Best Lenses for Shooting a Concert

[Sean Setters]

I was thinking about renting a 40D to go along with my 350D.
<div style="CLEAR: both"]</div>

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.

[peety3]

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.
<div style="clear: both;"]</div>

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.)