What compact for low light situations?

[thespeakerbox]

I need a p&s for low light shooting, both indoor and outdoor. I'd like to keep it in the car or in my gf's purse for quick on the go shooting. Wider lenses are a + as i like landscape and architecture photography. What would you suggest for less than 300.

This is going to back up my 30d when its an inconvenience to carry on me.

[mot]

I think almost of P&S camera not good for low light condition (focus problem).

[Jon]

Also noise.

[BBoi]

Yeah, you can get P&S that go mega high as far as ISO goes, but with that is the noise. A few weeks back I shot a football team photo in floodlit pitch conditions at night - I was at ISO800 using an A640 - the results were, well, unusuable. So dont fall for this ISO1600 and 3200 rubbish, it's just plain not worth it for shots you probably can't use anyway. I have to re-shoot the team photo in daylight next saturday.

The basic answer is, proper DSLR's cope with low light much better than P&S. The closest you could hope for with a compact is to use the RAW hack on an A-series camera (do a search of the forum) to shoot with more colours and exploit more detail in the dark areas.

Lets face it, if compacts could shoot decent quality in dark lighting conditions, none of us would be lusting after an EOS 1 MarkIII. The right tools for the right job, and, you get what you pay for.

As long as you don't mind using long exposure for your night shots, the A640 / 650 should suit just fine. If you're after using fast shutter - nop, a waste of money taking that route.

[_aravena]

Fuji FTW! They have the best for low light out of the P&S as I've seen.

I love that until above, no one actually suggests a camera and pretty much says don't get one. Fuji F50 is nice and the previous models before it. I have a SD800 because it was really cheap and it's not bad. The newer ones are very nice. the SD850 IS is pretty awesome and can be found around $250.

Just stay away from Sony, Nikon, Casio...anything aside from uji or Canon. Panasonic isn't bad, pending the model. And I know all this because I get bored at work and have test shot most camera models and all at the same ISO and object to give fair reading. Sony is so horrible.