Concert Photography
bspolin-
As a lot of folks on this forum already know I take a lot of concert and theater shots. I worked my way through a good number of digital cameras, among the group were the Panasonic FZ 10, 15, and 20 models and many others. However, as has been previously suggested in this forum, I now use dSLR cameras exclusively.
Yes, the FZ-20 could do the job, but you are using the camera at its absolute limits: maximum aperture, maximum ISO etc. The result is that you get very slow shutter speeds that are virtually incapable of stopping any action at all on stage and you become entirely dependent on the amount of light that is available on stage when you want to shoot.
I moved to dSLR's because using the FZ-20 at F 2.8 and ISO 400 was just making shooting very difficult with very spotty, unpreditable results. I needed more ISO and if economically feasible, faster lenses.
Today with a dSLR I can shoot at ISO 3200, and I can do it with a reasonable F3.5 aperture lenses and reasonable shutter speeds that really will stop action on stage without using any flash.
The limitations that I had experienced with digital cameras such as the FZ-20 were gone. Now I no longer have to cross my fingers while going to a concert to take photos, I now get very consistent and much higher quality results. In the FZ-20 I was always fighting the noise gremlin, with dSLR cameras such as the Canon 20D and the Pentax 1stDS, noise is no longer a problem.
I am sorry to make this post so long, but I thought it might be helpful to chronicle the progression I went through. OK, the logical question is this: If you don't want to spent $1,000 to $2,000 to get into a good dSLR outfit, then what do you do?
Remember that the two limiting factors in concert amd theater photography are ISO speeds and fast lenses. I also mentioned that when you can really increase the ISO speed sustantially, the need for a fast lens is reduced considerably. Therefore, you might want to take a look at the newer point and shoot digital cameras that have much higher available ISO speeds such as the Fuji F-10. The F-10 has a max ISO setting of 1600 that gives you much more flexibility. So for around $300, the F-10 will give a piece of the action. Yes, it does have some limitations, such as only 3X optical zoom, and please keep in mind that when the F-10 is zoomed out to that 3X position, the useable aperture falls to F 5.0 which is very limiting. So setup your shots with the F-10 where you are at the wide angle position. Then you can get some really great photos. I have attached a photo from the F-10 to demonstrate what the F-10 really can do if you setup your photos to operate within the F-10 limitations.
I have attached a night photo with the Fuji F-10 to show what the camera can do.
Again, my apologies for making this post so long.
Sarah Joyce
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