Great pics fishlips!
ok, I was already most of the way through writing a very long winded reply, ...so here it is.
I'm just learning a bit about cameras, so anyone who knows a fair bit about this, please be gentle if I've made errors in my explanation.
I have a Nikon S10, 6MP 10x zoom. Very unusual design, has a swivelling barrel lense, so it's pretty small for an ultra-zoom (well it was when I bought it a couple of years ago). With the swivel lense you can take some very interesting shots, like holding the camera directly above your head, or at waist height over the rail (but still see the LCD screen in both cases).
This camera has sports mode, so it will catch fast moving action (with a shutter speed around 1/60 sec), & the shots won't be blurry. Sports mode is great, as you can also set it for continuous shooting, hold down the shutter button & the camera will just keep taking multiple shots (don't even look at the LCD screen, keep your finger down, enjoy the concert, & get rid of the junk shots on your computer when you get home). It also has vibration reduction. This helps reduce blur from camera shake, not from the moving object you're photographing.
But my camera has SOME VERY MAJOR DRAWBACKS (actually, it sucks for concert photography). Not enough manual controls, which means I get some very poor results in low light environments.
In sports mode in low light, the sensitivity to light (ISO) is bumped up to the max (800 for my camera). This results in very noisy photos! Ok, noise can look alright sometimes, especially in B & W or sepia shots, but not all the time, it just looks horrible. The other manual option I have is to set the ISO.
As 800 results in very noisy shots, I could set it to 400, or maybe 200. But this results in the shutter speed slowing right down to 1/8 sec, or 1/16 sec, too slow for moving objects (resulting in blurry shots). It would be nice to be able to manually set the shutter speed to around 1/30 sec, & the ISO to 200 or 400.
The aperture of the lense (the f stop) also plays a big part. This is the size of the hole in the lense that lets light in. My camera is pitiful, a tiny 1/3.5. Average would be around 1/2.8 I think, with some lenses being down to 1/2.0. This larger aperture means that the shutter doesn't have to stay open so long, to let in the same amount of light as a smaller aperture. This results in faster shutter speeds (for a set ISO), or conversely, a lower ISO for a set shutter speed.
So I'd say in the trying low light environments of a concert, it's a struggle between using a fast shutter speed for fast moving objects (down to 1/60 sec, if you're real close to the action), & the sensitivity ISO (higher required for fast shutter speeds, but resulting in a lot of noise).
As has been mentioned by others, don't be fooled, higher pixel counts is not the bees' knees, when it come to concert photography. Higher pixel counts are great if you want to do quite large enlarements, or if you want to crop large areas out of your photos. In general a 3 to 4 MP camera will take 6x4 inch photos just fine (although I would recommend getting a 4MP camera). But if you want to crop your photos, or make decent size enlargements, say 10x8 inch (aiming for 200-300 dpi) then 6 to 8 MP should be ok. Larger MP counts just result in very large, unweildy files, ..... & there's a more major problem for high MP's in concert environments! described below.
Digital cameras have a sensor (or CCD) that converts the incoming light into a digital image. The problem with higher megapixel counts is that the more pixels, the more noise produced for a given sensor size. This is because as more & more pixels are jammed onto a sensor, the area on the sensor designated to each pixel decreases, resulting in more noise.
So get a camera with the largest sensor possible (they're tiny on digital compacts compared to DSLR's), & don't go over board with megapixel counts, or you'll get very noisy photographs!
As for optical zoom, I guess if you're in seats further away, you'll want a larger zoom than if you're in GA. For GA, a zoom of 3x or 4x is probably sufficient. Zooming in much beyond this range will probably result in blurry images, as you just can't hold the camera steady in the mosh. For seats 6x zoom may me ok, for 10x zoom you really need a tripod to keep things steady. As I've already mentioned, vibration reduction will help to some degree, to reduce blurring from camera shake. As mentioned previously don't go past the maximum optical zoom of your camera & into the digital zoom range. Digital zoom just decreases to detail of your photo, it's just the same as cropping the photo. Leave this cropping for post-production of your photos.
