What is a good camera for night shots?

Question

I'm going on holiday in mid July to Tunisia and there is nothing more beautiful than Tunisia at dawn. The way you see the sun go down slowly behind the horizion is only something a picture can explain... so what camera would be good for this?

I've got a Sony Cybershot point and shoot camera but heard they are not good enough. Oh and just one other problem... when I turn the camera on the lens opens out and then closes back in again and it repeats this until the camera actually says turn the power off and back on again.

Answer 1

If your a point and shoot sort of person ? maybe you should try a Panasonic type camera ?

These have built in software to make night shots look amazing even if your a novice

I would imagine most compacts have a facility , best off going to a camera shop and ask

You could read and spend money on magazines and reviews, but you need to hold it and feel if the camera is suitable for your needs

Maybe hang fire till you get abroad as you may save money ? or get a better model thats the same value in UK ??

Answer 2

The only way to successfully take night shots is to by a SLR or DSLR set it on bulb with a low ISO setting set the lens to infinity then get a tripod and remote shutter release and take timed exposures.

Answer 3

Try Sony's superzoom lines of camera a.k.a. "Enthusiast line" to Sony. They are generally higher end than those typical point and shoot cameras, example would be the newly released Sony Cybershot DSC-H50 which takes really decent night shots in "Twilight mode" as Sony calls it.

Another icing on the cake is that this camera have an Nightshot mode (Nightvision) so once enabled your camera can capture images or videos in total darkness or use it as a nightvision tool which can be pretty handy in very poorly lit rooms.

Lastly the camera mounted LCD is tiltable this can add to those extra convenience in hard to shoot angels, like over a crowd for example.