drealsmiley

My wife and I will be taking a Riverboat cruise in Russia. Past experience has not been good for slow moving night photography of riverbank lighted cities etc. Slight blurring occurs. I want to use a point and shoot camera when traveling due to small size. Any suggestions as to make and model of what cameras handle this problem the best. I am on a $300-500 budget. Any help would be deeply appreciated.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I recommend the Sony pocket camera. DSC-WX350. Focal length 25-500mm, 21 megapixels, 1/2.3" sensor, and very good in low light photography. Price new is $249.00. From B&H. Steady hands are required though.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Some suggestions -
http://www.techradar.com/news/photography-video-capture/cameras/best-compact-camera-2013-34-reviewed-963985
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-point-and-shoot-under-500/
http://www.bestproducts.com/tech/gadgets/g706/point-and-shoot-digital-cameras/

Scary video -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YWaloz-Duw

JCam Loc: MD Eastern Shore

Mas24, You picked the toughest venue I can recall--at night, from a moving boat, at a distance with lights in the background--good luck. I've done a lot of boat photography, but little of it of moving subjects at night; it just doesn't seem to work well, maybe because at night I have to keep an extra special eye out ahead--at least you won't have that distraction. Have you tried google or other on line help for suggestions?

I think I'd start with a high ISO, fairly large f/stop 4.5-5.6, shutter priority with a medium speed 1/150; with aperture priority the shutter is going to stay open too long. I don't think a tripod is going to help because it will pick up and magnify any/all vibrations from the boat so you will probably have to hand hold the camera. Probably the best thing to do is go to some local river or lake and do some experimenting to see what works best. I don't often shoot in RAW but I'd use it for this as it gives you more PP capability.

mas24 Loc: Southern CA

I recommended an inexpensive Sony pocket camera that I have witnessed works well at night. A friend owns one, and he took some photos of houses with Christmas lights decorations with it. I was impressed with the results. The camera only shoots JPEG. I don't know if he will get the same results from a moving ship. However, the OP has a budget to $500. He could get a better camera. And one that has a higher ISO, and can shoot RAW. There are many cameras to choose from.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

What you mentioned is a natural occurrence of the given circumstances and will occur no matter what camera you use, or how much money you'll spend. With a very slow shutter speed and camera movement you will get motion blur!

btbg

You are right about point and shoot cameras, but not necessarily all cameras. If you can shoot at iso 8,000 or above you may actually be able to use a fast enough shutter speed to shoot. That means there are only a handful of cameras which can possibly do that, and they are all expensive.

The Nikon D5 is one of the cameras that is most likely to be able to do what the op wants to do. The problem is that thats a 6,500 dollar camera rather than 3-500 like the op wants to purchase.