Originally posted by kheldour One week ago we had the Maypole event in our village with a nice party at night. I went there with my K-r and a Super Tak 55 1.8 and took a lot of available light shots in the dark with ISO12.800. Most comment I got was
"your flash didn't fire"
About 4 years ago when I was using a Panasonic FZ-7 or 8 (I forget which), a nice advanced P & S with full manual control, I was at Niagara Falls at night looking to photograph the American falls across the river which were nicely lit up. I set the camera on my little tripod (6 inches high), set the shutter for some number of seconds and took a number of photos. They came out really nice with the water of the falls blurred of course and lots of nice colour. All around me were the flashes of P & S cameras.
Like you, one person next to me was commenting on the fact that my flash didn't fire but she was truly puzzled as to why I was getting some very nice photos. She couldn't grasp the fact that her flash unit WASN'T going to illuminate the entire American Falls across the river. I tried to explain but realized that there was an enormous gulf (about the size of the distance between the Canadian & American sides!) between what I knew about photography and what she knew.
Rather sad because if she'd set her little P & S down on the railing, holding it gently and tried a simple timed exposure (most P & S cameras let you turn off the flash) she most likely would have taken a fairly decent photo that she could be proud of.
Oh well, that's life. It's not the size or complexity of your camera most of the time, it's how you use it. And it's the reason my Dad took wonderful landscape photos 50 years ago with a fully manual camera with external exposure meter: photos I STILL CAN'T QUITE MATCH with all my equipment!!!