bigger apreture) and

take good pictures without red eye with a flash, primarily of

people. I dont mind a fixed focal length.

 

I was thinking about the Contax T3...Can any contax T3 users share

their thoughts on flash photography with it? Or other good point and

shoots that have good low light/flash performance?

[jim schwaiger]

Also consider the Olympus Stylus Epic 35mm f/2.8. Very small, inexpensive, and it has the flash controls you need (off, red-eye reduction, and normal). Definitely the best little point-and-shoot I've used.

[majid]

The Stylus Epic is cheap enough to be almost disposable, while yielding excellent

image quality. Actually, it's the camera I carry in my jacket pocket most of the time.

Unfortunately, it has an annoying user interface design issue, the flash setting resets

on power-on, so you have to remember to disable it all the time. On the plus side, it

actually has a spotmeter.

[kkjuhy]

Any P&S will have it's flash too close to the lens to avoid red-eye.

I suggest you stay away from the Leica Minilux (f 2.4), which I have found to be very unreliable (a.o. the infamous E02 defect shutter error).

[richard_milner2]

Olympus Mju II (Stylus Epic). f/2.8, 35mm lens which is about the fastest you are going to find on a compact camera.

 

The user interface is a bit poor but the flash has the Olympus strobe anti-red-eye feature (it fires a rapid series of pre-flashes before the main flash.)

[marbing]

I have the Contax T3 and it is my constant companion these days. As far as the flash goes (and not very far) it is only a GN 6.4m @ 100 which is a bit below average for P&S cameras. Of course using 400 speed film will extend the working distance of the flash simply because the film is more sensitive.<P>

 

I solved the problem by getting the Contax SA-2 flash bracket which allows me to use the Contax TLA-200 flash (GN 20m @ 100) from the G series cameras. This more than triples the flash output for the camera and retains all of the built-in efects (red-eye reduction mode, night shot etc).<P>

 

The T3 will determine the distance to the subject and will fire either the built-in flash or the TLA-200 depending on the calculated range.<P>

 

For night and available light photography, the T3 is great to have. With full Aperture Priority mode and a shutter speed that allows a 180 second exposure, you have a lot of creative potential.<P>

 

The camera is small enough (even with the flash bracket) to sit on a mini tripod or I like to carry the <a href="http://www.thepod.ca/" >'The Pod'camera beanbag</a> which does a great job.<P>

 

The T3 isn't cheap by any means but you are paying for creative control and flexibility in a very small package that makes the cost worth it in the end.<P>

[jsbc]

Like Meryl I use the flash-bracket with a Vivitar 285 which gives me bounce ability. Given that you can also control the aperture directly, and the shutter speed indirectly (through film ISO or EV compensation) it is in default a fully manual camera.

 

The new Leica CM promises to be the same, plus it has a (I think) better lens!

 

Otherwise, the Hexar AF is good. The old rangefinders are excellent too.

[mike_scarpitti]

Leica Minilux or CM, with f/2.4 lens.

 

http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/compact/cm/index_e.html

 

http://www.leica-camera.com/produkte/compact/minilux/index_e.html