New Compact Digital Camera advice

I'm looking for a modestly priced compact digital camera to take to rock gigs with me to obtain good results in low light.The camera I have now is an early Nikon and results in the low light conditions vary from poor to terrible.I'm not particularly knowledgeable about photography but from trawling the internet it seems it may be because the ISO setting (whatever that is) on the Camera is not good enough (max 200 I think).
I've found a FUJIFILM FINEPIX AV110 very cheap which claims to have ISO up to 3200 and appears to tick most boxes but is so cheap I wonder if perhaps performance doesn't match up to specs.Also its not clear whether you have to use auto settings or can set the camera manually,so if anyone has one and can advise on results I'd be grateful, or if anyone knows of another model which would do the job.I'm not looking for professional quality neccessarily just good clear pics.

Its been a couple of years since I last took a look at the camera market, but unless something has changed significantly there's not really such a thing as a "modestly priced compact camera" that will yield decent photos in low light (without using a flash which is obviously not what you want). Using the higher ISO settings (400 or 800) on the compact cameras that do provide them will leave you with noisy (a speckled effect) photos.

Have you thought about looking at a low end SLR? Even the chepaest SLR is likely to provide you with what you're looking for in terms of low light capability. I don't quite know what you mean by "modestly priced" (£100, £200, £300, £400)? but for example you can pick up this nikon SLR with a lens for £300. I know nothing about the camera itself though so I'm not recommending it specifically.

Anyway, whatever you decide to do, this is one of the best sites to check out for info and reviews: http://www.dpreview.com/

And this a good site for finding low prices if you do decide to go for an SLR (be careful of buying from dodgy companies - I once spent £1400 with a company that ended up not have the product I'd ordered, and it took months to get a refund from them). http://www.camerapricebuster.co.uk/

Modestly priced for a compact digital would be upto 100,although tha AV110 I've seen on sale as low as 40! and it seems to match many much higher priced cameras in terms of specs. For an SLR I would obviously expect to pay more,I guess theres always a trade off between budget and quality, really wasn't looking to pay more than 200 for an occasional hobby though.At a couple of gigs at the weekend saw a lot of cameras in operation, of both sorts, so maybe next time I'll ask some users if they are happy with the results. Incidentally using flash is not a problem, I'm not talking about going to big concert halls or arenas mostly quite small intimate venues with smaller bands, usually get to the front to hehe.

(02-06-2011 21:55 )brummie Wrote:  Incidentally using flash is not a problem, I'm not talking about going to big concert halls or arenas mostly quite small intimate venues with smaller bands, usually get to the front to hehe.

In that case if you're happy to use flash, the low light aspect isn't really of relevance as the flash will combat it - you'll be fine with either the Auto ISO setting or manually setting it to 100 or 200, although most compact cameras are likely to have settings up to 800 or 1600 (pretty pointless though they are at those settings).

I would suggest that you look at the latest cameras from Panasonic, Canon, Nikon & Sony. I'd personally recommend Panasonic - you get more for your money as they don't have the long standing repuation for making cameras that Canon, Sony and Nikon do, but they make excellent compact cameras. They're also one of the leading innovators of compact cameras nowadays.

You can view & compare specs for the latest cameras from those manufacturers (and others) here:
http://www.dpreview.com/products

Panasonic : http://www.dpreview.com/products/panasonic/compacts
Nikon : http://www.dpreview.com/products/nikon/compacts
Canon : http://www.dpreview.com/products/canon/compacts
Sony : http://www.dpreview.com/products/sony/compacts

And then cross reference the models with a site such as Amazon UK to find the approximate prices as well as compare the features and see some user reviews (make sure you read the poor reviews as well as the good ones). For example, these appear to be the 2011 Panasonic compacts in the £100-£200 price range.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-...B004I1KP8Y
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-...B004I1KP7U
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-...B004I1KP5C
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-Lumix-...B004I1KOM6


With regards to the Fuji AC110 you mentioned...I don't really know much about their cameras, but I personally wouldn't buy one as I have a hunch that they're not quite as good as some of the other brands. It appears to only be available in a shocking pink colour - is that what you wanted? Also, its been on Amazon for 9 months and doesn't have a single review which isn't a good sign. The AV100 is a tenner less and has many reviews. But its also shocking-pink. And 3200 ISO is pointless - making compact cameras with such specs is just a marketing ploy to woo customers with high numbers & specs.