Gear check for amateur wedding photography

[Arg]

Agreeing to doing a wedding without a minimum of a backup body, be it paid or otherwise is irresponsible for those that should know otherwise and better suited to those whom refuse to know better or beginners whom have yet to learn better. The analogies used in this thread to justify the risk are nothing short of ridiculous.

"irresponsible.... refuse to know better..... yet to learn better.... nothing short of ridiculous."

I can tell that you are angry, but no matter how much I read your post, I cannot fathom what you are on about. Care to explain what this means?: "....is irresponsible for those that should know otherwise and better suited to those whom refuse to know better or beginners whom have yet to learn better".

Are you taking aim at me with all these put-downs, by any chance? If so, you simply haven't read my posts. In my first post I said "ask around for a spare body". In my second post I said "see my first post about a spare body". In my third post I said "two bodies are better than one". But you read all that, so you can't be referring to me, right? So who on earth are you taking angry aim at?

I'm willing to bet that you don't know what the risk actually is. Well you will after reading this post, because I'm going to tell you. The risk of a Canon dslr breaking down on any one day of its first 2 or 3 years of life is one in 18,000.

So on average, if Imogen/ice did 18,000 weddings with one camera body each time (say, every Saturday for 350 years), she can expect to have one camera failure on one of the days. As long a she kept her camera relatively new.

Yelling at people who are willing to manage that risk as a non-professional doing a favour for no money, is unreasonable.

Imogen asked if she should buy a new lens or buy a new body. My suggestion was to buy a new lens and borrow a spare body. I'll stick by that.

[William W]

The risk of a Canon dslr breaking down on any one day of its first 2 or 3 years of life is one in 18,000.

That's an interesting statistic. I didn't know that. Thank you.

I recall I read on one of the Professional Forums it was about 1:50,000 in the first year, but I expect that stat was for the 1 Series exclusively: but also a statistic specific for EOS 1 Series Cameras each of which would expect a lot more usage, each day.


WW

[norwest]

No, fella, I wasn't angry and you will have no doubt when I am.

[ricktas]

NOTICE:

A few people in this thread need to take a breath and calm down. Every member is entitled to post their thoughts and views, but comments like "No, fella, I wasn't angry and you will have no doubt when I am" and others are just posted to intimidate, offed and bait other members. Anyone else who does it in this thread from this post forward, will be banned permanently from AP. You have been warned, so if I ban you, don't bother emailing me whinging about it, cause I will ignore you

[norwest]

Your assumption is incorrect, Rick. My reply was nothing more than to correct the accusation, as a statement of fact, of basing my comments on anger. I have better things to do than attempt to intimidate anyone &/or reply in detail to assumptions and assist in the perpetuation of a circular, 'he said, she said' argument. I'd had a gut full, in a past thread, of circular argument, spite, personal aspersions and accusations based on irrational assumption, so I did not and do not intend to get into another.

[Arg]

Anyway, ice (Imogen), please let us know what you eventually decide on.

Regarding cameras, I have a 7D and my daughter has a 550D. I think the 550D is an excellent camera, in fact, I would not be unhappy if it was my main camera. The bare sensor is essentially similar on the two models. My personal thought for you is to be clear in your mind on what you are not getting out of the 550D, because, depending on what that is, the 7D may or may not be a big improvement.

For example, for me, the fit of the 7D in hand is perfect whereas the 550D is a bit ungainly. For my daughter it is the opposite. For me, the extra long 22mm eye point of the 7D is great for wearing glasses while shooting. It's strange what things might finally turn out to be important, no matter how much we might read up on spec sheets and feature lists and grossly magnified pixel-peeping of image files...!

[Kym]

@ice -- this thread got a bit hi-jacked.

As an amateur I can say this:

Weddings are always an emotional situation; which leads to some element of risk for the photographer.
This can be made worse when you have some family/friend relationship with the wedding party.

I have done a couple of weddings for people of a very low budget; this was in fact due to personal relationships; but ideally I try to avoid this situation.
The photography was our gift to them; otherwise it would have been a bunch of relatives with P&S doing the photos

I had two APS-C bodies, 10-250mm FL covered via 3 lenses; remotes, three flashes, stands, umbrellas and lots of spare batteries.
I found the 28-75/2.8 was my main tool; I also used the 10-20 for some group shots
The results were ok (my opinion) and excellent ('customer' opinion).
My wife was my assistant and 2nd shooter.

I did sit down and have a planning session with the couples in both cases where I set expectations etc.
I also had early access to the Church and reception venues and was able to plan the whole day from my end.

Planning and expectation setting is critical. See: http://www.ausphotography.net.au/for...phy_Check-list

Good luck with your efforts, its a good excuse to get more gear