Can you realistically shoot weddings with a G-series cam?

I mean, I know it would work OK, but what about actually hooking up the 550EX on a bracket (with OCSC) and doing it? I wonder if many people have shot a wedding with a G-series cam.

What about the viewfinder - would one be better served to learn how to use the dinky optical finder than relying on the screen?

I'd be inclined to shoot Manual, since I'm fussy about getting correct exposure and I'd be shooting Large Superfine JPEG's. Do you really have the time to take correct spotmeter readings when things are unfolding all around you so quickly? I guess I could shoot RAW and take loads of time doing post-processing.

Is it really practical for me to try to shoot the occasional wedding with my G6/550EX?

As a guest for your personal enjoyment ... surely

If you plan on doing it for a living, I'd certainly advise you to get some kind of camera that doesn't take 5 seconds to write an image to the CF card. Y'know, something might happen in the meantime.

DOF is another nice feature you might want for the job.

Best regards,
Andy

I've got a G6 and I love it dearly. But I would not do weddings for pay with it.

I took my G2 to my cousins wedding (complete with monopod, conversion lenses, flash).

I got exactly one shot of her walking down the aisle. Plus, it was not that glorious.

If you want to do weddings, look at a Canon DRebel (300D or 350D), Tamron 28-75/2.8 XR, 18-55 kit lens for wide angle and 50/1.8.

Best regards,
Andy

PS: The only thing that would look more ridiculous than a photographer shooting a wedding with a G6 would be a photographer shooting a wedding with a G6 using the LCD viewfinder.

Good points. I can see that using a G6 would have limitiations for candid shooting and shooting moving subjects.

The DOF thing is another issue - you simply have too much background detail.

I could see using it for formal group photos, though, from a tripod where you have more time to set these up and can be careful about exposure.

Ditto. I love my G6 too, but I bought it for amateur photography, mostly slow, meticulous shots, not people/action. All of the advantages of the G6 (size, cost, twist LCD, etc.) don't seem to be major advantages for a pro shooting weddings. The disadvantages of it (slow focus, slow shutter, lower frame-rate, wide DOF, etc.) do seem really bad for that kind of shooting.
A friend with a 20D was kind enough to loan it to me for a week--I loved it, but still haven't bought one, mainly because for my non-pro shooting, the advantages of the G6 are huge, and the disadvantages are simply annoying (some of them are really, really annoying, but not $1300 annoying ). I shot a ton of pictures at my cousin's wedding recently, and got a few good shots, but I was pretty limited by lack of zoom, and slow focus. Having played with the 20D, I know how it would have excelled in that situation. The zoom alone is worth it, but also the immediate, crystal clear focus.
I will say that a G could be a great secondary camera to have with you for specific kinds of shots (odd angles with the LCD, etc.).

dbump wrote:
(some of them are really, really annoying, but not $1300 annoying )

$1,300 ?

You might also need some lenses

Best regards,
Andy

Andythaler wrote:
$1,300 ?
You might also need some lenses

Sorry, that's my 20D envious brain trying to trick me. I always think in terms of the body cost only--because of course the lenses could be used with the next Canon body, so they're not really an expense, right? Keep trying, left lobe.

Definitely, you wouldn't be getting out under 2K. Sure, that's an expensive hobby, but as a business cost? Not bad.

Okay, don't laugh.... I actually shot a whole wedding with an A80. The bride only cared about having 8x10's and was not picky about anything (don't ya wish they were all like that?) All i had was the A80 at the time and I just went for it. Amazingly, those pictures were what started my wedding photography. They really came out beautiful and I was able to give the B&G one hundred 8x10 photos!!! So don't let the camera limit you....

When you think about it, most weddings do not feature a lot of movement so the fact the likes of a G6 (or any compact) has limitations with lag and moving subjects is not a big deal. I'm sure you could shoot a wedding as an amateur and get good results. In fact, if you're careful about exposure, you could produce some dynamite 11x14's and 16x20's with this little gem.

