I have a photo pass for tonight

[Doemasters]

and was wondering what the best setting would be to keep my cameras on for low light.

I have a 40d and the eos 5d mark2

lenses are 24mm 1.4
70-200 2.8
85 1.2

thanks for any suggestions, will keep looking around in this forum for ideas

[rgs-]

you pretty much have the ultimate low light combo w/ the 5d2 and 85 1.2. you should do quite fine

[Doemasters]

thanks, what setting should i put the camera on

[narlus]

what sort of show is it? how large is the venue? will there be a photo pit? what is the band like?

those are all good questions worth knowing the answers to prior to setting foot in the venue.

i am not sure what your shooting style is, but if it helps here's what i do.

start @ ISO 1600 in M and i use partial metering
shoot @ f/2-2.8 or so and check the histogram to see what the exposure looks like...hopefully you will have shutter speeds of 1/100 - 1/250.

you could use spot metering and zoom in on a face to get a reading there as well.

don't be afraid to shoot 3200 ISO w/ the 5D2 or even higher if you really need it. it controls noise very well.

[Bobster]

depending on the venue, you'll be shooting ISO800-ISO3200/6400

always 2.8

shutter can vairy from 1/30-1/200

you're at the mercy of the Lighting Tech

[niqqunos]

Originally Posted by Doemasters

and was wondering what the best setting would be to keep my cameras on for low light.

I have a 40d and the eos 5d mark2

lenses are 24mm 1.4
70-200 2.8
85 1.2

thanks for any suggestions, will keep looking around in this forum for ideas

Wow, are you kidding me? Did you find all that gear somewhere?! :P

Any of the lenses will handle the lighting conditions, just depends on how far away you are and what the lighting tech decides to do!

Personally, I'd give the 70-200 and 5D2 combination a go... use a higher ISO setting and 2.8 so you've got control over the focal length without having to change settings on the fly. If the band is moving around a lot, stick to 1/160 to 1/200 shutter and you should be fine.

Or, I'll swap my setup with you and you can use a very handy 350D and 50mm 1.8 which should be more than fine and I'll use your gear!

Dan

[Doemasters]

Had to leave before i saw the advice but i got some decent shots i think. I mainly stayed with the 5d mark11 and the 700-200mm lens. It was at a festival and I was down in the pit and tried shooting in av mode at first because i read about alot of people using that but the pictures were to hot the whole time, like one of you said it may have been the light guy killing me. I turned to tv mode during the show and the pictures seemed to be a little crisper. Maybe next time i will just shoot some all til i get the hang of it. Thanks for the help. Here is 2 pictures below

[Bobster]

looks like you did well for your first outing

1st pic is very hot, need to reduce the exposure by about 1/2 a stop

no exif?

[Doemasters]

i didnt take it off, i actually uploaded straight from the card

[Doemasters]

i forgot to shoot in raw as well, had my main memory card not work for some reason when i started taking pictures so i panicked

[Bobster]

DOH!

[Doemasters]

learned my lesson, just bought more memory cards this morning

[René Damkot]

Originally Posted by Doemasters

it may have been the light guy killing me.

No. It was the cameras metering being thrown off by the large amount of black in the background. Get to know how your camera meters: http://www.canon.co.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/part2/2E.html

Originally Posted by Doemasters

I turned to tv mode during the show and the pictures seemed to be a little crisper.

Should not make a difference exposure wise, unless you chose a shutterspeed that was so high that the camera couldn't open the aperture far enough to get what it considered a "good" exposure.