Online price comparison websites

[ahber79]

Is there any local websites that list the prices of the various cameras from the different brands?

Would help a lot when I'm trying to compare cameras online.

Thanks guys!

 

[davidktw]

Is there any local websites that list the prices of the various cameras from the different brands?

Would help a lot when I'm trying to compare cameras online.

Thanks guys!

Go to the forum at ClubSNAP Photography Forums and ask around

 

[burping_boy]

go to the facebook pages of the usual shops - Alan Photo, SLR Revolution, MS Color, TK Foto, Cathay, call or PM them for quotes and prices for the models you are looking at...

you should be narrowing down your options first...

 

[ahber79]

Thanks guys. Will go have a look and enquire.

Btw, you all have any recommendations for cameras with fast lens and good low light shots at these 2 price bands: $500 and $700?

 

[davidktw]

Thanks guys. Will go have a look and enquire.

Btw, you all have any recommendations for cameras with fast lens and good low light shots at these 2 price bands: $500 and $700?

Hard to achieve. First of all fast lens and good low light shots are very subjective. Commonly fast lens will be anything f/2.8 and faster. Depending on what you do, you may not necessarily need to use fast lens.

A f/1.4 50mm Nikon lens already set you back by roughly SGD500. However a f/1.8 50mm Nikon lens would only cost you less than SGD200. So it depends on what you really wanted.

Low light shots is subjective too. Your expectation to noise may be high and hence anything above ISO1600 on Nikon D3s may not be good enough for you, however, for some others, they feels ISO2500 on a Nikon D7000 works for them.

Noise reduction in software will helps to give you a 1 - 2 f-stops advantage too.

My personal preference is at night, use a tripod.

If you are so into good low light performer, I think Sony A7s at SGD3000 is a good steal For SGD700, it's probably hard to achieve and would be better you have a lower expectation, or perhaps a less generalise question.

 

[burping_boy]

at that price point, i guess you are looking at fixed-lens compact cameras with wide apertures, these should perform better than other cheaper entry-level compact cameras:

Panasonic LX7
Canon S100/110/120
Canon G15
Olympus XZ2 / 10

etc.

 

[ahber79]

Hard to achieve. First of all fast lens and good low light shots are very subjective. Commonly fast lens will be anything f/2.8 and faster. Depending on what you do, you may not necessarily need to use fast lens.

A f/1.4 50mm Nikon lens already set you back by roughly SGD500. However a f/1.8 50mm Nikon lens would only cost you less than SGD200. So it depends on what you really wanted.

Low light shots is subjective too. Your expectation to noise may be high and hence anything above ISO1600 on Nikon D3s may not be good enough for you, however, for some others, they feels ISO2500 on a Nikon D7000 works for them.

Noise reduction in software will helps to give you a 1 - 2 f-stops advantage too.

My personal preference is at night, use a tripod.

If you are so into good low light performer, I think Sony A7s at SGD3000 is a good steal For SGD700, it's probably hard to achieve and would be better you have a lower expectation, or perhaps a less generalise question.

Oops. Let me rephrase my question again.

I'm looking for a fast lens camera that is good for low light shots cos I'll shooting mostly indoors. Not really outdoor shots. As much as possible, I would like to avoid the use of flash without a tripod. Thinking of using high iso with low noise. Think iso800 should be quite safe for most cameras Also cos I'm mainly taking photos of my kids, I want fast lens to avoid motion blur. Of cos with fast autofocus will be an advantage.

Based on my budget, I guess only compact cameras fit me. Not sure if any mirrorless camera fit my budget. I'm also looking for something handy, not like most dslrs. And also not bringing tripod along.

 

[ahber79]

at that price point, i guess you are looking at fixed-lens compact cameras with wide apertures, these should perform better than other cheaper entry-level compact cameras:

Panasonic LX7
Canon S100/110/120
Canon G15
Olympus XZ2 / 10

etc.

Thanks. Will consider these models.

I'm using a Canon S110 at work. Don't really like it as the focusing is slow and doesn't really give sharp pics indoors without flash.

I'm also looking at Fuji XQ1. But couldn't find mush reviews on this camera. Saw the x-series are rated quite model and this model seems to fit my budget.

Lastly, any idea if Samsung cameras are good? The prices seem good.

 

[davidktw]

Oops. Let me rephrase my question again.

I'm looking for a fast lens camera that is good for low light shots cos I'll shooting mostly indoors. Not really outdoor shots. As much as possible, I would like to avoid the use of flash without a tripod. Thinking of using high iso with low noise. Think iso800 should be quite safe for most cameras Also cos I'm mainly taking photos of my kids, I want fast lens to avoid motion blur. Of cos with fast autofocus will be an advantage.

Based on my budget, I guess only compact cameras fit me. Not sure if any mirrorless camera fit my budget. I'm also looking for something handy, not like most dslrs. And also not bringing tripod along.

I'm afraid even at f/1.4 50mm on my Nikon D3s, there is no way you can freeze a quick moving kid even at ISO800. You probably will need to push all the way to ISO6400.

Like I say, that this moment, Sony A7s would be what you want for really good sensor of high sensitivity and low noise. The price tag is SGD3000. I really doubt you can find any such at a SGD700 price tag.

The faster your lens, the more shallow the depth of field. You will mostly lose your focus and more likely your focusing will be hunting.

