[Will_B]

I am tired of ultracompacts that only have "on" and "off" flash settings. I want something with a fill flash, like SLRs used to have, which adds a bit of light but does not overpower the ambient light of the room. For parties where there are colored lights for example, the chances of any of that color remaining with an ultracompact is virtually nil.

[Will_B]

I'm looking at the Panasonic DMC-FZ8S and the $100 more expensive DMC-FZ18S as possibilities, since they have the ability to turn down the flash to -2 EV, whatever EV means.

[Man-Fai Wong]

Actually, *many* of the compacts can do what you ask though they don't all do it w/ the same degree of capability.

On most respectable compacts that don't allow you to manually adjust flash exposure, you can usually put the flash into slow sync mode. That will do more or less what you want though you'll probably need to have super-steady hands or a tripod (or something steady to brace against).

As for manually adjusting flash exposure, which is what I assume you're asking re: that Panny cam, 1 EV = 1 stop of light exposure in general. And negative EV compensation would translate to exposing the subject at reduced light level (or brightness of the image) relative to the camera's exposure meter choice -- camera meters are usually set to aim for an average exposure of middle gray (or something like that), which could be as much as 2/3 to 1 EV too dark for a fair skin, blond haired caucasian for instance. 1 additional stop of light exposure (or +1 EV) is equivalent to the amount of additional light needed to expose a subject at 2x the shutter speed or "half" the aperture (very loosely speaking) or 1/2 the ISO setting. RE: aperture, the f-stop settings actually progress in steps of roughly 1.4x (or square root of 2 to be more precise) the previous value for each EV or something like this: f/1, f/1.4, f/2, f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16, etc.

What you may actually want for flash exposure compensation will vary depending on exactly what results you're trying to achieve. And it doesn't really replace the need to understand how to shoot w/ "slow sync flash" when the ambient light is not the sun or similar. Basically, slow sync flash just means you expose w/ settings appropriate for the ambient light w/ "fill flash" added (more or less) for the subject (or parts of the scene) that needs the fill light.

Hope that helps...

_Man_

[Will_B]

Thanks for the info. I've ordered a Panasonic DMC-FZ8S and will give it a try. Though I did spend some hours considering getting a full dSLR, since I used to use a film-based SLR and figure I should, at some point, get back into it. But I can't justify the $600+ I'd need to spend to get even a basic dSLR.

But I watched a bunch YouTube reviews of this camera and though none of them mentioned the ability to reduce the flash, one did comment that the flash did not overexpose everyone like many do.

At this point I do not yet know how this camera compensates for the flash, but... I'll see. There is "nighttime portrait" mode that gives me some hope!