Nikon CP8700 and low light

I have a Nikon CP8700, and for the most part I very much like this
camera. However, I was mortified to realize that it was shown up this
weekend by my husband's tiny Sony something-U point-and-shoot!

We were in Paris over the weekend (Valentines weekend), and took the
Seine boat trip at night... very beautiful, but I was completely unable
to take useable photos! This is probably pilot error, but the photos
with a fast enough shutter to cancel the motion of the boat were too
dark to save even with post-processing, and with a slower shutter of
course there was motion-blur. On the other hand, my hubby's tiny Sony
(it's smaller than a cigarette pack) captured quite useable nighttime
photos. Incidentally, so did my Sony camcorder, even without nightshot.

I often find that I have problems with low-light conditions and camera
movement - if I set it to a shutter speed I can work with (1/30 if it's
only a little windy), it complains that the photo will be too dark
(sometimes is, sometimes isn't, at least after post processing)

Am I doing something wrong, or can someone explain why my expensive ZLR
is being show up by a sub-$200 point-and-shoot? I'm mostly a landscape
photographer, and mountains tend to not move much (usually!)

jmc

jmc wrote:
 > I have a Nikon CP8700, and for the most part I very much like this
 > camera. However, I was mortified to realize that it was shown up this
 > weekend by my husband's tiny Sony something-U point-and-shoot!
[]
 > Am I doing something wrong, or can someone explain why my expensive
 > ZLR is being show up by a sub-$200 point-and-shoot? I'm mostly a
 > landscape photographer, and mountains tend to not move much (usually!)
 >
 > jmc

Two reasons we bought a Panasonic FZ20 instead of the Nikon 8700 were:

- it has image stabilisation

- it has an f/2.8 lens rather than an f/4.2 lens at the long end

The image stabilisation buys you about three stops, the lens another stop,
so your blurred half-second exposure becomes my sharp 1/30s.

OK, so Nikon offer the 8800, but its lens is just f/5.2 at the long end!

In practice, I've found that for nighttime shots you really do need some
support, such as a bean-bag or tripod. You may also find that using the
EVF with your camera braced against the head rather than being at arm's
length helps, although this seems to differ for different people.

Cheers,
David<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->