good Cameras for the new Tour

[ntalwar]

So on TV you only have to worry about setting the shutter speed and ISO and the camera does the rest? For a newbie is this the mode you'd recommend to start with for shows?

Basically, yes. I think d. darroch posted the same mode, but with ISO set to auto. I found that ISO 400 works well for 90% or so of the lighting conditions (i.e. bright), if one is fairly close to the stage. I use that mode (Tv) for almost all my shots.

So, are you selecting an iso of 400 or 800 for concerts, and a shutter speed of 125 and leaving it there?
I keep playing with the settings to do as little as possible to set up a shot so i can enjoy the music. i just went to a concert, and I'm not sure what the heck i did, but it made shutter speeds go to 1/10!!! which of course means nothing but blur! and iso of 200.
I had practically the same settings for prior concerts, but those were at iso 640-800 and shutter speeds of around 1/60-1/100.
I used Program mode, chose HI iso on my Canon G10, no flash, but I think I put it on 'overexposed' 1 stop and maybe that's what kept the shutter open so long?
or maybe there's something wrong with my sensor? One thing I have noticed is a small red pixel showing up in some not all of my photos. I edit it out, but am wondering if something is up with the sensor, when it defaults to 200 iso, and shutter speeds of 1/10 or 1/15
i'm trying to figure out if it needs to go back to Canon-they can take a couple months to get something back to you and i have shows coming up

Program mode is not good for concerts - the camera selects too many parameters, which are less than optimal. The red pixel is known as a hot pixel and is very common, even on high end dslrs. I'd just edit it out as you are doing.

 

[Dakotalola]

Basically, yes. I think d. darroch posted the same mode, but with ISO set to auto. I found that ISO 400 works well for 90% or so of the lighting conditions (i.e. bright), if one is fairly close to the stage. I use that mode (Tv) for almost all my shots.



Program mode is not good for concerts - the camera selects too many parameters, which are less than optimal. The red pixel is known as a hot pixel and is very common, even on high end dslrs. I'd just edit it out as you are doing.

That pixel bugs me
I'm seeing Safety Suit Thursday night, so will set up a custom setting using TV mode, but shoot in RAW if those are compatible. No flash, shutter 1/125, and ISO of 400-800. That's just a quick change on a top dial. The custom setting doesn't retain the ISO setting.
I'm hoping when the camera chose 1/10 as a shutter speed it's because of some settings I placed on it not knowing the effect, as opposed to the sensor being the problem.
The next camera for me is probably the Canon 50D. Can't get it in most venues, so the G10 is my "concert camera".
It only has a 5X optical zoom though. If i'm further away-even at a U2 concert, the front rail is a decent distance away-the 5X optical has issues and noise increases when you go into the digital zoom.
Maybe i need a cheaper camera with a better zoom just for U2-that one you bought and returned took great shots!

 

[ntalwar]

It only has a 5X optical zoom though. If i'm further away-even at a U2 concert, the front rail is a decent distance away-the 5X optical has issues and noise increases when you go into the digital zoom.
Maybe i need a cheaper camera with a better zoom just for U2-that one you bought and returned took great shots!

Yeah, the 10x comes in very handy. Noise is more apparent at large sizes on the cheaper compacts though, but I don't do large prints, etc.

 

[ramblin rose]

Wow, this thread is great. I have a Canon SX200 and had no idea what settings to use at the shows. Most of my pictures turned out like crap. I think I'll try some of these tips to see if I have better luck in 2010.

 

[Dakotalola]

Thanks, ntalwar! I'm going to change up my concert settings for Thursday night and
hope it makes a difference. I've been getting some great shots all year with the my first settings then I read more, changed them up and the shutter speed lagged.
The venue thurs uses a lot of red lights, which makes it tough, but we'llsee

 

[charleswise]

For those that use a ZS3, which settings do you use at concerts? Thanks in adavnce.

 

[Chrisedge]

For those that use a ZS3, which settings do you use at concerts? Thanks in adavnce.

HD Video

 

[Dakotalola]

So if I go with tv, no flash, continuous focus ( with shutter button half press) shutter speed 1/125 abd iso 400,if things look blurred or not crisp would you raise the iso or shutter or both? I reviewed some of my better concerts shots and they seem to be hovering around shutter of 1/60-1/100 and iso 800. Sometimes iso of 640. This was in program mode so iso was auto. I left exposure and white balance alone. Light changes too quick.
I don't want to miss shots because I'm playing with shutter speed and iso. Or maybe I'll just get used to it with practice. I'll shoot in RAW- there's a lot that can be retooled after.
But the shot has to be decent in the first place.
Have you used aperture priority? Wondering how that would turn out. A lot of my shots are at 4.5 which is the end of the range on my camera. Shouldn't itbe shooting down around 2.8? What if I set it to. That? Would shutter speed automatically come up at an
iso of 800?

