Need a camera for low-light, dance performances

EllenMarie said:

Thanks Dutch Newchurch, Also.. would this lense be good for videos of the performances, not just photos?

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EllenMarie said:

Hello! I am looking for a camera + lens with very specific needs and I'm a total beginner, so after hours of countless internet research I am still pretty stuck and I need real human help

I want to record dance (& music) performance, classes, & events for this dance & cultural center in which in many times events and performances even are in pretty low light environments. I'd like to stick in the $1000 range.

I don't want super resolution that shows every detail and line on their face, but I would love a smooth cinematic look without chromatic abberation with tracers of movements of dancers. I have noticed a friend's Panasonic Gx7 left some kind of tracers or chromatic aberrations

see at 1:48 of this video when the dancer is twirling and there is blur in her movements, as opposed to my old CanonG12 at :33, while at lower resolution, looks more flattering and leaves no tracers at all and shows smooth movement even though it is an older camera.

I want an upgrade of that CanonG12, so at the recommendation of the local camera store and some online research I got a Panasonic GX8 with a 12-60mm f3.5-5.6 lens in which they assured me would be great without the tracers and good in low light, but I am not really happy with it so far so I want to trade it for something else. I tried to record an event and at ISO 6400 it did not look good or bright enough. I'm not sure if i should just buy a new lens for this camera (e.g., 1.7 lens) or buy something like the Sony a6300 which seems better in low light but also has super resolution which I'm not sure that I need.

So I'm wondering if anybody has an tips on where I should go from here.

Many thanks for your time.

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Ido S said:

If I understood you correctly, you're not comfortable with using ISO 6400 on your Panasonic GX8, so I assume ISO 3200 is fine. Have a look at this comparison; what I gather from it is that ISO 6400 on the Sony a6300, seems to give about as much noise as ISO 3200 on the Panasonic GX8, so it's about a stop better—meaning you can use a 1-stop higher ISO with no penalty.

But the only reason you've had to go to these high ISO values, is because your lens is too slow (aperture is too small). If you tend to use the wide end of your lens's zoom range, you've been limited to roughly f/3.5–f/4 as your maximum aperture. Meanwhile, a fast prime lens in this sort of focal length usually has a maximum aperture somewhere in the range of f/1.7–f/2; the high-end (read: expensive) Panasonic-Leica 12mm f/1.4 is even faster. At the very least, that's a 1.7-stop improvement, so already more significant than simply upgrading to a Sony a6300 and using the same sort of kit lens.

If you tend to use the longer part of the zoom range more often, the difference a prime lens can make is even more significant. The maximum aperture in that range of your lens is somewhere between f/4–f/5.6, while prime lenses in that range have a maximum aperture between f/1.4–f/1.8. A couple of high-end (expensive) lenses even go to f/1.2. So again, at the very least you're looking at roughly a 2.3-stop improvement by simply using a fast prime lens.

Use your zoom lens to determine what focal lengths you like best. Then explore the Micro Four Thirds lens selection to see what's available.

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Dutch Newchurch said:

Ido S said:

If I understood you correctly, you're not comfortable with using ISO 6400 on your Panasonic GX8, so I assume ISO 3200 is fine. Have a look at this comparison; what I gather from it is that ISO 6400 on the Sony a6300, seems to give about as much noise as ISO 3200 on the Panasonic GX8, so it's about a stop better—meaning you can use a 1-stop higher ISO with no penalty.

But the only reason you've had to go to these high ISO values, is because your lens is too slow (aperture is too small). If you tend to use the wide end of your lens's zoom range, you've been limited to roughly f/3.5–f/4 as your maximum aperture. Meanwhile, a fast prime lens in this sort of focal length usually has a maximum aperture somewhere in the range of f/1.7–f/2; the high-end (read: expensive) Panasonic-Leica 12mm f/1.4 is even faster. At the very least, that's a 1.7-stop improvement, so already more significant than simply upgrading to a Sony a6300 and using the same sort of kit lens.

If you tend to use the longer part of the zoom range more often, the difference a prime lens can make is even more significant. The maximum aperture in that range of your lens is somewhere between f/4–f/5.6, while prime lenses in that range have a maximum aperture between f/1.4–f/1.8. A couple of high-end (expensive) lenses even go to f/1.2. So again, at the very least you're looking at roughly a 2.3-stop improvement by simply using a fast prime lens.

