Equipment Suggestions:- Distance and Night

Hi, I draw and paint as a hobby and want to take a variety of night shots. Now I don't want to spend all sorts of money, and I was wondering if it's possible to take night shots close to the below quality with a normal camera without a special lens:

https://photography-on-the.net …?t=511128&highl​ight=night


If not, are there any special packages out there withot having to spend a bomb?

Thanks

Yes, quite possible. Something like a Canon EOS 350D would serve you well as a first serious camera and take shots of that sort of quality, they can be had on ebay with a lens included for not a huge amount of money. You will also need a tripod for night shots so you can keep the camera mounted steadily if the shutter is open for a long time - in night shots you are often exposing for many seconds and it would be impossible to hold the camera still enough. Tripods don't cost a lot - there are expensive models that will hold a lot of weight, but for a basic SLR and lens a fairly cheap model would suffice.

Incidentally, if you already have a good quality, fairly recent compact camera and it is capable of long exposures (many are not) you may find the results from that are good enough for you - it depends. A digital SLR though would give you a lot more flexibility in the type of shots you could take for not a huge investment, and alongside drawing and painting would broaden your artistic pallette so to speak.

Thanks a lot for those responses, they're very helpful. I had it in mind that the handhelds probably don't have the aperture for that type of shot, although I was wnodering if there any decently priced cameras out there. The ebay prices hover around £200 ($140?) for that model you specified which seems quite reasonable for an entry level camera with a lens.

Incidentally, for night shots with long exposures you would want to either use the cameras self timer function so the shutter opens some seconds after you press the shutter button (to allow vibrations in the tripod from you touching the camera time to dissipate), or you can also buy a remote release to trip the shutter without touching the camera - I recently brought a cheap wireless one from ebay and it works very well on my camera.

Which would be what with respect to your budget?
Great stuff from a P&S!

Generally, the advice above would work. The 2nd image in your link is a good shot taken before the sky is totally dark. Try that.

PhotosGuy wrote in post #5624967
Great stuff from a P&S!

WOW!! Thanks for that link.... really inspiring... can`t believe that`s a p&s...