which lens?

thelightofsound wrote in post #4862932
don't down grade from the 50 1.4 to the 1.8. it sounds like you have a bad one that should be fixed upon exchange (return). i think with a crop body you need something wider. i have had good results with my 17-35, and would suggest renting the 16-35.
also talk to the LD before the show and ask him for bright lights during the first several songs.

Yeah my husband is trying to convinvce me to keep the 1.4 even though it's more money. I've been playing with it a bit and the noise seems to be an element and I've heard that a few others have the same problem, so maybe it'll be fine. And most say it's soft until 1.8 or 2.0 which when I may need it at 1.4 it's a bit worrysome, but I guess I'll have to learn to live with it. I had one a year ago and it was a bit sharper at 1.4 and had less CA, I regret selling it now. If I ask the LD to turn up th elights I can probably have it at 2.0 anyway without too much worry.


So I plan on taking the 50 and the 200. I'm fairly good at handholding the 200, I wobble a bit, but with good lighting it should be ok, I'm hoping to be close enough to use the 50 more then the 200.

Thanks for all your help everyone! I'll post pictures next month after the show! Then you can tell me how to do it better!

gardengirl13 wrote in post #4862474
-Not getting paid, it's my husband's band and I'm their photographer, it'll be mostly for their site and promos/posters maybe CDs so it has to be fairly good for everything but the website which can handle small images.
-We've been told to bring the sound and lighting guys starbucks coffee and they'll be at our beckon call so I'm hoping to get "real good light" which is a loose term since it's not a huge venue but it's better then the real dark bars I've been shooting in.
-I'll be able to move anywhere I want I assume since I'm "with the band" I even think I could manage to get on stage to the side if need be
-I have one camera (crop as I said in my post) and will have to switch lenses.

The reason I'm asking about the 200 is it doesn't have IS and I wonder if I'll miss it or not (personally for my shooting I don't use it ever so I don't own an IS lens)

For me personally this gig will be a huge deal. It'll be better lighting then I've shot in (we're talking bars with bad overhead lights turned down low and shutter speeds of 1/6 with f/2.0 and ISO at 3200) I want to personally do really well with this. But it's not my style of photography so it's a challange.

Sounds a bit like Atak (where René and I are the photographers). That's "not huge" aswell (300 people or something) and we're free to move anywhere too. 200 wil DEFINITELY be enough in such circumstances, but same as some other people I'd say that something in between may be be a good idea.

How about the 28 1.8 instead? I tried the 50 again last night and it's just soft. It's only sharp from 2.0-3.5 anything above or below it's real bad! The sound inside must be a loose element or something so it's now in the mail back to b&h. When I shot film I only had the 50 for almost 20 years and never thought anything of it, so now I'm thinking for my everyday walk around the 28 may be nice. I have a cheap 28-105 zoom, but the quality in bad light suffers when you want something bigger then 4x6. So now I'm really wondering about the 28, it's a lot of money for me right now, but it may be perfect.