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Washing out I'm bright light is a side effect of too much range of exposure - a camera doesn't "see" the way we do.
Advanced tracking autofocus and seeing in the dark (which is really what you are describing - remember, cameras do not see the way we do so dark is relative) are the sort of things people pay a lot of money for.
A better solution would be to sit near a south facing window with a voile. Nice big soft box. That's your soft, even light taken care of. That will fix the grainy, noisy image and give a more polished look.
Tracking autofocus, you'll get decent results with a £3000 system. But it'll still pulse a bit. Pros use manual focus - there is nothing like having a human control the camera.
The main thing is always light - a crappy camera with great light will do much better than the greatest camera and bad light. Bad doesn't always mean low light either...
This has manual focus, its screen touch based, so responding to a moving object may be tricky!
So night time mode isnt too bad, a bit grainy and clicking in audio, is this why its also grainy in well lit conditions? Trying to achieve the best of both worlds but not quite getting either of them?
That's autofocus - you're just choosing a point. Manual focus is where you manually push or pull focus. Touch to focus is choosing a point, which the camera's autofocus will then attempt to latch onto.
Options are,
This camcorder, its way over budget and I would still need to buy a camera once I have paid for it, but it does look like a decent camcorder.
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/camcorders/camcorders/digital-camcorders/canon-legria-hf-g26-camcorder-black-10176524-pdt.html
a little cheaper would be this,
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/camcorders/camcorders/digital-camcorders/sony-fdr-ax53-ultra-hd-4k-camcorder-with-battery-pack-carry-case-black-10176061-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR
Or I could go for a DSLR which I know very little about.
These two keep popping up.
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/digital-cameras/dslr-and-compact-system-cameras/canon-eos-4000d-dslr-camera-with-ef-s-18-55-mm-f-3-5-5-6-iii-ef-75-300-mm-f-4-5-6-iii-lens-10177607-pdt.html
https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/digital-cameras/dslr-and-compact-system-cameras/canon-eos-200d-dslr-camera-with-ef-s-18-55-mm-f-3-5-5-6-iii-ef-50-mm-f-1-8-stm-lens-10168898-pdt.html
https://www.mpb.com/en-uk/used-equipment/used-photo-and-video/used-compact-system-cameras/used-panasonic-compact-system-cameras/panasonic-lumix-dmc-lx100/sku-831696/
However... Lighting really is everything. A small led panel in a soft box or diffused through a bed sheet will really elevate image quality. Just one stop of light extra effectively doubles your sensor size in terms of noise.
This means we can think about replacing our old Fujifilm bridge camera. A few things bothered me with the bridge camera, it took Ok photos but was quite restrictive with exactly what I could do with it. Night time photos (no flash) are not great, no bulb mode, auto focus could sometimes be hit and miss, I always wanted to photograph the night sky which it couldn't do, the zoom couldn't get me close to the moon without getting noise in the photo and Ive always wanted to be able to photograph lightning. Im not asking much , am I?
So I am going to need a multi lens bundle I think (I know nothing about lenses) to get me going and I can only push the boat out to 4-5 hundred quid, and, I can only shop in PCWorld as they have already given me credit to buy one.
So, I have concluded that a camera body such as this, https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/digital-cameras/dslr-and-compact-system-cameras/canon-eos-2000d-dslr-camera-body-only-10177611-pdt.html ; and a lens like this https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/cameras-and-camcorders/photography-accessories/lenses/canon-ef-50-mm-f-1-8-stm-standard-prime-lens-10132951-pdt.html ; would be a good starting point to get me going? I can always buy a decent zoom lens when funds allow.
Spent about £300 on a second hand cannon 700d
Abiur £50 on lighting from amazon
Needs an external mic for a good sound. I use a zoom z1 that I already had. Also use a lavelier mic that I got from amazon for £8 both do really well.
Had a friend spend an hour with me teaching me about lighting.
I get some great comments on how professional my videos are.
Its not too pricey or difficult to get a good result for a small outlay
Sort of, but it's quite telephoto on a crop sensor for night sky long exposures.
I'd be looking at mirrorless because there are some wonderful, affordable, fast wide lenses. For example, on a Sony a6000 or a fuji xe-2 you can get a 12mm samyang f/2.0 - this is an ultra wide that's fast. Manual focus only, but at 12mm who cares?
This could then be supplemented with the kit lens - the fuji one is decent, the Sony one less so. Or, you could go for a small prime - fuji has some fabulous primes like the 23mm f/2 and 35mm f/2. Might get out of budget.
Zooms are great, but they're expensive. If they're not expensive, they're usually a bit pants.
Wisdom.
On board has a place - but it's, ironically, for good light and fill, not for low light! So best on leaf shutter compacts and old ccd sensor cameras (like the d70 with it's instant electronic sensor).
If you need stills, what quality do you need? The lx100 linked above still might be your best bet. Fast lens, decent for low-ish light... But it won't do those huge night sky shots. They need a fats ultra wide...