SONY A7S II

£2500 (body only) / sony.co.uk

To take decent pics when things get gloomy, you need a nice big sensor with similarly sizable pixels. The clever thing about Sony’s full-frame A7S II is that, while it has the same size of sensor as the other cameras in the A7 range, it has far fewer megapixels: just 12.4 compared to 24.3 in the A7 II, or a whopping 42.4 in the A7R II.

Why’s that good? Well, it means that each pixel is comparatively huge, which makes the A7S II much better at sucking up light. Combined with 5-axis image stabilisation, which shifts the camera’s innards around to compensate for any hand movement, you end up with a camera that’s almost as sensitive to light as Dracula. With a reasonably fast lens attached you can confidently snap away in the kind of conditions that normally result in a grainy, noise-filled mess – and that extends to 4K video too. Throw in its hardy build, hi-res OLED viewfinder and bright TFT screen, and you’re looking at a specialist snapper that should be top of any insomniac’s shopping list.