 

[Dakotalola]

Question- no matter what I set the shutter speed to, in tv mode, it just defaults to what it wants when I press the button halfway.
I don't know why it's doing this. Any suggestions?

 

[Dakotalola]

I think I hit it figured out. I can set the shutter speed now.

 

[ntalwar]

So if I go with tv, no flash, continuous focus ( with shutter button half press) shutter speed 1/125 abd iso 400,if things look blurred or not crisp would you raise the iso or shutter or both? I reviewed some of my better concerts shots and they seem to be hovering around shutter of 1/60-1/100 and iso 800. Sometimes iso of 640. This was in program mode so iso was auto. I left exposure and white balance alone. Light changes too quick.

Maybe raise shutter first, and ISO as needed. The settings worked well for U2 shows (in the dark), but may not be good for a dark club. Some U2 shows in Europe were not completely dark, so one could get away with lower ISO. Those settings are a good starting point and can be tweaked as needed.

 

[d.darroch]

Have you used aperture priority? Wondering how that would turn out. A lot of my shots are at 4.5 which is the end of the range on my camera. Shouldn't itbe shooting down around 2.8? What if I set it to. That? Would shutter speed automatically come up at an
iso of 800?

Hi Dakotalola,

My guess as to why lots of your shots are at aperture f/4.5 is because the maximum aperture of a lens changes as you zoom in.

At 28mm, the G10 has a maximum aperture of f/2.8. But as you zoom in, to 140mm, the maximum aperture descreases to f/4.5, which lets in less than half the light, when compared to f/2.8. So as you zoom in, to get the same exposure levels, you must increase the ISO. Aperture priority won't solve this limitation of the lens.

This is why I didn't go for a superzoom (actually, I have an older one, a Nikon S10, which performs very badly at high ISO). My new camera only has a 4x zoom lens (28-105mm), so I've got to get pretty close. But it's a pretty 'fast' lens at the wide angle end of focal length. At 28mm, it's maximum aperture is f/2.0 (which lets in double the light of f/2.8). At 105mm, the maximum aperture decreases to f/4.9. So I try to take quite a few photos at 28mm, to take advantage of this large aperture, & be able to shoot at lower ISO's.

Hope this helps.

 

[d.darroch]

Oh yes! I have to explain those pix to everyone, but they're so...pretty! Have you figured a setting that'll give you the lasers? Mine came out all purple and red but the thin laser lights were lost. I noticed on the RB show they didn't capture it too well either, so I don't feel too bad.

Hey Birdlover,

I used a very high ISO setting (2500). But that was really to try & capture Bono, in a very low-light environment, not specifically to capture the lasers.

As for the lasers, I don't think there is really any setting that can be used to capture them. It's really the smoke that captures the laser beams. Notice in the Rose Bowl show, it was pretty windy. So the smoke was wipping past Bono's legs quite a bit. So there were laser beams down low, but not up high. The smoke's kinda catch 22. Need it to see the lasers, but too much, & Bono is lost. Here's a few shots I took at Vancouver, indoors, so not much wind.

Too much smoke here. Beams look cool, but the details of Bono are lost (I was engulfed in the smoke too).

A shot with not enough smoke. Bono's there, but not many beams.

Never really got a shot that was just right. This is probably the closest (Bono's face is there, though I wish there were a few more laser beams)

By the middle of WOWY the smoke had disappeared. So even though we had the same laser suit, we didn't get any beams.

 

[d.darroch]

yup it would be nice to use ISO 400. I tried that only once or twice but the quality is really .

I had the same problem with my Nikon S10, horrible high ISO shots. It's pretty much an older AUTO superzoom. The only way to get any control over the shutter speed (& prevent blurring), was to use SPORTS scene mode. But this would result in the camera using 400 ISO (very noisey pics), or 800 ISO (absolutely horrible).

Still, many of these noisey images can be salvaged using 'Noise Reduction' software.

