DrDave Loc: Xcalak, Mexico

Hi all,
I'm running out of options here. My wife is a paranormal researcher/practitioner, and needs a camera that will take pix in the dark (moonless night..indoors with no light..etc). I have Nikon D80, but have been unable to learn how to "force" the shutter to operate when there is no light (even with flash!). Birthday is just around the corner (which is why I need this quickly!). She wants something simpler than the D80..doesn't like all the bells and whistles. I like Nikons, but need to know if you can make my camera perform..or what I need to be looking at. I really like some of the high-end Nikon point & shoot models, but would be wasting my money if I couldn't just step outside into the blackness and "take a picture" (The results are not important..just the act of photographing "whatever's out there")
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
DrDave

JimH Loc: Western South Jersey, USA

It's not the camera that can't take pictures in the dark, it's the lens (and, to a lesser extent, the sensor).

Low-light photography demands a really fast lens and a..well, sensitive sensor.

Those fancy green-light night photography getups you see on TV are quite $$$$, expense-wise.

You'd probably be better off with infra-red, since ghosts tend to run 30-50 degrees colder than live humans. (It's the ectoplasm.. :)

You can FORCE the shutter to stay open, if your camera has a "B" for BULB shutter speed setting. (Don't ask. Holdover from the 1930s.) On BULB, the shutter will stay open for as long as you hold the button down.

bobmielke Loc: Portland, OR

Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. I have the Leica V-LUX 20 which is made on the same production line. I love the little camera which takes great photos. You won't get low light, low noise performance with any pocket camera. My Nikon D7000 gets incredible low light performance but is a top notch DSLR. Here's the web review of the pocket cameras I mentioned.

http://www.digital-photography-school.com/leica-v-lux-20-review

Leica V-LUX 20

sinatraman Loc: Vero Beach Florida, Earth,alpha quaudrant

basically for the fact she will be taking night shots with no lights, she is going to need a dslr. the nikon dslrs are known for having high iso's with little noise. she can shoot on auto and not worry about the bells and whistles and in the day time you can play with it. its a win win. if your wife actually sees a ghost tell her to never cross the stream and avoid thinking of the stay puff marshmellow man at all costs :D :lol: 8-)

dj8510 Loc: Peru, NY

If you are having trouble taking a picture "in the dark," switch the lense from "auto" focus to "manual" focus.

gessman Loc: Colorado

The Canon EOS 5D MkII has an iso setting range of 50 to 25,600. I'm not familiar with its counterpart in other cameras but my thinking is that there may not be another camera with that high an iso. In the event you are not that familiar with iso settings, the higher the iso, the lower light in which you can expect to get a usable image. That's what I have and I've had some real good luck with low light images. Whether or not it will adequately serve our wife's purpose, rent one and try it out but don't overlook it as an option.

marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL

You have a bunch of problems going on. Not only low-light exposure settings, and low-light boosted ISO electronic noise, but shutter speeds that could be so slow that you would get a blur where there should have been a distinctly clear ghost.

Have you considered shooting video for hours instead? There are some video cams that have infrared light for night shooting. My 10 year old Sony digital-video-on-tape cam had a built in regular light and it could be switched to infrared instead. That specific model was banned and replaced because it was found that with the infrared light on in daylight you could cause some bikinis to vanish in your video if they were made out of the right material and were wet which left the subject virtually naked on your tape. I've never done it personally but that's what was in the press as soon as somebody realized it.

Anyway, you also have the problem of getting the camera up and pointed at whatever paranormal thing that was supposed to be happening, getting your clue of where to point from your wife, and other things that could make you miss the shot altogether. Having a video with infrared light running all the time from an A.C. outlet means there is no shutter to release. Anything that shows up on video could be turned into a still later.

Just a thought...

gessman Loc: Colorado

Good thinking. As good as my EOS 5D MkII is, I've never shot it in complete darkness. Don't figure it would work too well but a person would just need to test it. Probably be too slow to avoid blur.