Advice on photojournalism QUICK shooter

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MiniMonty

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Hi all,
I'm a studio photographer looking for advice on a "shoot from the hip" purchase. I'm about to start a project which entails me working on a busy night time city street catching "moments" the like of which you see on those documentaries about drunken towns - fights - hen night groups - great faces - etc etc... This is being sponsored by the city council and I'm a little unsure of the kit list to submit.
I'm old skool (like fully old skool - SLR, film, Metz) and they're asking which digital equipment I would like them to buy so I need some full on good advice about street photography in the digital age.

I've got the Mac and all the software sorted and that side of things I'm very comfortable with but what I use in the studio could never translate to the street so....

Don't say "Leica Leica Leica"
Do say "here is some realistic advice with a budget of a couple of thousand quid"

All and any advice much appreciated.

Best wishes
Monty
 
Any DSLR should be fine really. I might be inclined to go for a decent prime over a zoom for quicker AF in the dark, and stick a flashgun on top for the AF assist beam. Or being 'old skool' you might be happier getting a decent focusing screen put in and doing it by hand.

Things like the Canon 1D or Nikon D3/D4/D700 etc have better AF than the cheaper bodies, or the older Canon 5D series. But I don't think it will really make that much difference to you. (I shoot quick stuff in the dark with a 5DmkI all the time).

There are also all kinds of mirrorless things out there now, some of which are supposed to be pretty decent, but I don't bother to keep up with that stuff. (Tried a Fuji X100 when everyone was raving about it, and thought it was horrible to use).
 
Maciej Dakowicz shot much of his fabulous Cardiff After Dark series with a 5D Mk1 and 35mm f/1.4L

The photos got a lot of national press attention a couple of years ago.
 
Agree that any DSLR will be fine combined with a fast prime (35 on crop)

In my experience of wanting a camera that can focus very quickly and can compose shots via optical veiwfinder it makes the most sense.

I have owned other types of cameras and while good are still not quite a match for DSLR.
- Fuji X10, for fast shots they don't work as well as I get a lot of out of focus shots.
- Ricoh GRD with snap focus (zone focus) works very well but the image quality is not that great
 
Any camera that is small and unobtrusive is probably best. I'd even consider the fuji x-100 as it has a built in flash.

Sony Nex series also worth a look.
 
X100 AF has improved with firmware but is still garbage. No good for this kind of work imo.

I was really impressed with the voigtlander 17mm f0.95 on an OM-D I tried out....
 
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If AF is pretty much instantaneous why not?

Zone focus is great for true 'from the hip' but if taking a few seconds to actually compose why not get the focus where you want it and also allow lower DoF when that can add to the image?
 
ernesto said:
If AF is pretty much instantaneous why not?

Zone focus is great for true 'from the hip' but if taking a few seconds to actually compose why not get the focus where you want it and also allow lower DoF when that can add to the image?
Click to expand...

Because it seems that everybody is advising a camera based on quick autofocus ability. No AF system is pretty much instantaneous in low light with heavy backlighting (e.g. streetlights behind subject). My D3S in 51 point science fiction mode it pretty good. But manual focus will beat it.
 
Fuji Xpro is suited to this or even a NEX 7 and the nice Zeiss 24mm f/1.8. Really you could do it with an entry level DSLR and 35mm prime if you wanted. Photographing drunk people on the street sounds like a recipe for disaster though.
 
very good point. If was was facing many drunk, loutish people I would not be taking a £2000 camera. Hate to see a group of lads play 'see if I can throw this camera up on the top of this building' with it...
 
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