As for post production, cropping, sharpening etc. can be done on just about any photography application. Learning about histograms (changing the levels of exposure), can result in some fantactic results. If you set your camera to AUTO your camera will overexpose & underexpose shots a lot, especially in a concert environment (where it's suddenly light, then dark, with all the flashing lights). Correcting exposure levels can result in what look like totally junk shots coming out great! I use 'PAINT.NET' for this job, it's a free program.
The noise I've mentioned that occurs in high ISO shots can also be removed to some degree. This smoothing out of noise results in some loss of detail, but the results can still be pretty good. I use a free noise reduction software program called 'Noiseware' by Imagenomic (the community edition is free), another free option is Noise Ninja.
Here's some shots to show how noise effects high ISO concert shots. Not sure if it will show up too bad, as these pictures have all been reduced in size for this forum. But trust me, this noise is very, very noticebale at full size. The shots are at an Ani DiFranco concert, here in Australia. The first shot has had no post production (other than being cropped & resized for the board), the second shot has gone through noise reduction software, the 3rd shot is a sepia version of the first shot (noise can look ok for B & W or sepia).
1. Original
2. Noise Reduction
3. Sepia
Ok, sorry, straying off-topic. So to some up;
For those that want simple point-and-shoot;
Sensor size - Get a camera with the largest sensor (CCD) possible. Larger sensors will reduce the level of noise in high ISO shots.
Megapixel count - 6MP should be ok (8 if you want to do lots of cropping & enlargements - don't go too high or photos will be noisy).
Optical zoom - 3x to 4x should be ok for those close in GA, 6+ for those further away. By all means buy a camera with a large zoom, but I wouldn't use the range up near 10x, as it's likely to be blurry due to camera shake.
Vibration Reduction - Get a camera with VR if possible, this will reduce blurring due to camera shake.
Sports mode - will allow for fast shutter speeds, to catch movement without blurring.
For those that want something more advanced (but still obviously in the digital comact range as a DSLR won't get into concerts);
Sensor size - As above, get a camera with the largest sensor (CCD) possible. Larger sensors will reduce the level of noise in high ISO shots.
Megapixel count - 8MP to 10 MP to allow for lots of cropping & enlargements - don't go over 10MP or photos will be noisy).
Manual controls - shutter & aperture priority, so you can control how your camera will behave.
Optical zoom - same as above, 3x to 4x for those close in GA, 6+ for those further away.
Vibration Reduction - this will reduce blurring due to camera shake.
Continuous shooting - a fast fps (frames per second), so you can catch lots of the action
A lense with a large aperture size (1/2.0 would be great) for low light photos.
The ability to shoot in RAW, a photo file type that produces very large file sizes (over 50MB per photo), but is very useful for post production.
I've actually been doing some research for a friend who's about to purchase a new camera, & I think I've found my dream camera for concerts. It's a bit over the price of those looking to spend $300 (it can be found for around $400). It only has a 2.5x zoom (from a very wide 24mm to 60mm), so it wouldn't be very good for those further away (but I plan to be very close). But it has very, very good low light results for a compact digital. This is due to the CCD sensor size - 1/1.63" (which is very large for a compact), a very fast lense (f stop 1/2.0 - the large aperture resulting in lower ISO's requires for a set shutter speed), & the megapixel count being limited to 10MP (quite low for that size sensor). It also has plenty of manual control, so you can dial the camera to do just what you want. The camera is the Panasonic DMC-LX3.
Another camera in the 'advanced compact' range that gets top-of-the-class marks is the Canon G10. It's a bit bigger (probably about the max size you'd want to try to get into a concert). It has a heap of very accessible manual controls, but it's continuing Canon's quest to up the pixel count. It's 14MP (with a sensor size slightly smaller than the above Panasonic) - I'm not sure if you can lower the pixel count (as you can with most digitals), resulting in less noisy shots.
here's a site with very in depth camera reviews,
Digital Camera Reviews and News: Digital Photography Review: Forums, Glossary, FAQ
blah, blah, blah
,...... sorry, I'll shut up now.
ps. as fishlips says, DON'T USE YOU FLASH! Most performers hate it, as it blinds them (one reason cameras aren't allowed at lots of concerts), although U2's gotta be used to all that flashing & Bono's shades have to help. Also it slows your camera down, & uses a heap of the battery (you'll get less shots), & you're just too far away for it to actually do anything!
tough)