Use your zoom lens to determine what focal lengths you like best. Then explore the Micro Four Thirds lens selection to see what's available.

Click to expand...

That's good advice.

The Sigma lenses - suggested by another - are slightly slower at f/2.8, and I personally wouldn't use them for that reason. When you're working at the edge of what's possible with the light available, an extra 1-2 stops from the lens can make a lot of difference.

Also, the Voightlander suggested by another is a fantastic lens. But it's manual focus. I've tried using manual focus lenses for performance and found I was missing far too many shots. Modern digital cameras are designed for autofocus lenses, and are not as fast with manual focus lenses as were old 35mm film cameras, with their bright viewfinders and split prism focus aids.

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jshen808 said:

Dutch Newchurch said:

Ido S said:

If I understood you correctly, you're not comfortable with using ISO 6400 on your Panasonic GX8, so I assume ISO 3200 is fine. Have a look at this comparison; what I gather from it is that ISO 6400 on the Sony a6300, seems to give about as much noise as ISO 3200 on the Panasonic GX8, so it's about a stop better—meaning you can use a 1-stop higher ISO with no penalty.

But the only reason you've had to go to these high ISO values, is because your lens is too slow (aperture is too small). If you tend to use the wide end of your lens's zoom range, you've been limited to roughly f/3.5–f/4 as your maximum aperture. Meanwhile, a fast prime lens in this sort of focal length usually has a maximum aperture somewhere in the range of f/1.7–f/2; the high-end (read: expensive) Panasonic-Leica 12mm f/1.4 is even faster. At the very least, that's a 1.7-stop improvement, so already more significant than simply upgrading to a Sony a6300 and using the same sort of kit lens.

If you tend to use the longer part of the zoom range more often, the difference a prime lens can make is even more significant. The maximum aperture in that range of your lens is somewhere between f/4–f/5.6, while prime lenses in that range have a maximum aperture between f/1.4–f/1.8. A couple of high-end (expensive) lenses even go to f/1.2. So again, at the very least you're looking at roughly a 2.3-stop improvement by simply using a fast prime lens.

Use your zoom lens to determine what focal lengths you like best. Then explore the Micro Four Thirds lens selection to see what's available.

Click to expand...

That's good advice.

The Sigma lenses - suggested by another - are slightly slower at f/2.8, and I personally wouldn't use them for that reason. When you're working at the edge of what's possible with the light available, an extra 1-2 stops from the lens can make a lot of difference.

Also, the Voightlander suggested by another is a fantastic lens. But it's manual focus. I've tried using manual focus lenses for performance and found I was missing far too many shots. Modern digital cameras are designed for autofocus lenses, and are not as fast with manual focus lenses as were old 35mm film cameras, with their bright viewfinders and split prism focus aids.

Click to expand...

Thanks for sharing your experiences with the Voightlander lens.. after posting, did more research on it, and found out it would be "manual focus".. which would not work well in situations where "auto focus" is desired.

Click to expand...

Ido S said:

If I understood you correctly, you're not comfortable with using ISO 6400 on your Panasonic GX8, so I assume ISO 3200 is fine. Have a look at this comparison; what I gather from it is that ISO 6400 on the Sony a6300, seems to give about as much noise as ISO 3200 on the Panasonic GX8, so it's about a stop better—meaning you can use a 1-stop higher ISO with no penalty.

But the only reason you've had to go to these high ISO values, is because your lens is too slow (aperture is too small). If you tend to use the wide end of your lens's zoom range, you've been limited to roughly f/3.5–f/4 as your maximum aperture. Meanwhile, a fast prime lens in this sort of focal length usually has a maximum aperture somewhere in the range of f/1.7–f/2; the high-end (read: expensive) Panasonic-Leica 12mm f/1.4 is even faster. At the very least, that's a 1.7-stop improvement, so already more significant than simply upgrading to a Sony a6300 and using the same sort of kit lens.

If you tend to use the longer part of the zoom range more often, the difference a prime lens can make is even more significant. The maximum aperture in that range of your lens is somewhere between f/4–f/5.6, while prime lenses in that range have a maximum aperture between f/1.4–f/1.8. A couple of high-end (expensive) lenses even go to f/1.2. So again, at the very least you're looking at roughly a 2.3-stop improvement by simply using a fast prime lens.

Use your zoom lens to determine what focal lengths you like best. Then explore the Micro Four Thirds lens selection to see what's available.

Click to expand...