A couple of options are 'Noise Ninja' & Imagenomic 'Noiseware'. I use Noiseware Community Edition. I'd recommend it for sure. It's free, & very easy to use. This software can greatly reduce noise levels, although too much reduction results in softening of the image, & loss of detail.

 

[Dakotalola]

sorry for typos- using my phone

Thanks, d. Darroch! I did use the zoomquite a bit on those images where iwas cking out the metadata, so that makes sense. If I shoot wider, basically not much zoom, in RaW, would I get the details so I could crop it down in postprocessing? Like grab a full body shot then crop to just upper torso to highlight a captured movement or expression?
I have a Mac, and use Aperture as the phot editing software. I bypass iPhoto now for concert shots. I love that last shot of Bono in front of the disco ball! Even w/o tha lasers. 2500 iso is really high! I can program 3200 but don't really use it. 800 iso seems to be the default for mostof my concert stuff. Though I have some good one at 200 iso. I love when they just have the " house" lights on the stage. Ormaybe it's just a pure uncolored Tungsten light?
The venue tomorrow is small, and they use a lot of red lights, but I hope it's so cold that few people will wait in line early, so I can get a front spot.
How'd you get your slr- I assume that's what you're using - into the u2 shows?
The camera I want next is the canon 50d. I'd be afraid to try and get it in.

 

[ntalwar]

The camera I want next is the canon 50d. I'd be afraid to try and get it in.

fyi - The 50D didn't do too great in noise testing, so it's not the best dslr for concerts.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

I have this one as well - how do you get them to hold still for the two hours it takes for the film to expose?

 

[e.gipson]

sorry for typos- using my phone

Thanks, d. Darroch! I did use the zoomquite a bit on those images where iwas cking out the metadata, so that makes sense. If I shoot wider, basically not much zoom, in RaW, would I get the details so I could crop it down in postprocessing? Like grab a full body shot then crop to just upper torso to highlight a captured movement or expression?
I have a Mac, and use Aperture as the phot editing software. I bypass iPhoto now for concert shots. I love that last shot of Bono in front of the disco ball! Even w/o tha lasers. 2500 iso is really high! I can program 3200 but don't really use it. 800 iso seems to be the default for mostof my concert stuff. Though I have some good one at 200 iso. I love when they just have the " house" lights on the stage. Ormaybe it's just a pure uncolored Tungsten light?
The venue tomorrow is small, and they use a lot of red lights, but I hope it's so cold that few people will wait in line early, so I can get a front spot.
How'd you get your slr- I assume that's what you're using - into the u2 shows?
The camera I want next is the canon 50d. I'd be afraid to try and get it in.

For your camera, that would be a *really* high ISO. I was considering the G10 when I replaced my old camera for this tour. Noise on point and shoots at higher ISOs can be a real issue. And here's the thing- though there are low light/difficult light portions of a U2 gig, for the most part, the lighting is more than adequate to use a lower ISO.

Your camera might have a setting like mine which allows you to 'limit' your ISO. Basically the camera will choose ISO for you but only up to a point. On the European leg of the tour (ironically, when I had more light to work with) I allowed it to go to 400.

By the time they got to the U.S., I'd reevaluated and decided only to let the ISO go to 200, while maintaining an average shutter time of about 1/125.

I noticed no appreciable difference in quality as far as having to compensate for poor exposure, but the noise was reduced. So A+ there.

Last tour, with my much older camera I found myself still shooting at ISO 100 or 200. So it's definitely doable.

A point and shoot's never going to give you what an SLR does (though they're certainly trying for it) but on the other hand, at a U2 gig, with that lighting rig you can certainly get some decent shots once you have the basic settings and ideas down. I'd also say check how you're metering. I tend to prefer spot metering for shows but ymmv.

But yeah... check out local gigs. If you can get the hang of it in difficult lighting, u2 will be easy. And once you've got the hang of it, it becomes such an exhilarating thing to shoot, rather than frustrating as it can be otherwise.

 

[EdgeFest]

Camera models/sample photographs from 360

All right amateur concert photogs!

Can people post some pics you took at 360 AND the camera model you have used to take them?

I just bought a new Canon Powershot SX210IS for 2011, anyone else have one?

Please share any settings wisdom you have as well, I'm not looking for in-depth settings but am interested in some basic things like whether you used Aperture Priority (AV) or Shutter Priority (SV) and what settings you used, or if you found a point-and-shoot "mode" that worked well etc.

I'm going to primarily be shooting at my Red Zone shows so will be close to the stage, however I bought this camera because the wide-angle/telephoto in the same lens really appealed to me so I don't have to lug my SLR with me.

