Low-light P&S?

What are some choices/recommendation​s for a low-light point and shoot? Looking for something with ISO 3200 capability that will have enough quality for 4x6 prints. It will mostly be used indoor for children's school activities.

S100

S100,S95

Can't comment on the S100, but I plan on getting one for my gf for upcoming valentine's day. I really like my Fuji X10 for low-light although not as compact as the S100 and a lil more $$$. The X10 has a fast aperture (2.0-2.8) throughout the entire focal range of 28-112mm.

The S100 is a great camera... A truly " pocketable camera " that offer's fantastic image quality. Now owning it for a couple of months, I find I take it everywhere with me and this is something that I didn't want to be bothered by when I owned the Nikon P7000.

S100 would be good for the wide end of the lens. Not so much for low light telephoto.

My LX5 was not good at high ISO. my NEX5 is--but certainly not pocketable...just speaking up In case this might help.

Found myself carrying my LX5 and a travel zoom camera for its longer lens. That was a Pany ZS3. That grew into a Pany ZS10...surprisingly good to ISO 800, but not fast enough to meet your needs.

Please let us know what you choose, and how it works for you.

Oly ZX-1 gets my vote.

Here's an ISO 3200 photo taken with a G11.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com/​photos/picsdennis/6614​494713/

There are some cameras that can do good at ISO 3200, but you have to expose perfectly and not pixel peep. (As the above shot shows). If you underexpose, it becomes a snowy mess of noise.

Example from my LX5

underexposed by a little ISO 3200:

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Tim S - Have you had a look at the Nikon P310? I know nothing about this camera - I came across it when looking at Reviews of the 'interesting' P510 (42x / 1000mm-equiv, no RAW, and a 240-shot stills-only "battery") - but it might come into your range.

At $329.00 in the US it's rather cheaper than the Canon S100. It has 16Mpix on a 1/2.3" BSI-CMOS sensor, 4.2x zoom / 24-100mm equiv, f/1.8-f/4.9 - ISO from 100-3200 with the usual 'Auto' option.

It's of similar dimensions to the S100, and weighs 194g / 6.84oz. There are Priorities modes, Manual, and Scenes modes.

It has a 3" 921,00-dot LCD that doesn't tilt, and like the 'fashion' is trending, no viewfinder.

The mini-power-pack is claimed to do 230 shots. As it also does 1920 x 1080, 1280 x 720, and 640 x 480 video - in MPEG4 / H264 - a few spare Li-Ions are probably in order.

While the price is good - since you want to run at the ISO 1600-3200 end, I'd want to see a lot of samples at that level - re noise, as 16Mpix on a 1/2.3" sensor is crowding things a bit.

Hmmm.... Seems we can't complain about the 230-stills 'battery' - a Review of the S100 gives it just 200 shots....

This "trend" towards tiny, low-shots-numbers Li-Ions, apparently to save weight, is spreading from mid-range to the the bridge-zooms, too - an SX40 hardly compares with the 550-600 shots my SX10 on Eneloops does.

But I was somewhat gobstopped to see that the new Nikon P510 'bridge' does only a claimed 240 stills on its 'power-pack' - use some HD-video - and power-zoom that 1000mm-equiv lens too often - and that claimed "240" score will decrease...

And that tiny 'power-pack' can't be to save weight - the camera is 5-grams lighter than my SX10 to start with. Nor to save space - the hand-grip is as large as those on my SX10 and Fuji HS20, both of which run on 4 x AAs.

While I think the HS10 is a "battery-hog", compared with the SX10 - it does do 450+ stills on Eneloops - not quite twice the score of the P510 - or P310, for that matter.

Regards, Dave.

If you leave the GPS off on the S100 you can get a good number of shots. Is it anywhere near the 3000 I got once from my 60D's battery? No...but for a camera this tiny it's pretty amazing.

The S100 can go down one full stop from 3200 to ISO 6400 if you force it to, the sensor is much larger and lower density than the Nikon so it should perform a lot better.

I guess one thing to ask though is if the OP needs to be able to zoom in low light or not.

The P310 offers almost nothing over the older p300 (except more megapixels) so honestly If that looks good shop for clearance P300's.

there is simply nothing on or in the market that is as portable or has the IQ of the S100.

S100mike wrote in post #13822094
there is simply nothing on or in the market that is as portable or has the IQ of the S100.

Until you zoom in.... f5.9 at telephoto.