Event photography is the most challenging field of photography... this includes weddings...concerts...and various parties. I usually have my Olympus E3/E1 bodies with my Sigma 30mm f1.4, Zuiko 14-54mm f2.8-3.5 and 50mm f2 macro, Olympus FL50/FL36 flashes for these type of shooting. I use my prime lenses primarily for those large openings to gather light and couple them with my flash unit for added versatility.
During the summer of 2009... I was one of the few photographers with the media access pass to the Folklorama performances. One night I got a call from a fellow Folklorama photographer to cover the Ukrainian performance...he said it starts at 6:30pm. I was both excited and curious if my prosumer cameras would be up to the task of covering such an event. I always have a camera with me everyday and that day I had 2 Sony prosumers...the F717 and the R1. I have covered events before with the R1 but it was not a commercial shoot or something to be submitted to a publication... it was more like for my mom's group photos. I also had the Sunpak 383 super flash unit... so off I went to the event as I got off work.
The F717 has a very good lens...with a large opening of f2 at the wide end and f2.4 at the lond end..and has good ISO capabilities up to 400ISO. The Sony R1 has dslr-like ISO capabilities with the large APS-C size sensor..and I have used it before in this situation but not anything this serious. At the mercy of the event venue...lighting is always very challenging...even at 800ISO I was barely getting any photos... and I didn't want to use flash because it will change the mood of the images. So I shot at 800ISO all night with the f717...and converted them to b&w...I love grain in the photos, specially for people photography because it just gives that film look. My co photographers were just staring at me with my choice of gear...but hey lets just start creating photos instead of worrying about gear. I can't blame them because one of them has a Nikon D3 with him and others with Nikon D300 and Canon 40D. Some even discretely asked..."thats all you're using??" and "this is for a publication ... right???"...and I said YES SIR this is all I am using and its for this newspaper.
Off we went with the shoot and indeed it was very challenging to say the least... but it was so much fun proving a point. The cameras has a very bad flaw... it is so dim on the viewfinder if I use my flash unit. I still produced a lot of images for publication...and that's the most important thing. The flash use was more challenging but a lot of it boils down to practice and knowing the next move. Anticipation is a good technique even dslr shooters should master. It was just quadrupled the challenge for me since most of them with dslrs shoot fast with 3-5frames a second and I was just shooting one frame at a time...lol.
Will I do another paid events shoot with a prosumer camera.... probably not... but if I wasn't a professional covering these for publications I wouldn't mind at all. The casual events shooting without a client expecting the ultimate best from you...a very good prosumer is all you need. With a cheque in hand and a client breathing down your neck if your photos just don't cut it...please think differently. Publications are very picky and they hired you for your expertise... they really don't care what gear you use..think Alex Majoli's Iraq work with the Olympus C5050. Dslr's just make the job easier and as a pro you might need this for work consistency.
I love my prosumers...but they have their own place and time to be used, mostly for walk around landscape work...or outdoor portraits. They are amazing cameras if used wisely.
Here's some of my images from that night.
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