Been going back through this thread as I recently dipped my toes into the wonderful waters of DSLR ownership Bought a Canon 600D with a 18-55mm IS Lens. Well when I say "bought" I use the term loosely - had a crapton of JB giftcards and vouchers from birthday, work awards, online surveys so I didn't actually pay a cent of cashy money for it And on top of that my brother gave me a Canon 100-200 lens that he no longer needed. Looking forward to taking it with me to the US in January and capturing some (hopefully good!) photos on 70000 Tons of Metal 2014. All going well, I'll be able to build up a little portfolio from that and maybe get to photo some local gigs next year From what I've read in this thread, moving forward I should look at getting a 24 - 70 f/2.8 lens next, as that is a good option for photographing gigs yeah?
Yeah, that would be a decent lens. You have the option to zoom in on the tight end, the wide end of the lens will let you get in a lot of the stage, and f/2.8 is pretty quick. One gotcha though is that cheaper lenses don't have constant aperture. What I mean by that is it may be f/2.8 on the 24mm end but once you zoom out to the 70mm end that might shoot up to f/5.2 or more and you'll lose quite a few stops of usable light. The 600 is great but like most entry level cameras, once you start to push the ISO up a bit to let in more light, it gets noisy really quick, so you'd want to try and keep the ISO down but the aperture (the f/stops) as low as possible to let in as much light as you can to compensate. It's worth spending the extra to get a constant aperture lens so you can set your aperture to a certain value and then you don't have to worry about your light changing on you as you zoom in and out. Even on a cheap body, good glass can make a hell of a lot of difference. Also bear in mind the 600 is a crop sensor camera so if you use any tools for working out focal distance (which is unlikely unless you're really getting into pro stuff) you'll have to multiply the focal mm distance by 1.6 (so your zoom factor of 35mm is closer to 50mm - things will appear closer than a full frame camera). Again, if you're using your eyes to judge how to frame a shot, that stuff isn't a big deal at all. Keen to see your pics!
Excellent advice - thanks LT! Thankfully on the 70000 Tons cruise they really don't care about who has an SLR or a video camera or anything like that. So I can happily waltz in and and get lots of practice! Plus it has all the different variables in one place - outdoor gigs in the middle of the day on the pool deck (or in the middle of the night at 3am!), tiny poorly lit indoor venue (spectrum lounge), and large indoor venue (Chorus Line Theatre). Perfect opportunity to really put the camera to the test!
That camera's one I've been considering. Seems to be good value for money. I'll be interested to hear how you find it.
Winmar - its certainly easy to use, and a good step up from my old point-and-click camera (Canon Powershot) Because I'm used to Canon cameras, everything about it is 'familiar' to me, which is an added bonus. Looking forward to putting it through its paces a bit more over the coming weeks so I have some idea of what I'm doing before going on the cruise, so I'll keep you updated!!
Took my DSLR to a 'gig' for the first time on Saturday night. Well, when I say gig, it was a performance of Video Game music by the Qld Symphony Orchestra. This guy was the conductor - total character! But yes - I see I have a LOT to learn about the art of photography!!
cheers cowboy last one from the Amenta, shooting Steel Panther,Fozzy and Buckcherry saturday night DSC_5179 by hammers71, on Flickr
