low light movie works better than low light still photos why?

I have a Fujifilm S8000 camera and find it difficult to get a good
exposure when photographing in low lighting conditions such as
photographing someone on stage but if I use the movie clip mode on the
camera the exposure is good....why is that? Is there any way of
getting a better exposure when photograping in low light conditions?
If the ISO level is too high then the photo will be grainy. I'd be
happy if I could make 6 x 4 inch prints of the low light photos
without them looking too grainy.

Regards Brian

Brian wrote:
I have a Fujifilm S8000 camera and find it difficult to get a good
exposure when photographing in low lighting conditions such as
photographing someone on stage but if I use the movie clip mode on the
camera the exposure is good....why is that? Is there any way of
getting a better exposure when photograping in low light conditions?
If the ISO level is too high then the photo will be grainy. I'd be
happy if I could make 6 x 4 inch prints of the low light photos
without them looking too grainy.

Regards Brian

Two effects:

1 - Still image: 8.3MP, video image: 0.3MP, so each "pixel" can capture
some 27 times as much light.

2 - viewing a "movie" your eye will integrate out the noise (grain). Try
looking at a still from a movie taken in low-light conditions.

David

Brian wrote:
I have a Fujifilm S8000 camera and find it difficult to get a good
exposure when photographing in low lighting conditions such as
photographing someone on stage but if I use the movie clip mode on the
camera the exposure is good....why is that? Is there any way of
getting a better exposure when photograping in low light conditions?
If the ISO level is too high then the photo will be grainy. I'd be
happy if I could make 6 x 4 inch prints of the low light photos
without them looking too grainy.

Regards Brian

In viewing a movie, the eye averages noise, due to limitations on
persistance of vision.

Another way to get the same effect requires a tripod- take ten or twenty
exposures and then stick them together (takes either a special "filter"
or lots of playing with brightness and contrast to do this manually).
The background noise is always different from frame to frame, so the
averaging process eliminates it. Some amateur astronomy software will
do this.

Thankd Fon for the useful information.

Regards Brian


Don Stauffer wrote:

Brian wrote:
I have a Fujifilm S8000 camera and find it difficult to get a good
exposure when photographing in low lighting conditions such as
photographing someone on stage but if I use the movie clip mode on the
camera the exposure is good....why is that? Is there any way of
getting a better exposure when photograping in low light conditions?
If the ISO level is too high then the photo will be grainy. I'd be
happy if I could make 6 x 4 inch prints of the low light photos
without them looking too grainy.

Regards Brian

In viewing a movie, the eye averages noise, due to limitations on
persistance of vision.

Another way to get the same effect requires a tripod- take ten or twenty
exposures and then stick them together (takes either a special "filter"
or lots of playing with brightness and contrast to do this manually).
The background noise is always different from frame to frame, so the
averaging process eliminates it. Some amateur astronomy software will
do this.