Advantage of renting FF for family birthday party?

Our family has a 75th birthday party (fairly small) for my parents this weekend. Mom asked that I take some shots of guests, fairly informal. No large posed groups due to COVID. Would there be a advantage to renting a full frame body? It will be mostly indoors but possibly some shots outside as well. I have a 7D II and 7D but could rent a 6DII, 5DIII or 5DIV or even a R or RP here at the local camera shop. I mostly shoot sports and outdoors stuff (landscapes/wildlife). This is not a paid gig of any kind. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

There isn't enough benefit to bother with renting a full frame camera. Just go with what you are familiar with. Practice with your flash is more important than what body you are using.

I agree...the 'advantage' of FF is not something 'worth it' for simply shooting a family event, particularly with any body that you are NOT ACCUSTOMED TO using.

Rent a 35mm F2 IS. It's a great indoor lens and should give you a 50ish mm FOV which should be ok for casual photography indoors. Use a flash to bounce off the wall. I usually point the flash straight up, or sometimes up and backward to get a soft light.

Thanks for all the input.

The venue has a very high roof (over 50 ft. up) so bounce flash may not help much?

Many years ago Curtis N did a test in a gym with a celiing he estimated to be 25' high. He set ISO 1600, and the flash return at center court measured about f/4, with little difference based on the zoom head setting.

Based on those prior results, I would tend to want to start with ISO6400 (there is a chance ISO3200 is enough), when encountering a 50' high ceiling.

duckster wrote in post #19141795
Thanks for all the input.

The venue has a very high roof (over 50 ft. up) so bounce flash may not help much?

A) you don't always have to bounce off the ceiling, there are generally some other nearby surfaces to work with. B) You can combine high ISO with flash to make the big bounce work as well as adding highlights to the subjects. Flash is more than just adding light, but also improving light. High ISOs can make it possible to shoot in many venues, but it can't brighten dark eye sockets caused by straight overhead lighting.

This might be helpful

https://neilvn.com …ubstitute-for-good-light/

I'm in the same camp as most here. A full frame body isn't going to gain you much, if anything, especially as you have a 7DII now. That's a very capable camera. Instead, you do not mention what lenses you have to play with . A nice wide angle for general area shots and something like a 17-55 or one of the 24-(70/105) for closer work. Also, something like a 70-200 would do well for some portrait type shots. Also, with a 50 foot ceiling, you might be better off with a flash mounted soft box like THIS one. The small ones work well but I prefer the larger one. It does a great job softening the light.

I was planning to use my 17-55 on my 7D. Thanks for all the information.

For groups like this, what focus points do you typically use? Single point or one of the expanded groups? When I do sports I use single point or one of slightly expanded groups but didn't know if something else works better for event shooting

duckster wrote in post #19141899
I was planning to use my 17-55 on my 7D.

Many of the comments seem to ignore the fact that a 35 mm sensor provides a wider field of view than an APS-C sensor for a given focal length. In enclosed settings like indoors in small rooms, this can be an advantage. If that is not your concern, then stick with what you have.

joedlh wrote in post #19142581
Many of the comments seem to ignore the fact that a 35 mm sensor provides a wider field of view than an APS-C sensor for a given focal length. In enclosed settings like indoors in small rooms, this can be an advantage. If that is not your concern, then stick with what you have.

That all depends on the lens. A ff with a 16mm lens is the same FOV as a crop with a 10mm. I regret selling my 10-22 when I picked up the 16-40 thinking that way, but the 10-22 was a better lens optically at 10mm on a crop than the 16-40 at 16 on a FF body. There is little one format can do that the other cannot unless you restrict the criteria favoring one over the other, like requiring the focal length to be the same for both. That is an unnecessary restriction in the real world.