Compact Advice Please

[rusty]

Recently got a canon 40D but I have a couple of lost opportunities this last 2 weeks as the Canon wasn"t to hand , 1 was a Badger which approached within 5 metres of me ( I was sat in car ) and last nite a Polecat ( but camera was upstairs with 100-300 on )

I am looking for a decent quality compact that I can have handy in the car or near our back door ( close to garden ) , Badger shot would have been darkeness 8pm last week , street lighting , Polecat shot would have been darkness 00.30hrs outside security light one.

Guessing I would need some manual controls on it but dont know , maybe something that is capable of a couple of frames per sec ,.
I was looking at Canon Powershot A720 IS/Panasonic FZ7/8 , but dont know if I am on the right track.

By the time I went upstairs and got the Canon and put the 17-70 on the Polecat had gone , so I thought I would try a shot with the following settings ( where it had been ) 70mm F4.5 1/3sec iso 1600 av mode no flash , security lights on.
Can someone suggest more appropriate setting for the 40D for another nightime shot and a compact that will give reasonable performance under different conditions ?

Thanks

Julian

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3176/2931446422_f8ed937cfd.jpg

[rookies]

Did you use a tripod for this? As for that shutter speed a tripod would of been needed.. Then the picture might of been clearer for you??

[rusty]

Heh no this is just pickin camera up rushing downstairs and taking a shot handheld where you wouldn"t have time to set a pod up LOL.

[rookies]

I would though it be very tricky to get a better shoot handheld is such low light level.. But am sure some pro on here can give a bit more advice :D

[rusty]

Think I will leave the tripod set up with cam on tonite , just in case , but with wildlife you have to be flexible , they dont all pose for you.

[Flash In The Pan]

Canon G9/G10...but you'll struggle to get quality low light shots with any compact, even something like the G9 gets noisy above 400 iso

[rusty]

Yes I was thinking that , could you suggest some better settings for the 40D in those conditions last night ?

[Flash In The Pan]

Well for starters, a 1/3 of a second shutter speed is far too slow to attempt hand-held. Even if you had used a tripod and the polecat had hung around you'd still have needed to persuade it to stand pretty still to get a half decent shot ;)

[rookies]

So are you saying he going to have a job getting a good picture of it even if he had a faster shutter the picture be a bit too dark wont it??

[Flash In The Pan]

ummm......yes

[rusty]

Well for starters, a 1/3 of a second shutter speed is far too slow to attempt hand-held. Even if you had used a tripod and the polecat had hung around you'd still have needed to persuade it to stand pretty still to get a half decent shot ;)

Yes I know 1/3 sec was far too slow , just set it on the widest aperture at 70mm which was 4.5 , set iso to 1600 which gave me 1/3" .
I would be struggling to get a faster shutter speed in those conditions unless I set the iso higher wouldn"t I ? .

[Flash In The Pan]

ummm...yes

[rookies]

And higher ISO more grain not nice picture... Nice a lens at 2.8 :)

[Flash In The Pan]

ummm...yes :lol: