On Sat, 30 Mar 2002 00:28:52 GMT, d_ruether@hotmail.com (Neuman - Ruether) wrote:

>On 29 Mar 2002 21:48:05 GMT, rickron51@aol.com (Rickron51)
>wrote:
>
>>I just got back from Italy and viewed my videos to much disapointment. most of
>>my shooting is done with a Sony 3 Watt lamp in my friends homes sitting around
>>eating and drinking prosecco. The rooms are generally well lit and with the
>>top mounted 3 watt lamp i thought everything would be fine. There is a lot of
>>noise or grainy hash. is there a smaller Mini DV camera with better low light
>>abilities? i happy with the Sony outdoors but indoors it seems lousy. Rick

>The color can sometimes be improved some by switching off
>the stabilizer, selecting manual, then switching it back on,
>and also by moving manual exposure a notch away from maximum
>exposure. These drop the shutter speed from 1/100th to
>1/60th, and move the gain from +18 to +15 - both can
>improve the low-light picture quality noticeably...

More...
Other alternatives: (besides the obvious, of adding
more light), is to switch to "nightshot" and to
B&W-mode, and accept B&W (the image is good to a
lower light level); if accepting more motion artifacts
is OK, you can also select "slow shutter", and if
camera/subject motion is slow enough, no. 1 (1/30th)
or no. 2 (1/15th) can look good enough...
Otherwise, it's a TRV900 or VX2000...;-)