Quick Guys help...I'm reverting to film in an hour

[ShutteringFocus]

Ok, I'll post this here because I know some of you are quick with your replies.

In about an hour I have to cover an event for my High School newspaper/yearbook. Its a huge pep assembly...biggest one of the year...they want lots of pictures and they want good ones.

I have my D30 and a sigma 70-200mm 2.8. I also have a sigma 28-135 3.5-5.6 lens which wont do me much good.

I shoot in this gym a lot doing basketball and what not. At ISO 1600 and 2.8 Im smooth sailing, but I cant get big wide shots of a pep assembly with a 70-200 lens mounted on a 1.6 crop D30.

So, I have a Canon ae-1 with a 50mm 1.4 lens. And I'm going to use it too. What I need to know is how I will know if the pics are being exposed correctly.

From previous photos from the D30, and the help of the EX info attached to the images...I know that I can shoot easily at ISO 1600 1/200 and 2.8. How can I use this information to calculate the film speed I need and what I can get away with as far as shutter and aperture?

With the 50mm lens I can shoot closer to 1/100 or less and still hand hold. And with the 1.4 speed lens I get even more light. So can I get away with ISO 800 film?

With the digital I always just shoot and take a look to see if it worked. I never really worry much about all this. But now its film...and I need to expose correctly because I wont know if I am not doing it right until I get them developed.

[snibbetsj]

If you're getting good exposures at ISO 1600, 1/200 and f2.8 then you should be able to go to ISO 800, 1/100 f2.8 or ISO400 1/100 f2.0 or ISO 200 1/100 f1.4. They're (theoretically) the same exposure. You might want to stick with f2.0 since your lens may be sharper there than at f1.4.

:)

[Avalonthas]

Let us know how it turned out.

[ShutteringFocus]

Sweet! That's how it turned out!

Well, I haven’t printed the pics yet of course...but if I did it all correctly I know I got some good ones.

I ran my little butt to the local photography store over my lunch break and talked to the guy there. He set me up with some Fuji 1600 supreria and suggested that I before the show started I go in with my camera and take a few meter readings while adjusting the ASA setting on the camera just to see what kind of aperture and shutter speed I could get. I was planning to shoot big groups of people, you see, this assembly is "THE BIG ONE" and each Class does a "mock rock" where they Rock it out to a song from the 80's and dance and everything else. Since they would be flailing arms and legs about I needed 1/500 at least and a small app. for good DOF to cover all the dancers (100+ in the senior class).

So I pushed the 1600 ASA to 2/3 above 1600 (which I don’t know what that is in numbers...but that's what the little dial on the camera said) and I got 1/500th at 5.6-7 with my 50mm.

Plus I had my D30 mounted Sigma 70-200 for those close ups of everyone’s faces...some of which were very hilarious!

I absolutely LOVE working with 2 cameras at once. It is sooooooooooooooooo much easier than changing lenses!

And guess what guys...film really aint that bad. (but we'll see how the pics turned out)

I shot up 2 rolls of Superia and 250+ digitals.

The only downside to film?

48 film shots = $13 .... 250+ digital = Just the time to download them

But I'm going to carry the AE-1 loaded with film from here on out....or at least until I get an upgrade camera to replace my D30.

I was thinking about selling my D30 to go for the 20D but now I am definitely going to keep my D30 and buy a 10D instead. 2 Cameras is way better than one!