Shooting low light in church: 85 1.8 or 70-200 2.8 IS

I rented a 70-200 2.8L IS for the weekend to shoot a Confirmation service at our Parish this weekend using my 5D3. During rehearsal I became very concerned about the high ISO I was needing to use so I also pulled out my 85 1.8. I am probably being too conservative with my shutter, not relying on IS, but the lens is new to me. Here are some examples of both lenses:

70-200 f2.8 IS lens: 100mm, f2.8 1/80 ISO 8000

I would stick with the zoom. You are shooting at the extreme limit shutter speed of what an 85 1.8 should be shot at. Meanwhile, you are not at the limit of your 70-200, though I wouldn't drop any lower as you'll get subject motion blur becoming more significant.

What Lloyd said.

Thank you gentlemen. Lloyd very nice website. You actually take money from people to do that?

Another question I forgot to ask: does this lens IS work with a monopod? I've used one in this venue before; would you be tempted to shoot a little slower with one to allow a bit lower ISO, or would you just keep it simple and stick with 1/80 as a minimum speed?

These images look fine to me in terms of noise. I'd pay greater attention to white balancing and exposure as both images are off by a bit in both categories.

There are generally two contributors to a blurry photo--the subject moving and the camera moving. No matter what kind of rock solid steady grip you have or how many stops you're squeezing from IS, you really don't want to be much lower than 1/80 in this context, I don't think--solely because of the likelihood that your subjects aren't statues.

If, for example, this was a wedding, 1/80 would not be fast enough for the processional: unless you're shooting at a super super wide focal length and the subject is lost in the frame.

mpstan wrote in post #16779941
Another question I forgot to ask: does this lens IS work with a monopod? I've used one in this venue before; would you be tempted to shoot a little slower with one to allow a bit lower ISO, or would you just keep it simple and stick with 1/80 as a minimum speed?

mpstan wrote in post #16779941
Another question I forgot to ask: does this lens IS work with a monopod? I've used one in this venue before; would you be tempted to shoot a little slower with one to allow a bit lower ISO, or would you just keep it simple and stick with 1/80 as a minimum speed?

Agreed with most of the other posters in this thread: When shooting people or other moving subjects, the 1/focal-length rule goes right out the windows.

My general rules of thumb for bare-minimum shutter speeds, if you want to minimize motion blur:
1/60 for still posed people
1/125 for slow-moving people
1/250 for moderately fast moving people
1/400 for very fast moving dancers and athletes
... or even faster if necessary.


Don't try to go much slower than 1/80 for this. A little sensor noise is almost always preferable to motion blur.

Here's an example of what I ended up with using the 70-200 2.8 IS, at 1/180, f 2.8 and ISO 5000 at 70mm. Thanks everyone for their help and input

mpstan wrote in post #16831783
Here's an example of what I ended up with using the 70-200 2.8 IS, at 1/180, f 2.8 and ISO 5000 at 70mm. Thanks everyone for their help and input

Photo looks great. It looks clean enough to print. You could get away with 1/100th if you turned IS on. This would give you a lower ISO or a larger depth of field, depending on what you want. I would move towards a larger depth of field in order to get the person with their hand on the shoulder more in focus.

In regard to your question about monopods, IS does work with them. On most lenses you'll toggle the IS mode dial to either mode 2 or 3.

[QUOTE=mpstan;16779637​]I rented a 70-200 2.8L IS for the weekend to shoot a Confirmation service at our Parish this weekend using my 5D3.]

So how long till you buy your own? I use one for a wedding as I had the 70-200 F4 but with weather changes there was a chance the outdoor wedding would become an indoor wedding inside a huge dark lodge (it did) and I knew I would need the 2.8 ... Needless to say one month later I had my own copy. It by far is my favorite lens...

Looks like you have more light that day.

I usually do well with my 70-200 f2.8 IS II inside churches. Of course light levels vary from church to church, but I am usually around f2.8 1/125 ISO1600-4000.

The 5D3 handles noise very well provided the photos are well exposed. It'll quickly fall apart if you underexpose.