Best Lenses for Shooting a Concert

So my older sister who is coming to stay with me for a month asked me if I'd like to come with her and shoot for her boyfriend who is playing in some big concert in Baltimore in August. I excitedly said yes but now I'm trying to figure out what lenses I should rent to do the shoot. I'll have a press pass so I'll be able to shoot from back/side stage, and hopefully get up front too.


This is what I have at the moment, and then I'll list what I was thinking of renting. If I don't get another body by the shoot, I was also thinking of renting one so I'll have two to shoot with.(save time of lens changing) Although there is ONE thing bothering me, I have no clue how close I'll be so I don't know wither to chose wide angles or tele's.


Current;


Canon Rebel XT 350Dw/battery grip


Canon 430EX


Canon 50mm f/1.8


Canon 85mm f/1.8 USM


Sigma 15-30mm f/3.5-4.5


(I'm not even going to list my tele because it's a cheapo [:)])





Lenses to rent for shoot(so far);


Canon 35mm f/1.4L(or 24 f/1.4LII)
Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS


I'm not sure what to get, I know the 70-200 will be useful no matter if I'm close or not, but I need to know what primes will be most useful. So I'm just asking you guys to reccomend what I should get.





*small note - note that it should matter, I'm just including this is going to be a hardcore-ish rock concert with many bands.

Your 85 and 50 should be fine. A good trick for expouser is to take an exposuer lock when the spot is on the lead singer, and use that for the evening. Makes things easier. Check out my flickr stream of the steve miller band from a couple years ago: www.flickr.com/ehcalum

It depends on your distance to the stage. 50 and 85 are good performers in low light situations. Those should do, depending on the kind of picture you need (you may need to move further away or closer to the stage). If you want to get close, the 135 prime is also very very good. And razor sharp (all primes are razor sharp, much sharper than their zoom counterparts. If you have acceptable high ISO you could up it too. I shot at 3200 this weekend and it was fine. Depends on your camera or post production noise reduction.

Yeah I was thinking about the 135 too.


I guess using my 85&50, and renting the 135 and 70-200 would be perfect for the stage, and then getting either the 35 or 24 f/1.4's for backstage shooting since I'll be there way before and after the concerts done.





I was thinking about renting a 40D to go along with my 350D.

I shot this entire show with the 28-135 IS USM and was surprised how good the results came out. You should be safe with just the 70-200. Don't over complicate things by carrying around too much, especially if there is an active pit where things get broken.





http://www.flickr.com/photos/evtwal/sets/72157617887767707/

Rather than renting a 40D, why notrenta 5D or 5D MII. Put the teles on the Rebel and the wides on the 5D. You'll find that the full frame body is much less noisy in low light than a crop body. You'll be amazed at the IQ on a 3200 ISO FF image.


Have Fun,


Chuck

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Originally Posted by Garrett-Grimsley

I was thinking about renting a 40D to go along with my 350D.
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I would be wary of renting an unfamiliar camera for something like this. If you do rent an xxD or 5D, make sure you give yourself extra time not only to familiarize yourself with the controls but also to practice them sufficiently that you won't be hunting for what button to push in the dark. The xxD controls are quite different than the xxxD controls. It took me some time to become adequately comfortable with changing the settings without having to think about it.

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Originally Posted by Sean Setters

I would be wary of renting an unfamiliar camera for something like this. If you do rent an xxD or 5D, make sure you give yourself extra time not only to familiarize yourself with the controls but also to practice them sufficiently that you won't be hunting for what button to push in the dark. The xxD controls are quite different than the xxxD controls. It took me some time to become adequately comfortable with changing the settings without having to think about it.
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I second this suggestion. I rented a 5D to complement my 1D Mark III. The controls are more similar than the differences between a Rebel and a non-Rebel, but it was still a royal challenge to adapt. I shot a 3.5-day cycling event as prep for a 2.5-day cycling event that was my reason for renting, and still didn't feel smooth. Two weeks later, I rented another 1D Mark III and felt completely at home.


One of the struggles while I had the 5D was "which lens on which body" - my main lenses for both events were the 16-35/2.8, 24-70/2.8, and 70-200/2.8IS. I'd find myself using the 5D/16-35 and 1D3/24-70, and then feel like I should switch to 5D/24-70 and 1D3/70-200, and have to do lens changes in the right order to make it flow well (or have a big party on the ground!). On the final day, I wanted to shoot some HDR-ready brackets, and found that I used the 1D3 for shooting (it'll do 7-shot brackets) and the 5D for carrying another lens around - yuck.


(Meanwhile, my girlfriend was using her 40D, a rented 50D, and my "backup" Rebel XTi. She hated the Rebel, and it pretty much became a carrier for the third lens she wasn't using - which was 10-22, 24-105, and 70-200/4IS. She blew some flash shots because the Rebel doesn't have safety shift - she isn't strong at exposure settings and wasn't staying below x-sync speed. We've decided the Rebel is soon on the chopping block because it's so different.)

Thanks for the feedback. Using a different body is no problem as I've already played with a friends 40D for a while before and know it pretty well, although something like a 5D I have used never.


And looking at the prices for a 5D/5DMKII, they seems kinda pricey for me only using them for one shoot, even though I'll have them for a week.


All in all, if I do get a body I'll have a couple days to toy with it and get to know it. I'm a fast learner. [;)]





I guess I'll stick with the 24/35, 50, 85 primes and the 70-200 plan. May get the 135 just for the heck of it to use outside of the shoot.





*edit


Now that I think about it, a 5DmkII would be awesome to take some video too. Obviously not using the live sound there, but maybe making a compilation with the bands music playing in the background, possibly syncing it together.

I don't have any input on the lens lineup you selected. It looks pretty solid as it is.


The 5D mkII would be sick for the video capabilities. Not to be a pessimist, but I don't think audio synching would work to well. Thetempo is so much different when a band plays live versus a recording. Typically the live production is faster.


-Rodger