Lens for Bands

[Adaptive]

fair enough

[jstuedle]

I started shooting local bands with digital in 2000. I shot them with film for decades before that. When I used the D1,D1H,D1X I was limited to ISO800 and used only f/2.0 of faster primes. On the DX sensor I used mostly 35mm f/2.0, 50mm f/12 MF or f/1.8 AF and an old 85mm f/1.8 MF. I now shoot a D3 set at auto ISO max'ed at 6400. I now use the 35-70 f/2.8 push-pull zoom and the 80-200 f/2.8 push-pull when shooting live performers. One thing that is critical is proper hand holding technique. With a 50mm lens I feel reasonably sharp images down to 1/10 or 1/15 sec. are attainable at least 75% of the time. I get a lot of faces and torsos that are sharp with guitarists hands a blur. Very cool. Try to get sharp drummers but 180 degree stick blur. If you can get the shutter speed down to a crawl and keep sharp performers the action will scream at the viewer. If I can make saleable work with the "worlds noisiest DSLR" the D1X, then just about anyone should have some luck with a little practice using about any DSLR out there.

Much of my older work can be seen at my pbase account, my username in the live bands folder.