Thanks in advance! I had an Olympus Stylus 1010 last year and although I did get some good pics, I wanted an upgrade to a better zoom. Because, if is standing right in front of me, I want to look at him, not look at him through an LCD screen - I'll take pics of him when he's on the bridge opposite!

 

[God Part III]

Flickr set

Canon 5D Mark II + Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 - though I realise most people won't have access to such cameras, a regular DSLR still gives huge advantages in focusing and sensor size, better pictures and easier shooting. You'll have to sneak them in though. I packed mine in a sleeping bag

 

[TranceEnding]

^^ the first photo of Bono is just amazing



i wish I could afford to buy a brand new camera

 

[mrnathan15]

How are Sony H55 Cybershots or HX5 cybershots in terms of concerts if anyone has one? any pics?

 

[EdgeFest]

Canon 5D Mark II + Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 - though I realise most people won't have access to such cameras, a regular DSLR still gives huge advantages in focusing and sensor size, better pictures and easier shooting. You'll have to sneak them in though. I packed mine in a sleeping bag

Thanks so much, that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for. I just want to go slightly manual on a point and shoot, I simply cannot be turned away with my DSLR if I decide to take it to GA and wait in line from 6am to be told "sorry, you can't bring that camera in".

Would you recommend going Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority? What would you set your shutter/fstop to if you did?

 

[domo-kun]

U2 2010 by joy-of-markers on deviantART


All taken with a PANASONIC Lumix DMC-FS10, which is about 105 bucks.


, except for the meeting photo's.
Those where taken by a Canon EOS 450D in a very pushy crowd

 

[God Part III]

Would you recommend going Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority? What would you set your shutter/fstop to if you did?

I shoot manual mostly, I don't know if modern point-and-shoots allow you to.
I'd keep the aperture wide open 90% of the time, unless a band member comes really close along the catwalk or something, then you're shooting from a distance and you need as much light as possible. You're looking to get a shutterspeed around 1/100th of a second or thereabouts.
The main problem with point-and-shoot cameras and concert photography is that it the focusing is done through the sensor, which in low-light conditions can be extremely slow and cause a lag between pressing the button and taking the picture. The new 'EVIL's (electronic viewfinder, interchangeable lens) cameras, such as the Olympus PEN or the Sony NEX bring some added control to the situation - they still focus through the sensor, but fortunately you can do manual focus via the lens, which allows you to take pictures much faster.

I still say bring your DSLR - there are dozens of other advantages, most of which concern image quality. The bigger the sensor, the better the images, period. And the smallest DSLR sensors weigh in at about eight times the size of the biggest point and shoot sensors.

 

[vjacqb]

I just bought a new Canon Powershot SX210IS for 2011, anyone else have one?

EdgeFest, how do you like the SX210 so far? I'm trying to decide between that and the Panasonic Lumix ZS7 to take when I'm doing GA. There are quite a few places that have a sale on cameras right now. My current camera has great zoom but it weighs a ton, and it got beat up during the times I took it to GA in 2009. So I'm saving that only for when I'm sitting so far away from the stage.

 

[pepokiss]

I My girlfriend just bought THIS camera:

Canon U.S.A. : Consumer & Home Office : PowerShot SX30 IS

Canon PowerShot SX30 IS Review | PhotographyBLOG

I can't WAIT for the concert to use it!!!

 

[ramblin rose]

EdgeFest, how do you like the SX210 so far? I'm trying to decide between that and the Panasonic Lumix ZS7 to take when I'm doing GA. There are quite a few places that have a sale on cameras right now. My current camera has great zoom but it weighs a ton, and it got beat up during the times I took it to GA in 2009. So I'm saving that only for when I'm sitting so far away from the stage.

I got a Panasonic Lumix Zs7 right before Auckland and I love it. It takes awesome videos and has a great mic. My videos from Auckland are spectacular!!

 

[vjacqb]

^Thanks, Rosa. I've heard people say really good things about the ZS7. The video and mic would be a great feature to have. The only reason I'm also looking at the Canon sx210 is because of its slightly higher zoom. Canon is also coming out with the sx230 very soon. It will also have GPS features, but will still be in the mid $300 range since it's new. I think I'll shop around for the ZS7.

pepokiss, the sx30 looks awesome! My current Sony camera is also about that size and although it served its purpose well for the high zoom, it's really heavy to lug around in GA.