I believe what you need to do is work more on your flash. You can still have good ambience lighting output even when you couple of flash and using appropriate coloured gels. Try play with your exposure compensation. At dim light, your exposure sensor normally get for a rather high exposure to get a 18% grey exposure. It's normally too high and loses the ambience mood. You need to set the exposure compensation down and then play with the flash power. Work with manual settings in this case, fix your aperture and shutter speed. Then play with your flash power. That's how I normally do my event shoots in dim light condition

 

[ahber79]

I'm afraid even at f/1.4 50mm on my Nikon D3s, there is no way you can freeze a quick moving kid even at ISO800. You probably will need to push all the way to ISO6400.

Like I say, that this moment, Sony A7s would be what you want for really good sensor of high sensitivity and low noise. The price tag is SGD3000. I really doubt you can find any such at a SGD700 price tag.

The faster your lens, the more shallow the depth of field. You will mostly lose your focus and more likely your focusing will be hunting.

I believe what you need to do is work more on your flash. You can still have good ambience lighting output even when you couple of flash and using appropriate coloured gels. Try play with your exposure compensation. At dim light, your exposure sensor normally get for a rather high exposure to get a 18% grey exposure. It's normally too high and loses the ambience mood. You need to set the exposure compensation down and then play with the flash power. Work with manual settings in this case, fix your aperture and shutter speed. Then play with your flash power. That's how I normally do my event shoots in dim light condition

Yup. Thanks for your advice.

Based on my budget, I'm trying to look for better compact cameras that are better in these areas compared to the rest of the other general cameras. And also one that offers me the options to play with the settings.

 

[bigpelican]

Yup. Thanks for your advice.

Based on my budget, I'm trying to look for better compact cameras that are better in these areas compared to the rest of the other general cameras. And also one that offers me the options to play with the settings.

for your budget, you might want to consider samsung nx mini.
compact size.
according to specs, it got BSI CMOS Sensor, should have reasonable low light performance. Electronic shutter with 1/16000 max shutter speed. And its battery life is long.

You can easily get one at less than $550 (paying with cash).

 

[davidktw]

Yup. Thanks for your advice.

Based on my budget, I'm trying to look for better compact cameras that are better in these areas compared to the rest of the other general cameras. And also one that offers me the options to play with the settings.

So I believe you are not using any DSLR at the moment ? You should be looking at it with external flash.

I had the Canon S95 too ,obviously obsolete compared to your S110, but I don't think this more advance compact cameras are in the same tier as DSLR. Even as I played around with the latest RX100III, i still find it a tad slower when I release the shutter.

I have worked with D90, D300, D3 and D3s. Among these entry to pro series, their shutter release is really much faster. Especially the part where you can assigned shutter release without refocusing and just make one of the other buttons just performing focusing, you will have a lot more control over the timing and focus.

Just my opinion, I think you ought to really look at having an external flash and use bounce light to your advantage instead of pursuing the low light department. No matter how good the low light is, nothing beats a properly exposed scene using proper strobe because you get to control the light like where to bounce, how much to bounce. Don't be surprise to find sometimes photographers bounce it off the back walls for the best diffusion.

Most compact cameras don't even come with the hotshoe for you to mount external flash. Go to any of the camera shops and had a good look at the DSLR. I believe you will be rewarded better using flash then chasing the low light capabilities.

For nearly 95% of my shots in in-house events freelance, I use flash to my advantage to really freeze the subjects. Even with superb low-light sensor DSLR like D3s, I use flash and only push up my ISO when I don't get sufficient light due to large room or too high ceilings for sufficient bounce lights.

Really go and take a look at flash first.

 

[ahber79]

for your budget, you might want to consider samsung nx mini.
compact size.
according to specs, it got BSI CMOS Sensor, should have reasonable low light performance. Electronic shutter with 1/16000 max shutter speed. And its battery life is long.

You can easily get one at less than $550 (paying with cash).

Thanks. Will go check it out.

 

[ahber79]

So I believe you are not using any DSLR at the moment ? You should be looking at it with external flash.

I had the Canon S95 too ,obviously obsolete compared to your S110, but I don't think this more advance compact cameras are in the same tier as DSLR. Even as I played around with the latest RX100III, i still find it a tad slower when I release the shutter.

I have worked with D90, D300, D3 and D3s. Among these entry to pro series, their shutter release is really much faster. Especially the part where you can assigned shutter release without refocusing and just make one of the other buttons just performing focusing, you will have a lot more control over the timing and focus.

Just my opinion, I think you ought to really look at having an external flash and use bounce light to your advantage instead of pursuing the low light department. No matter how good the low light is, nothing beats a properly exposed scene using proper strobe because you get to control the light like where to bounce, how much to bounce. Don't be surprise to find sometimes photographers bounce it off the back walls for the best diffusion.

Most compact cameras don't even come with the hotshoe for you to mount external flash. Go to any of the camera shops and had a good look at the DSLR. I believe you will be rewarded better using flash then chasing the low light capabilities.

For nearly 95% of my shots in in-house events freelance, I use flash to my advantage to really freeze the subjects. Even with superb low-light sensor DSLR like D3s, I use flash and only push up my ISO when I don't get sufficient light due to large room or too high ceilings for sufficient bounce lights.

Really go and take a look at flash first.

Thanks for your advice.

Nope, I'm not using any dslr. I'm looking for something pocketable and not too heavy that I can place it into the kids bag. That's why I'm looking at the compacts and also the mirrorless cameras.