[SML] Digital Cameras / Production Photos

[Dave Vick]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2020 at 11:42 AM Matthew Whiton via Stagecraft <
stagecraft at theatrical.net> wrote:

>   I'm looking for suggestions for a digital camera
>. that is good enough to shoot quality production
>. photos with available light.


Any number of prosumer dSLRs from Nikon, Canon, and &c. would do the job
(I’m partial to Canon EOS midgrades like the old 40D and 7D).  As long as
the body has a decent sensor and has a feature set you like, you’re good to
go.

To my mind, the better question is what lens can you use? And can the
camera body wring our all the light data that the lens system feeds it. I’m
sure my photo-bug brethren (Brendan Quigley, Andy Leviss) will step in here
with gobs of sage wisdom, but I think a good 80% or more of the answer to
your situation is getting the best lens possible. In Canon, that’s the L
Series of lenses, identified by the red stripe around the lens body. Their
glass is an order of magnitude clearer than the “normal” Canon line, and
they’re built to a higher standard... But of course you pay for that.  I
like using the biggest, fastest lens possible - my main “walking around”
lens is a Canon L series 24-70mm f2.8 zoom, which works very well onstage
(among other places). To an extent your focal length depends on where
you’re shooting from; front row and wings or FOH. I could have spent a lot
less for a “decent” mid-range zoomer, but I’ve never yet in ten years
regretted ponying up for the best lens I could find, even if it was a shade
more than I really could afford at the time.

TL;DR: if you have to cut corners, do it with the camera body, *NEVER* with
the lenses.



> --
Dave Vick
517-749-3859
Sent from my #%!^¥? iPhone
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