Dim reception with the Sony FX1

[kwshaw1]

I had a wedding reception this weekend where the bride had warned me they were planning on using mostly candlelight, and sure enough as soon as the bridal party was seated most of the room lights were turned off. I'd thought ahead about this and immediately switched both of my FX1s to 1/30 sec shutter with auto gain, which worked out about right thanks to a few remaining room lights plus strands of holiday lights strung along the walls. I even left my on-camera light off for most of the evening to avoid being too intrusive, but did use it for some key events like the cake cutting and some of the dancing. Overall I'm satisfied with how the FX1s performed compared to my previous Canon GL1/GL2 cameras, with which I tended to use on-camera lighting in more situations. I do wish the FX1 was a little more sensitive, but it's not bad for the price compared to the latest $5500-6500 Sony HD cameras.

[HankCastello]

That's a great trick that I still tend to forget sometimes.  By increasing the time the shutter is open by double, you're effectively getting a three-Lux camera down to near VX2100 sensitivity.  The slower shutter speed has nearly no ill side effects, except maybe when the dancing gets really fast.