Mum's wedding (best camera?)

George.d(^^,)b

George.d(^^,)b

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Hi all, my mum has asked me if I would take photo's of her in July on her wedding day. She's more than aware that I'm an amataur but has told me not to worry and to just take some nice shots of everyone. I have just been looking at the site www.hireacamera.com as I'm using an Olympus E-420 at the moment and I'm not sure if it'll handle low light well enough to take the type of shots I want to take.. I was thinking maybe a D300 or a D3? I know these are pretty decent cameras but I will be pretty much using basic settings on them, as I'm still not fully aware of manually setting a DSLR up - I did read quite a lot about Canon being good in low light though :S I must mention that my mum has problems with flash close up, and this is why I'm referring to low light, also we'll be inside for a lot of the pictures.. Maybe the 7D? What lens though? Ohhhhh the questions lol ;D help? :)
 
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I'm not familiar with your camera but if it has a hotshot could you not use a bounce flash on camera, bouncing the light off walls and ceilings (if white). Your camera would be more comfortable to use for you than trying to get to grips with a brand new model camera.
Tbh I think you are taking on quite a bit if you hire the lot. There are lot of factors to incorporate when taking a shot at different focal lengths in low light. I used to have trouble getting a very sharp image in low light before learning the you should use AT LEAST the same shutter speed as focal length I.e. Shooting at 200mm will mean your shutter speed needs to be at least 1/200 in decent light so expect to double that in low light. If you still want to hire I would go for the fastest glass as possible along with bumping that iso setting up to 800 or more, this will help but high iso's will introduce noise to the images.
Good luck!
 
The d3 is far better than the d300 in low light (and I have used both often) if your working with low light then getting the exposure right is also important. as any under exposure will push up noise even on the best camera.
 
You would be better getting some fast glass and a flashgun instead of renting a body/lens combo you have never used.
 
lawrie29 said:
You would be better getting some fast glass and a flashgun instead of renting a body/lens combo you have never used.
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he said his mum has problems with flash, hence wanting good low light performance so he can avoid using it. ;)

The D3 will way outperform the D300 in terms of low light quality, but of course your budget may be affected, I guess the D3 costs much more to hire. Also look at D700 too, stonking bit of kit in low light. However, I would also point out that unfamiliar kit brings problems all of its own, and even if you plan on using the cameras built in ability to think for itself, its not always totally reliable and can't decide what YOU want to achieve. So, IF you are going to go down this route, you may need to consider a longer, or several hire periods to familiarise yourself with whatever kit you choose.

Also, I have now shot more than one or two weddings, but the first was way back before i had even considered 'doing weddings' - it was my dads, same thing, just a few nice pictures. I can promise you, you will feel the pressure on the day, and it will be made worse by all your relatives getting wedding photo fever and either desperately wanting the camera pointed at them, or refusing to be in a picture at all.... so you need to be as familar with your equipment as you possibly can be so its one less worry.

Which brings me onto my final point - does anyone hire out top end Olympus cameras? If you can get one, that might make more sense and be a slightly easier way for you to do things. Just a thought :shrug:
 
Vital to have a practice with the new kit first, this is a wedding and even if its your mum you dont want to screw it up. Either borrow or hire the same camera a few weeks beforehand and have a real good play with it.
 
Well, I haven't ever bothered learning much manual settings at all because my DSLR is pretty much a starter DSLR and it's got a setting called Scenes which has a list (portrait, landscape, macro, nature, sport, etc..) - I've had decent enough pictures using these basic settings - Although my mum is relaxed about trusting me to take the pictures - naturally I want to capture the best of the day.. I have used canon's in Jessop's when I did a year's work experience there - although not much, I was amazed at the 5D's low light capability in close ups - We're talking 2008 now though and I know times have moved on, so I think I'll probably end up hiring the 7D and just going with the flow on automatic. If I hire the camera, it's sent out so that it arrives a before the day of my first paid hire day, basically meaning I get a day to mess around with it, which I think should be enough if I just do test shots outside with family members and work out the basics.. Although I'm still stuck on lenses... The furthest I'll be away from family members when I take pictures will be about 20-30 foot if that, and the closest i'll be will be about 5ft. So I need a lens that covers that range generally.. Here's the list of canon lenses they hire.. Any ideas of a good one?

http://www.camerent.co.uk/lens_hire/canon_lenses/lens_hire_canon_lenses.html
 
As for hiring the camera a few weeks before - I can't afford it if I'm honest.. It's going to cost me about more than £130 with a lens to hire it for 3 days.. Soo I need to be certain the one I choose will be the right one.. I'm pretty sure I can adapt to either a Nikon or a Canon using basic settings within a day.. I'm not saying I'll be the next big thing in the photography world lol, but i should be able to manage to atleast get a decent shot within a few hours of practicing..
 
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If I had to take one lens it would be the CANON 17-55MM 2.8 IS USM, although 5feet could be a bit close.

I haven't personally used this lens but I would think it ticks more boxes than anything else out there for what you need and it is reputedly the best lens in that focal range.
 
Get a Zuiko 50mm f1.8. and an adaptor for OM to e series. Get one with focus confirm and you get a beep when focus is achieved :)

Fast, good quality and not too hard to focus manually. The 410 will be fine if you're using fast glass. I doubt you would need to go much higher that ISO 400 :)

People knock Olympus, but used within its "envelope" it's a perfectly respectable dslr.
 
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Where is the wedding and what date in July?

As mentioned, D300 isn't suitable. Ideally you are looking at a D700 or a D3s + a 24-70mm 2.8, this should cover most photos you want and provide great low light capabilities without a flash.

But trust me, getting used to a D700/D3s or Canon equivalent in a couple of days will be near impossible. I've had my D700 over 6 months now and can just about operate it without looking which is needed at a wedding.

Don't forget also, batteries and CF Cards! Last wedding I did I filled a 16gb + and 8gb and 2/3rds filled another 8gb with photos and completely drained 2 batteries.
 
George.d(^^ said:
I'm pretty sure I can adapt to either a Nikon or a Canon using basic settings within a day
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The Nikon D300 and up or the Canon 7d and up don't have scene modes. In Nikons case it doesn't even have a green box auto mode.

Guess the idea is that if your dropping over £1k on a camera your probably in a position where the other stuff gets in the way
 
nano said:
The Nikon D300 and up or the Canon 7d and up don't have scene modes. In Nikons case it doesn't even have a green box auto mode.

Guess the idea is that if your dropping over £1k on a camera your probably in a position where the other stuff gets in the way
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Yeah the best you can hope for is put it in program mode, but I can tell you right now if you are shooting in low light the camera will start choosing shutter speeds that are just too slow.

You might get away with setting it on auto ISO so you can get it to up the ISO if it drops under the minimum shutter speed you set. But to be honest you will probably do a lot better with the kit you know, maybe hire a fast lens it two if you can. I can't imagine a day is going to be enough with a pro body, they don't have scene modes.
 
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