LensesForHire.co.uk - Advice needed.

S

Slvrbck

Guest
Hi all,
I will try and get to the point as quick as I can.
A friend has asked me to cover her wedding on the 6th June.
Would have said no but they wouldn't have been able to pay a tog for the day.
I want to do a good job for her and am looking forward to the learning opportunity.

Anyway, given my current lens arsenal, I was thinking of renting a better one for the day.

She has asked for a few posed pics, and for that I have the Niffty Fifty (yep Niffty Fifty on tour will be shooting a wedding), but she has said that mostly she wants candid shot.

Now I have my sigma 70-300 but it's not great in low light and very soft at the long end, so I was thinking of renting one of the below from Lensesforhire.co.uk:


Have no experience of any lens other than the ones I own so wondered what everyone thought??

Cheers
:wave:
 
I'm sure those who cover wedding will give you advice, but my concern is that with the 70-120 you really have no wide angle option on your 350D. And do you really want 200mm, even for candids. I would have thought something like the 24-105 IS or the 24-70 f2.8 may be better options.

OK I know you have the 18-55 kit lens but if you are going to hire better glass then I think those lenses I mentioned will do a better job. Plus you don't want to mess around changing lenses every 30 seconds
 
Cheers for the advice Chappers,
I hadn't considered the 24-105 IS but will now....
 
24-105 is a good lens - very impressed with my first outing with it yesterday (albeit on a 5d FF sensor).

I did quite a nice set of pics for my cousins weddings using just a 17-35mm Sigma on a 300d body at the time - it was great for indoor shots, especially as in a crowd you can't easily get clean shots from across the room. Maybe a 70-200mm would be ok during speaches where you can hide yourself away at the back of the room.
 
for the candids, which i assume is inside, the general consensus from what i have read, is fast glass, and about 70-200 as it gives you range.

i bought a 50-150f2.8 siggy instead because i couldnt stretch to the cost of the 70-200 f2.8L, lets hope it is long enough, but i can move my feet if it isnt.

i also noticed people say oyu need to practise with the 70-200 to ge tthe best out of it, so make sure you get it a couple of days early to have a play.
 
Cheers for the advice guys.....

I guess that brings me on to my next point, has anyone used Lensesforhire.co.uk?

I go on holiday next Tuesday (27th) and land back on the 3rd as the wedding is on the 6th.

Could I order the lens this Friday (25th) and defer the delivery date to the 4th, still giving me time to practice with the lens but making sure I am in the country for the 7 day rental??

All that being said, am I better sending a PM to the fella that runs it?
I know he his a member on here, just can't remember his name!:LOL:
 
The guy's screen name is StewartR. Do a search for his profile and send him a PM

They also do shorter term rental periods. Talk to Stewart
 
Just found the info in his FAQ section of the site (would have been a good idea to read that before asking:wacky:)
 
I can hear my ears burning...

Simple stuff first.
* You can hire for any period from 3 days to 3 months. Hire periods do *not* include the day you receive it and the day you send it back.
* You can reserve up to 6 months ahead if you're hiring for a week or more; up to 3 weeks ahead for short hires.
* We can deliver to your home, workplace, wherever.

Not so simple stuff... Have you decided on a lens yet? It's not easy. Ideally you want something like an 18-200mm f/2 IS that's small and light. ;) I should stress that I am not a wedding photographer: all my "knowledge" comes second-hand from talking to people who have got the T-shirt. But for what it's worth...

The 28-300L is surprisingly good for a 10x zoom, but it's very big and heavy to carry around all day, and 28mm probably isn't going to be wide enough on a 350D for group shots. It's not fast, but the IS would compensate for that.

The 24-105L is a good all-rounder: not very wide but hopefully wide enough; not very long but long for portraits and candids; not very fast but it has IS. And very good image quality.

A lot of people seem to like the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS for weddings. The combination of wide angle, fast aperture and IS means you can take handheld pictures in ridiculously gloomy light; the only problem with it is that 55mm probably wouldn't be long enough for candids (though it's fine for posed portraits). The image quality is up to "L" standards too, by all accounts.

If you had two cameras, the 17-55 and a 70-200 f/2.8 L IS would probably be the dream ticket. But I expect you probably don't want to be swapping lenses all the time... Do you have a friend who can lend you another body for the day?

Hope this helps. Happy to discuss further.
 
Hi StewartR,
Cheers for your time, I'm sure your busy.
I can't get another body :( but I have just spoke to the bride and she said that they are only having 25 guests.

I think I'm going to go for the 70-200 f/2.8 L IS and use the Niffty Fifty or my ket lens as a wide angle fall back.

Thanks for the advice, and I will get my order in on Friday.

Cheers
:wave:
 
Hum - I did unofficial tog at my nieces wedding and used my 70-200 for the candid's just fine, however, that was outside, in summer in big gardens.

But it all depends on the location of the wedding/event I suppose. If it's all indoors/on the step of a registry office it'll be different to an outdoor wedding on a bright sunny day.

I have the 24-105 and it's surprisingly very good in low light/low shutter speeds, good for indoor shots, but then you'll possibly need a flashgun as well if indoors?

As for lens swapping - well shouldn't be a problem surely. Some candids before the wedding would be a longer lens (no flash), formal poses after would probably be either the nifty fifty or your kit lens depending again on location/space, possibly with flash. After the formal poses I guess you could start doing candids again, changing lens again?
 
Hi Byker28i,
Cheers for the info.
The wedding is at St Mary’s Church in Kingswinford.
From what I know (going to go and have a look round this weekend), its an "old fashioned" church.
Here are a couple of pics (not taken by me):
1
2

The reception is at the French Hen in Clent
1

I guess it's all going to be a bit on the dark/low light side.
I think the flash will be a must for the reception but I need to check if I am ok using it in the church and if so, up to what point in the service?

Going to give both locations a call and ask I think
 
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