Canon Solution for Gig Photography

Mr Perceptive

Mr Perceptive

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David
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Last September my partner's daughter started an A level photography course, I bought her an 1100D with kit 18-55 lens. I already have some Canon kit (despite being a Fuji fan!!) so Canon was the natural choice. In the last few months she has being doing a lot of Gig photography, usually working in poor light. Her photography has improved dramatically and she is now starting to get assignments from local bands and venues (giving her much better access for taking pictures). I have given her my 50mm f1.8 and this has produced some cracking shots, but it a) has shown up the weakness of the kit lens - in aperture ability, and b) been very limiting as its a fixed focal length. Obviously the 1100D is not the last word in high ISO capability and most of her shots with the 50mm were at 1600 and 3200 (6400 is really not very good on the 1100D)

Now I'd like to be able to give her more flexibility, preferably using a wide aperture zoom lens, however the 16-35 Sigma f1.8 does really reach far enough, she needs something like a 24-70mm FF equivalent, but most zooms are only f2.8, so probably a body upgrade is required as well to get better ISO performance.

Obviously something like the 6D and 24-70f2.8 would be perfect, but it's a lot of money (and I'd be slightly concerned about its long term well being in the hands of a teenager!!!). Is there a crop solution that would give us better ISO and an equivalent zoom, possibly s/h that wouldn't break the bank.

Another factor to consider is weight, the 1100D is a lightweight camera, I don't think that she would be comfortable handling something too heavy.

I'm probably asking for the unobtainable, but if anyone has any bright ideas then I'm listening!!
 
In real world terms shes going to have to carry more weight to get improved sensor performance from Canon.
 
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Then youre going to struggle/wont find what youre looking for in a small crop body.
 
Maybe tackle it in two stages. The first, maybe a Tamron 17-55 f2.8 (around £250-£300, or cheaper SH) and then later, if the ISO is still an issue, a different body.
Upping the ISO with a better lens may be sufficient to create acceptable photos especially with pp on RAW files in lightroom or similar.

Incidentally my daughter's doing the same course ands I also bought her an 1100D with the kit lens. She hasn't got into any low light stuff yet (touch wood!).
 
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I would look at two things
either another prime 30mm ish is nice on a crop sensor
or tamron 17-50 f/2.8 VC not required much for gig photography I think
or even better the canon 17-55 f/2.8 , not cheap but I think very good, and I think personally is better at focusing in tricky situations, but that's a personal opinion.

then whack up the ISO to as high as you might reasonably allow and freeze the action
Then get something like neatimage and process them to reduce noise. Once they've been shrunk down to 1600px or less suitable for most bands websites, then the noise will be a lot less of a problem.
 
drounding said:
Incidentally my daughter's doing the same course ands I also bought her an 1100D with the kit lens. She hasn't got into any low light stuff yet (touch wood!).
Click to expand...

The Kit Lens was fine for the first few assignments, but for the second part of this year, they have had to pick a theme from a list, since she is interested in music and goes to a lot of gigs, she is doing a project on local bands and the music scene. As it is something that she is really interested in, it's really motivated her.
 
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