To begin with, Why should one buy a DSLR camera? First, it is quick, can focus and click in fraction of a seconds, so that you don’t miss a moment. Secondly, Sensors of DSLR are so sensitive, so you can take pictures in good to very low light conditions with excellent results. Thirdly, you can buy different lenses to get bigger aperture or better coverage (Very Wide to Tele).
Now what was my criteria for looking for a new camera? I wanted a camera, which will give excellent quality pictures in ’available’ light conditions without using flash. Now why don’t I want to use flash? Taking pictures without flash has many benefits.
First, the pictures look more natural, second, you can take pictures much beyond the normal range of flash, and the third and the best reason is, no one realizes you are taking their pictures, so you get very natural pictures of people. And this low light performance is were the Non-DSLR digital cameras fail miserably (the reason can be found in my other review on Why Buy a DSLRs??? at https://mouthshut.com/review/Buying_a_Digital_Camera-158264-1.html ).
Unfortunately, most of us use camera during birthday parties or weddings or other occasions, which happen mostly indoors and in the evenings in low light conditions, not suitable for compact cameras (though we all use it anyway). So I decided to go for a DSLR, which is ideal for such low light conditions. The question was, which DSLR?
To begin with, any DSLR is a great camera as compared to a compact camera due to its large sensor size, making it more sensitive to low light. But I wanted to buy the best camera for the indoor use that will be good for me for next 5 years at least.
I found that modern Canon and Nikon cameras were best for these low light requirements. I was not looking for professionals high resolution camera needed to print large prints. So expensive camera’s like Canon 1 Ds Mk-3 or Nikon D3x or even Canon 5D Mk2 with 21-24 Mega Pixel resolution were out of list.
As I print just 57 inch prints 99% of times, and occasionally 812, for me, 6 Mega Pixel camera was good enough. The best camera’s for low lights are the full-frame Fx format cameras. Unfortunately, those cameras are expensive for normal people (over 1.5L, the best being Nikon D700 and Canon 5D Mk2 for the price). In the more reasonably priced Dx format DSLR’s,
I found Canon 1000D, Canon 450D, Canon 50D, Nikon D300 and Nikon D90 among the best cameras in this category (@Jan, ’09)(1000D is cheapest at less than Rs. 25K and give excellent pictures up to ISO 1600). Of these, Canon 50D, Nikon D300 and Nikon D90 could produce great images even at ISO 3200, and could go up to ISO 6400 or more.
I was undecided which one to choose between these. Advantage of Canon 50D was 15 MP sensor, but 6 MP was good enough for me. Canon 50D and Nikon D300 were better built with metal body and whether sealing. But I use my camera very carefully, so that was not the major criteria, though good to have. D300 has 51 focus points and 1005 pixel metering sensor which is best in its class.
At the same time, Nikon D90 was cheaper and produced brilliant image quality as the other two, but also had HD Video capability, and reasonable build quality. So I decided to go for 12 Mega Pixel Nikon D90 camera.
Oh dear, what a camera it is. I tested my camera during a wedding in my family, and I am just amazed by what it can do. First and foremost, I took this best low light Dx format camera, and made it even better by buying fast lenses to use it in even worse lighting conditions.
So I bought Nikon 50mm f1.4 lens. It made my camera so sensitive to low light that I could click pictures in bulb light indoors without flash and hand held, and picture was so bright as if taken with a flash. Just amazing. But I figured out that a prime lens like this is not useful in party situation.
We need zoom to cover different areas without running back and forth and I don’t recommend this lens in the beginning until you work in very low light and in studio. And it costs a lot (Rs. 13K). So I bought a Tamron 17-50mm, f2.8 lens (RS. 18K).
It is the best lens one can get for this price, giving excellent pictures in indoor low light conditions with optimal zoom and excellent f2.8 aperture, big enough for available light in parties. I used this lens extensively for most of the wedding ceremonies. The official wedding photographers were amazed how I was taking pictures without flash in such low light in room at night with just one tube light, and still get brilliant bright pictures.
The third lens I bought was Nikon 18-200mm VR f3.5-5.6 (Rs. 30K) for outdoor pictures which require large zoom capability, also because I take lot of close-up pictures of people and also that I don’t have to change my lense often when travelling.
This also helps avoid dust getting into camera. It has VR (Vibration Reduction) function that helps you take take sharp pictures of still objects even if your hand shakes. One can also buy Tamron 18-270mm (OS) lens, except its aperture at high end is only f6.3, which is too small for quick auto-focusing.
So during the wedding reception, I decided to use the 18-200 too inside the wedding hall, knowing well it is not that fast due to smaller aperture. Amazingly, D90 automatchandru021y increased its sensitivity to 2500-3200, and I could use this lens even at night indoor without flash.
I was able to take pictures in the hall even 30-40 feet away, which the professional photographers could never take with their flash. I was able to capture so many amazing pictures with the D90, that even I could not imagine possible. And the best part is, even at such high ISO of 3200, the quality of picture was better than ISO 100 in compact camera. You can get more information on other great lenses you can buy for your camera in my other review at MS.
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