Indoor/Theatre and Dance... What camera really works

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I have the Olympus c-2020 and have a problem. I need to take Theatre and Dance photo's where flash CAN'T be used, and light is typically strong on the subjects but extremely low surrounding, and the subjects (especially in dance) are very fast moving. After reading tons of reviews, and guides on how to select the right camera, I chose the Olympus C-2020. Unfortunatly, either the review didn't mention, or I failed to understand that in low light conditions with the flash disabled the camera automatically selects 1/30 for shutter speed. Unacceptably slow for action dance photo's.

On my trusty Pentax k-1000 I have taken some usable photo's using iso 800 film shot at 1600 and pushed 1-1.5 on the processing. I've been able to take advantage of the less grainy iso 800 film while benefiting from the greater sensitivity of an iso 1600 setting. I really would like to do similar work with a "digital camera" however I have seen no reviews of similar type of challenges.

I am ready for suggestions.

-- Omar (omarpaloma@email.com), February 20, 2000

Answers

Well, you unfortunately won't get close to ISO 1600 in the current generation of digicams, although the next round looks promising. (You can easily do 1600 with the pro models, but they start at around $5,000, sans lens.)

To get the most out of the Oly in the situation you described, try three things: 1) Set the ISO to 400. The images will be "grainy" (noisy), but maybe usable. 2) Set the camera for spot metering. 3) Use the camera in shutter-priority mode. Set the shutter speed to something reasonably fast, and see if the camera thinks it's enough. - The exposure readout on the LCD screen will go red if it thinks it needs more exposure than it can get at maximum aperture. If the light on the dancers really is pretty bright, this might get you close to the speed you're looking for, although 400 ISO is still a long ways down from 1600!

If you're willing to give up some shadow detail and accept more noise, you can try "pushing" the images post-exposure in Photoshop or other image editor. - The best way to adjust things in Photoshop is probably to familiarize yourself with the "levels" control panel. (On a Mac, you can hold down the Option key while you drag the white and black sliders, to see what's blowing out or plugging up very directly. Unfortunately, you can't do this on Windows machines, although you can still preview the effects of the adjustment.)

Hope this helps, good luck!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), February 23, 2000.


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