Low light photography with DSC-HX5V

[SteveF48]

I've had my camera for about a week and tried many different ways to improve its performance in low light.

There are several scene modes, plus a couple of modes on the selection dial. Having tried all of them I'm not that impressed by the results ordinary P mode seems to give good results, but the others just increase the time between shots.

The backlight compensation seemed to blow out all of the highlights in my images.

Twilight mode didn't seem to be less noisy and chose lower ISO settings, so the blur that induced counteracted any improvement in the noise reduction.

I was surprised to see a separate shake reduction setting, I'm used to Panasonic cameras where it's a camera  setting, which applies to all relevant modes of operation.

I will persevere and if I have time I'll post some images where you can see them.

Has anyone else obtained good pictures in low light with their cybershot?

[Blencogo]

Try the 'Anti-Motion Blurr' setting.  This is not a normal shake reduction setting as seen on other cameras like the Panasonic.  The Anti-Motion Blurr setting will shoot a series of 6 frames at high sensitivity and combine the 6 frames into 1 which reduces shake and noise in the picture.

Results are good but it does take longer to shoot and process the image - about 5 seconds.

The only proper answer is, of course, to get a tripod and hold down the ISO to 200 or 400 max.

[SteveF48]

I can't use a tripod. Most of my low light photography is conducted on a small boat in the English Channel:smileylaugh:

I'll try the anti blur setting, if I haven't already, but suspect it will just introduce motion blur, given the circumstances.

[Mick2011]

AMB might work but it'll probably give you grainer shots than the camera's 'Twilight' setting, which might work best in the circumstances. 'Twilight'  works in a similar way (6 shots combined in-camera) but will stack them for image quality as a priority, rather than attempt to identify a static object like AMB. It's not so good for moving subjects, of course...

Auto settings might not be the best way to go anyway. Low light, hand held shots often need the aperture wide open for best results, so I'd suggest trying Manual exposure mode to make sure that's what you're getting. Set it to f3.5 and go from there.

Remember your aperture is only at its maximum when the lens is at wide-angle; you lose at least one stop going to telephoto, which will straightaway give you noisier and/or blurrier pics. This is true for Twilight etc settings as much as Manual.

Overall the HX5V is pretty good in low light for a compact but you are asking quite a lot, hand-held on a small boat A tripod, or even a monopod, isn't such a bad idea – at least then you'd only have the motion of the sea to worry about.

Cheers

Mick

[SteveF48]

Thank you for your response.

Tripods and monopods are less effective for me than just holding the camera. I'm more flexible, despite my old age.

I took the DSC-HX5v with me on my last trip and was, frankly, very disappointed. It failed to focus most of the time and failed miserably in low light. OK, I need to practice with it some more, to get the best out of it, but it's a steeper learning curve than I've had with other cameras. I expected more from a backlit CMOS chip, probably more than is realistic.

The only things I like are sweep panorama, though that doesn't work on a boat; and full HD video.

[Mick2011]

It should reward a bit of dedicated practice, they're pretty neat cameras. Ok, maybe not so straightforward as others, but it does a number of useful things very well. You mentioned sweep panorama, but did you try Twilight mode yet? That and HDR mode are particularly good on the HX5V, well worth having a play with if you want to improve on image quality.

Low light focussing is always a toughie. The focus assist light will only 'assist' if the subject's close enough to be lit by it, so it's no help at all for all but very proximate stuff. Not a particularly strong point for your camera, either; I'd look at different methods.

Manual focussing isn't an option, but you can focus lock... I'd practice that one more than anything else. You half-depress the shutter release, lock onto the subject and when you're happy, fully-depress. Apart from vastly increasing your chances of a sharp shot, the shutter delay is reduced by a factor of something like 30 compared to your 'normal' release. That's a great facility to have for all sorts of situations, not just low light.

I guess its a case of playing to its strengths. Good luck with it!

Mick

[badgerme]

Slightly off-topic as my camera is a DSC-HX9V - but similar to you I'm just experimenting and learning the various options.

I've started a Picasa album called HX9V with some sample shots including two in 'twilight' mode taken at around 10.45 last night

http://picasaweb.google.com/Roger.Ding.Dong/

[SteveF48]

Twilight mode sucks for my needs, the six photos it uses just create a massive blur.

I usually pre-focus, but that leads to blur on a moving boat too.

In short the HX5v will be relegated to a secondary role and I'll just have to tolerate the limitations of my FX38. Being a bridge camera means that it has loads of advantages over a compact camera:

a) The EVF works in all conditions from bright sunlight to almost total darkness;

b) I can hang on with one hand and hold it against my head for stability;

c) Using the EVF means that my arms don't exagerate every movement

I shall use the 10 shot burst mode and full HD video, but only in good light.