I am looking for equipment advice. I am a member of a group that does night hikes on a regular basis. I would like to take photos of the people in the group during the hikes, and am wondering what I should look for when shopping for a low-light lens.
I would like to shoot people and dogs as they hike the trail. Sometimes, we have bright moonlight, and sometimes we are deep in the trees in darkness. Everyone carries either headlights or handheld lights, so there is some light from that.
I would like to capture the people, and also the environment. I feel flash, in addition to being an annoyance to dark-adjusted eyes, would eliminate everything except things closest to the camera, which I feel may not make interesting shots. I can’t expect people (especially dogs) to hold especially still, so long-shutter photography would be difficult.
I am thinking of shooting people at a range of 5-20 ft. Moderate zoom would be nice, but is not a requirement.
It sounds like I am looking for a very high aperture lens. Does such a lens exist, or am I hunting for a snipe? Would such a lens make such a narrow DOF to be almost unusable?
I have a Canon EOS Rebel T3. My budget is in the couple hundred dollar range (less than 100 if possible).