My biggest bugaboo is the fact you'd either have to go to a keosk and make prints from the CF card/CD or do it at home, chewing up valuable time, paper and ink.

I shot a choir concert inside a church last week and got some really good shots, even from a pew with my mini tripod. (I'm really starting to think the mini tripod and remote are the greatest thing ever.) But I shot for an hour and got maybe six great shots and a lot of crap. With more experience (I don't have much) I have no doubt you could get some good shots with a G6 at a wedding, maybe even get away with "covering" a wedding as the main photographer if you were friends with the bride and groom and they wanted to do it on the cheap and didn't mind autofocus targets on their noses the whole day, and were willing to cut you some slack. If you kept shooting all day, you'd be able to pull off some good shots of the ceremony and then do some set-up group shots that would be acceptable, especially if you had a couple remote strobes to play with and time to set up everything. You could order prints online, or even give the bride and groom a CD and let them worry about having prints made.

At our wedding, we had a photographer friend, a pastry chef friend, a dressmaker friend, a DJ friend, etc, all help us out and everything was cheap and more personal, We paid their costs, and it saved them the cost of buying us wedding presents. I generally design invites for my friends and pay for printing rather than buying them a present.

But if you're talking about starting a wedding photography business around a G6, I don't think it makes sense. People pay a premium for wedding photography, because a lot of equipment is requred, and you only have one chance to get it right, and there are critical moments that last a second or two, and if you don't get the shot, you're gonna have a lot of explaing to do. Every person involved in planning a wedding is completely wigged out and irrational, and at the actual wedding, they're wigged out, irrational, and drunk, and after the wedding, they're hung over, shellshocked, and broke. You don't want to take any chances.

Bb.

This would not be a professional endeavour by any stretch - I've been there, done that, for almost 20 years. If someone asked me to shoot a wedding with a digicam, I'd try the formals (where you can be more careful and use a tripod, if necessary), but I wouldn't touch the candids with digital media. That's where film cams are superior, IMHO.

I know from experience that the formals are the shots the wedding people want to have enlarged, and the G6 works spectacularly for that.

A recent suggestion from Canon.

For years I would take my gear to weddings and take 3-4 rolls of film as an extra gift to the couple. I had good equipment and enjoyed doing this.

Last year I sold my film gear and purchased a G5. I am delighted with the G5 except for one thing - with its horrible shutter lag, it simply doesn't like MOTION. Since purchasing the G5 I've attended 3 more weddings with pretty abysmal results. I too wrote to this forum and got a suggestion for a hyperfocal Custom setting which I programmed but found that the flash didn't fire in this setting (I'll have to re-visit). Last week, in desperation/frustratio​n I wrote to Canon and did receive a suggestion that, while perhaps not perfect, may improve the odds - use Continuous realizing that you will delete some but may capture one (I'll take that). I tried this at home with my 380EX and found it didn't work because the external flash couldn't re-cycle fast enough. However, the on-board flash did keep up with the burst and this just might work. I haven't tried this at a wedding yet but this might at least compensate a bit.

Best wishes - Ted

As I said, the G6 would be useless for those fleeting moments but fine for formals where you actually have time to set things up.

If you are doing it for fun or gratis... I did. I am a rank amateur but our trusty G2 has really inspired me to learn more about photography and further efforts. I was the wedding photographer for my sister-in-law's wedding, because they didn't want to pay for a professional. I used external flashes 420EX and 580EX for the posed shots. Some of them were casual, but they were posed; I did take some candid shots with the external flash too, but not so much during the ceremony itself as I didn't want to disrupt. Anyway even though I am starting to feel that our G2 is archaic by today's standards, I think it did a very adequate job and the Bride and Groom and all the family members and friends were more than pleased (and that was without any post-processing! I didn't have PSE 3 then). However, if you were doing it for a paying job, that may be another story!

Jessica