Los Mysteriosos at Alex's Bar on Cinco de Drinco

Last night, Cinco de Mayo (or Cinco de Drinco as Alex calls it), was the big test of my new Casio EXLIM Z-40 camera, as I had two shows to attend and shoot photos two different venues, each with challenges for the little camera of happiness.

As I posted earlier this week, reviewers at Amazon have complained about the photo quality of the EXLIM Z-40, but as of that post I had no complaints. Last night was the real test of the camera and it came through with flying colors, especially in comparison with my old school Sony Mavica FD-73.

I first trotted over to the Galaxy Theatre for Manic Hispanic. I have shot quite a few concerts at this 800 (? or more) capacity dinner theatre venue before. With the Mavica it was always touch and go, if I got good photos I was surprised as the stage is large: wide and deep, and the light guy/gal uses quite a bit of low warm lighting rather than bright spot lights on the performers. The Mavica would take a decent, pixelated photo if the performer was within 10 feet of my position, if they were farther away then the photo would be dark and/or severely pixelated.

The EXLIM came through with shining colors, as evinced below in the pop-up photos. I was able to get clear photos of all of Manic Hispanic across the stage, as well as motion photos (Flying Mo Guitar). The most impressive of all was when I stood at the back of the venue a good 120 or more feet from the stage and got a good, clear photo of the whole stage. The Mavica would have focused on the people in front of me and blurred out the stage in the distance, with the EXLIM I was able to set it at infinity and get good control of the shot.

After nearly filling up the on-camera 7MB memory, I left the Galaxy and raced north up the 405 fwy to Alex's to catch Alex's debut as the bass player for Los Mysteriosos. The next big challenge for the little camera of happiness was shooting bands on the stage at Alex's Bar. The whole bar has low mood lighting, dark red walls, and NO stage lights, thus a black hole of flash photography. The Mavica valiantly would take decent, slightly pixelated photos of folks within 10-12 feet of the camera. Forget the drummer or anyone across the stage. I could never get a good drummer photo at Alex's.

Note the top photo in this post. Los Mysteriosos' drummer is waving at the crowd, more importantly the EXLIM has him at the same level of light/flash and detail as the rest of the band. And I was able to get a decent photo of the whole band, pixelated yes, but decent. ;oD

The Photo Essays from Last Night:
Manic Hispanic
Los Mysteriosos

p.s. I am currently listening to the Horror Pops' debut CD, "Hell Yeah!." I highly recommend it. Fun, poppy psycho-surf-new wave-punk-billy with a large dose of pop. Good job Kim and Patricia Nekroman...