What is a good digital camera for concerts?

Question

I take most of my pictures at concerts and I'm looking to buy a new camera. What's a good one for concerts? One with a fast shutter speed and that's affordable

Answer 1

You don't need a fast shutter speed. In fact, your shutter speeds will be darn slow, because it's dark in a concert. And a flash is only useful if the subject is within the flash range...usually less than 10ft away on a compact camera. What you need is a wide-open aperture, good high-iso capabilities, or the ability to mount an external flash of fairly decent power to extend that flash range. Unfortunately, even the most powerful flash won't do jack from most seats in a concert, and most compact digitals suck at high iso, have weak flashes, and have minute optics that don't let in alot of light.

The fuji F30 is by far the best thing to pocket into a concert if you have to put it in your pocket (an slr is I suppose, out of the question) and rely on nothing else. Thier optics isn't anything special, and their flash is as weak as any other. But they have a high-resolution CCD sensor that really kicks butt over conventional CCD sensors at ISO800. Hands down, the F30 will do a better job than most other compact cameras out there when you're trying to catch the action in low light. You still have to be pretty close to the action, and/or have some way to support your camera (like holding it still on a railing) for relatively long exposure times. Unless you're within 10ft of the guys on stage, don't use the flash setting, as it will default to a fast 1/60 shutter setting, and you'll get a shot that's too dark. I'd use the 800iso setting, no flash, and go for as wide an aperture as you can. Shutter speed will infallably be slow (bcs it's dark), so try to steady the cam against something immovable.

But...If you have a little more money to spend (what's affordable?) and can get within 140 ft of the stage, I'd consider a Canon G7 with a Canon 430EX flash. It's small enough to get into a concert. The performance without flash is good enough to impress most (not *as* good as the F30, but not bad). And the external flash capability (which the F30 doesn't have) takes it to a whole different level of capability. With the external flash, if the subject gets within flash range, you're going to be able to get *really* high quality, ISO100 shots. And when the subject is out of flash range (or you want to use natural lighting for artistic purposes), you still have decent ISO800 shots (see the samples below). That and the fact that it can get to 6x zoom (210mm 35mm equivalent), and 12x zoom if you put on the optional teleconverter) makes it a pretty awesome stealth shooter. Those are my two suggestions. I have both, and would take both to a concert assignment. I'm not really partial to either in general. They just suit different roles.

Enjoy!

Answer 2

You definitely do not want to use fast shutter speeds or use a flash at a concert. You need a camera that can use a high ISO (film speed, in old terms). My only recommendation would be...
Fujifilm Finepix F30
It's THE only compact camera available that performs extremely well in low-light, using high ISO...handheld and without flash. It's the perfect party or concert camera...and it has an amazing battery life of up to 580 shots.
The newer, F31 fd is just a minor update.
But, using a camera at a concert is usually forbidden, so good luck.

Answer 3

i could decide for a sony, I had one some years in the past it replaced into approximately 3 hundred, and after it broke (water harm) I even have long previous by way of a nikkon, to boot as a low fee poloroid digital. the two are undesirable for stay overall performance photos when you consider that they take a protracted time for the image to unquestionably take. particular fashions of cameras enable settings that capture band contributors a lot greater artistically, without the flash to illustrate on my sony i replaced into waiting to have a sparkling image of a band member without the fuzziness that happens each and every each and every now and then on greater fee-effective cameras.

Answer 4

You are not allowed to record a concert, you will get caught and your camera taken away. Just get a good mobile, some of them have good cameras and its legal.

Answer 5

http://www.steves-digicams.com/best_cameras.html