Small Venues and Focal Length

[Village_Idiot]

I have three lenses I'm taking with me for my first time shooting at a decent venue: 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8 IS, and 15mm FE.

I'm pretty sure that the 24-70 if the only thing I'm going to need and the 15mm FE might come out of the bag for several shots, but does anyone use a 70-200 when you're shooting from the pit in a smaller club?

It's Ram's Head Live in Baltimore, if anyone knows of the venue. That and I'm going to be shooting on a FF camera, so the FOV is going to be what the focal length states.

[narlus]

you could use the 70-200 at a small club, esp for cross-stage head shots.

i don't bring that lens to most small clubs though, as the 135 finds more time on the cameras.

[Village_Idiot]

you could use the 70-200 at a small club, esp for cross-stage head shots.

i don't bring that lens to most small clubs though, as the 135 finds more time on the cameras.

I figure I can affore to skip the primes since I'm going to have the 5D MKII play with and put through it's paces.

That'll be the first real test with it I think.

Do you shoot with a FF camera with the 135?

[narlus]

i shoot w/ both a 5D and 30D...the 135 sees use on both cameras.

[SnapLocally.com]

I use 2 lenses, assuming we're talking about music: 17-50 f/2.8 and 70-200 f/2.8

obviously one is meant for close-ups, the other for wider shots. Artistically, you've got more latitude with the wider lenses.

[blackshadow]

I have had great results using a 70-200 f2.8L IS in pretty small venues. I generally use either 16-35 or 24-70 as my main lens though. If I were you I'd be packing all three lenses you mentioned in my bag, you may not use them all but if you feel the need to change up or down you have the option.

[Nouks]

I think it's more about the kind of music than about the kind of venue to decide which lenses to bring. In your case I'd suggest you to bring all 3 lenses, unless you are absolutely sure the band is "wide" material (lots of things happening, hardcore, things like that, then you could consider leaving your 70-200 at home) or "tele" material (nice one-person portraits, then don't bring the fisheye).

[efsb]

I'm lucky enough to take the photos for my local club, so I can bring my tripod :) We have two venues, both of which have horrible light - in the smaller of the two, a venue which holds about 100, I tend to vary between 100mm and 300mm(the latter for extreme close-up stuff). In the larger (300-ish capacity) venue, I stick the Sigma 150-500 on a tripod and carry my 2nd DSLR with a 24-105L for wider shots, where the 150-500 is just too narrow to get a combination of people in the shot.
Examples on Flickr here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/efsb/sets/72157594474022445/) Check out the properties on the photos, if it's any help.