Camera for taking photos by torchlight?

Cromulent · 31 Aug 2019 at 20:39

I have two requirements. The first one is taking photos by torchlight, which means having a bright area in the middle of the screen with moonlit areas to the side. The second requirement is being able to take photos one-handed as the other hand will be holding the torch.

I don't have much money so as cheap as possible while still giving excellent performance would be great. Maybe if you gave three options? One about £250. One about £500 and one about £750?

An extra special bonus would be 4k video at 30fps.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hyburnate · 31 Aug 2019 at 20:43

What sort of photos? What environment? Honestly, this screams tripod. For low light you want a big sensor and a fast lens, both usually rhyme with expensive.

Cromulent · 31 Aug 2019 at 20:55

Hyburnate said:
What sort of photos? What environment? Honestly, this screams tripod. For low light you want a big sensor and a fast lens, both usually rhyme with expensive.

I go for walks at night in local parks and the countryside with various torches and want to be able to take photos of what my torch is pointing at while I am out walking which is kinda why I want to be able to take photos one-handed as I'll be pointing my torch at something.

When you say expensive, how expensive do you mean if you ignore the requirement for a tripod?

Energize · 1 Sep 2019 at 21:17

Cromulent said:
I go for walks at night in local parks and the countryside with various torches and want to be able to take photos of what my torch is pointing at while I am out walking which is kinda why I want to be able to take photos one-handed as I'll be pointing my torch at something.

When you say expensive, how expensive do you mean if you ignore the requirement for a tripod?

Like £1k for a used full frame body and 35/50mm f/1.4 lens.

At that price you can forget 4k video recording though.

Minstadave · 1 Sep 2019 at 21:20

Energize said:
Like £1k for a used full frame body and 35/50mm f/1.4 lens.

At that price you can forget 4k video recording though.

Sony A7ii keeps popping up for £600 after cashback, might do the job although the AF is meant to be on the slow side.

Energize · 1 Sep 2019 at 21:27

Minstadave said:
Sony A7ii keeps popping up for £600 after cashback, might do the job although the AF is meant to be on the slow side.

Which brings up another issue, some cameras like the Nikon D800 have excellent AF for photos but are terrible for focusing in videos.

Mind you at f/1.4 you are gonna have a very shallow dof for video work!

Cromulent · 4 Sep 2019 at 16:11

Energize said:
Which brings up another issue, some cameras like the Nikon D800 have excellent AF for photos but are terrible for focusing in videos.

Mind you at f/1.4 you are gonna have a very shallow dof for video work!

Sorry for the late reply. I've been doing quite a bit of research on this. I really want to maintain my focus on video but still have the ability to take good quality stills if required. So I was looking at the Panasonic GH5 as an all-around solution. What do you think about that? Good idea or bad idea?

Raymond Lin · 4 Sep 2019 at 16:19

You cannot do photo by torchlight without a tripod.

These kind of photography by definition you are waving your arms around to "paint" the subject. It is light painting and it takes time for you to "paint"...ergo, it is not a flash. Which means if you don't have a tripod, it will just be blur and a mess.

So...
Rule No. 1 - you need a tripod.

Now that you have a tripod, it doesn't. really matter what body you have in terms of spec because now you can just put it in ISO 100 and use bulb mode and paint to your heart's content. So even an old Canon 30D would be fine...But if you are going modern, and then also want to do video then personally I would go Canon, 80D may be with dual pixel AF which is great for video.

But I don't think it does 4k/30 though. You can do GH5 i guess, but i am not 100% up to date with that camera.

Cromulent · 4 Sep 2019 at 16:38

Raymond Lin said:
You cannot do photo by torchlight without a tripod.

These kind of photography by definition you are waving your arms around to "paint" the subject. It is light painting and it takes time for you to "paint"...ergo, it is not a flash. Which means if you don't have a tripod, it will just be blur and a mess.

So...
Rule No. 1 - you need a tripod.

Now that you have a tripod, it doesn't. really matter what body you have in terms of spec because now you can just put it in ISO 100 and use bulb mode and paint to your heart's content. So even an old Canon 30D would be fine...But if you are going modern, and then also want to do video then personally I would go Canon, 80D may be with dual pixel AF which is great for video.

But I don't think it does 4k/30 though. You can do GH5 i guess, but i am not 100% up to date with that camera.

Yeah. I'll certainly get a tripod now that everyone has recommended one. The GH5 just looks great from a video perspective and it can also shoot stills as a secondary ability which would get me everything I need and it has dual-mode stabilisation where the lens is stabilised at the same time as the body (both need to be compatible).

Energize · 6 Sep 2019 at 17:58

Raymond Lin said:
You cannot do photo by torchlight without a tripod.

These kind of photography by definition you are waving your arms around to "paint" the subject. It is light painting and it takes time for you to "paint"...ergo, it is not a flash. Which means if you don't have a tripod, it will just be blur and a mess.

So...
Rule No. 1 - you need a tripod.

Now that you have a tripod, it doesn't. really matter what body you have in terms of spec because now you can just put it in ISO 100 and use bulb mode and paint to your heart's content. So even an old Canon 30D would be fine...But if you are going modern, and then also want to do video then personally I would go Canon, 80D may be with dual pixel AF which is great for video.

But I don't think it does 4k/30 though. You can do GH5 i guess, but i am not 100% up to date with that camera.

If he uses the painting method then any movement of the subject such as wind blowing against the grass and trees is just gonna cause a totally blurred shot, not to mention the difficulty of getting even exposure across the frame, I don't see painting as an alternative to a fast lens with a large sensor.