Carry 2 bodies (FF/Crop): Which lenses and why?

I normally do event shooting with one camera and one lens. Mount a 17-85 or 24-105 on a crop body and I'm good to go.

Now that I have a FF body I'm not sure what to do with the crop one. I'm thinking of using the 5DII with 24-105 and pairing the crop with a 100macro for detail/long reach shots.

After thinking about this for a while I'll invert my decision above and wish to put a wide angle prime (20mm) or 100macro on the 5DII and use the 24-105 on the crop. After pouring over this for a while I'll resort to what I know and use the FF/zoom and leave the crop as a backup.

When shooting with two bodies, what do you use?

I don't know your gear, or what your shooting style is. As a photojournalist, I'll usually have a 70-200 on my cropped 1D Mark IV and a 16-35 or 24-70 on my FF body. Few other lenses in a backpack.

mbloof - what is your predominant subject matter?

The only time I shoot with two bodies is when I have a second shooter. I hate having so much stuff dangling around my neck and I feel like I'm less mobile. But usually we have a 24-105 of the ff and a 70-200 on the crop. Or if the 70-200 will stick out too much we put the 100mm MACRO on the 7D. But usually I get by just fine with the 24-105 on my 5D for almost everything.

I don't have two cameras "on me" except for the ceremony, but I love the versatility of a FF and 1.6 always ready in the bag. But there's no single approach to how I will equip them; it's all about what I need. If I'm doing the reception, my 24-70 will be on my FF while working the dance floor but if I'm going around to get couple pictures at tables, I'll put the 24-70 on my 50D to make it a bit longer.

Scottie & G: People mostly, parties and a wedding here and there.

PeaceFire: I get tired carrying one body&flash, I'm trying to envision how carrying two could be useful enough to try.

I only use two bodies during the ceremony as I don't have time to keep swopping lenses. Rest of the time (weddings) it's one body only.

For laughs, I had 3 FF bodies at my last wedding. Having an assistant means I rarely have a spare camera hanging off my camera.

I am a one camera person usually. But having my other preferred lens on a separate body helps.

45mm f/2.8 PC-E and 85mm f/1.4D. Those are my two lenses that get the most action throughout a wedding.

A 50mm f/1.4, 20-35mm /f2.8, 55mm f/3.5 macro, and a 180mm f/2.8D are in the bag.

I'm primarily a wedding shooter, but this is how I work it. Most of the time I work with a shooting partner. I outfit my partner with crop body and 70-200 and I use the FF with 28-70. If I have to work the ceremony alone I carry both cameras, outfitted the same. We only use this setup for the ceremony. Once the reception starts, we keep the same FF setup and go with an 18-50 (Sigma f2.8-4.5) on the crop body.

If you only had one camera, what camera/lens combo would you use? Start with that as your base and then use the second camera and lens to fill a particular void whether it be the need for a longer lens, or a specialty lens of some sort. I personally would keep the 24-105 on the full frame body and then a longer lens on the crop for isolation or reach shots.

It looks like I will probably be adding a 7d to the mix now (I am tired of waiting for the infamous 5d3). I still plan to shoot one body for the majority of the day, but most likely throw the 70-200mm on it for ceremonies.

I almost always have the 70-200/2.8 on the 5DII, and swap between the 24-70/2.8 and 50/1.4 on the 7D depending on light levels.

On a related note, I don't buy the whole 70-200 on a crop for the extra reach argument , and I see that on the forums all the time. I feel like I am taking crazy pills, but can't you just crop the full frame for an equivalent effect? And I would suggest that is a BETTER plan since you get to choose the area of the sensor you are cropping from.

This ties into the comments on the 5D being bad except for center point so I will use a crop... Say you are shooting a moving target in portrait orientation (very common); just use the full frame center point and crop to the equivalent 1.6 crop factor of a 40D (or whatever) and if you choose to crop along the bottom edge, the center point is probably perfectly positioned for a vertically oriented portrait.

And I understand about pixel density and the capability to resolve more detail, but that usually only helps at lower ISOs, not where we usually shoot unless you are a lighting master like picturecrazy.

Longer lens on the cropper and the rest on FF.

Luz wrote in post #12063602
I almost always have the 70-200/2.8 on the 5DII, and swap between the 24-70/2.8 and 50/1.4 on the 7D depending on light levels.

On a related note, I don't buy the whole 70-200 on a crop for the extra reach argument , and I see that on the forums all the time. I feel like I am taking crazy pills, but can't you just crop the full frame for an equivalent effect? And I would suggest that is a BETTER plan since you get to choose the area of the sensor you are cropping from.

I get what you're saying and I would get putting the 70-200 on a FF if you were shooting with two FF. But why would you limit your 24-70 by throwing it on your 7D? You're overlapping focal ranges and limiting your widest option to 38 (24mm on a crop= 38.4mm). To me that doesn't sound like a better plan since you just went from having a focal range of 24 through 320 and now only have a 38 through 200mm focal range.

PeaceFire wrote in post #12066557
I get what you're saying and I would get putting the 70-200 on a FF if you were shooting with two FF. But why would you limit your 24-70 by throwing it on your 7D? You're overlapping focal ranges and limiting your widest option to 38 (24mm on a crop= 38.4mm). To me that doesn't sound like a better plan since you just went from having a focal range of 24 through 320 and now only have a 38 through 200mm focal range.

So with the same argument I made above, I don't really value 320 on a crop any more than 200 on a FF because I can just crop to 320 if I wanted to, so I have 38.4-320 if I crop to what my 7D would anyway, except I get to crop from whatever part of the sensor I want which is even better.

I understand the 24-70 loses capability on the 7D on the wide side, and my reasons for leaving the 70-200 on the 5DII are thus:

1. I usually find 38.4 wide enough for the way I shoot during the reception.
2. When I do want wider than 38.4, it usually is something that I have some time to set up, either during the... slower... part of the ceremony or when I am tired of taking dancing shots and look for something artistically different.
3. I heart the look of the pics I get with the 70-200 on the 5DII.

-praxedis