Canon 5D mk2 w/17-40L low light focussing

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parker455

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Hi guys,

I'm a regular night club photographer and to get away with the darkness and focussing issues, I use a basic crop body (20D) and a samyang 8mm manual focus lens.

Now, here's my dillemma. Whilst the above is easy shooting and I barely have to worry about focussing, sometimes photos are unusable if the lens is knocked or OOF. I've got a Canon 5Dmk2 and I've heard that low light focussing is pretty dire, in my situation this may be an issue.

Does anybody know how it focusses on a 17-40L at 17mm in low light situations with the centre point being where I want it focussed? I can't have people posing whilst the camera dicks about, I've seen many use the sigma 10-22mm on a crop body and get away with it in clubs.

The idea behind this is to sell the samyang + 20D to help fund a 17-40L.

Thanks for your time,

Tom
 
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Sorry, ignore me.

Actually I'll say anyway..., why not go for a f2.8 zoom or faster prime?
 
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I used the 17-40 on a 5d for a couple of years in clubs and have no issue with focusing. The AF assist beam off the flash has always been plenty good enough to take away from any issue with low light focusing.
 
f/4 in low light is not a good plan, unless you go all the way to mk3 or 1dx that have better hardware for f/4 sensitivity.

As above, get f/2.8 zoom or 24/1.4L II prime. Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 is crazy sharp but only MF
 
Shouldn't be a problem at all.

My 5D2 will focus in very low light, provided you use the centre point and give it something with a bit of contrast to lock on to. Don't believe all you read about the 5D2's AF performance.
 
As mentioned, with a decent flash on top the focus beam does all the work!
 
bass_junkie83 said:
I used the 17-40 on a 5d for a couple of years in clubs and have no issue with focusing. The AF assist beam off the flash has always been plenty good enough to take away from any issue with low light focusing.
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Awesome, i'll likely go with it then. Need a seperate canon compatible TTL flash though, right?
bass_junkie83 said:
Where is it you shoot at Tom? You're pretty local to me.
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Chelmsford/London at a few underground events, last year or so to get me going for Uni this september, hopefully carry on in Southampton as i'll need an income!

HoppyUK said:
Shouldn't be a problem at all.

My 5D2 will focus in very low light, provided you use the centre point and give it something with a bit of contrast to lock on to. Don't believe all you read about the 5D2's AF performance.
Click to expand...

Cracking, will go for one then.

onform said:
As mentioned, with a decent flash on top the focus beam does all the work!
Click to expand...
:thumbs:


Also, a 2.8 zoom I feel will be too expensive if we're talking 24-70L - A sigma would likely do the job, but I'd like the weathersealing L glass gives you.
A prime would be good, but i need the 17-40 range for the majority of stuff I'll be using it for.

Thanks everyone for the replies!
 
I use a 430EX, don't need any more than that.
Never worried about weather sealing inside a club, the odd splash has never been a problem. But it is one of the few cases where I would recommend using a UV filter just to give some protection to the front element.

As for what focal length to use, I find it totally depends on the venue. Don't know if you have seen this, but it may be helpful to you.
http://davidwalkerphotographyblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/a-guide-to-nightclub-photography/
 
bass_junkie83 said:
I use a 430EX, don't need any more than that.
Never worried about weather sealing inside a club, the odd splash has never been a problem. But it is one of the few cases where I would recommend using a UV filter just to give some protection to the front element.

As for what focal length to use, I find it totally depends on the venue. Don't know if you have seen this, but it may be helpful to you.
http://davidwalkerphotographyblog.wordpress.com/2012/01/04/a-guide-to-nightclub-photography/
Click to expand...

Wicked, I'll have to grab myself a TTL flash as my current cheapo one doesn't perform quite so well.

Got a UV sitting here for it now!

I used to use 8mm all the way and tbh it worked great as they were close up photos in packed venues, but with the full frame it wouldn't work great and I'd almost always have to crop out vignetting from the lens hood.

I'll give it a read now,

Cheers mate!
 
Just had a read, didn't realise you were the guy at talk! Very good guide, pretty helpful switching to a lens with autofocus in terms of the focal lengths etc

I've usually only had to worry about setting up, then dealing with individual images when needed with the manual lens and non-TTL flash.

Lots more to learn and experiment with!
 
I'm not doing any club stuff these days.
Left Talk, did a stint at Bar29, now focusing on other things.

How to take photos in a club is the easy bit, finding one that's willing to pay properly is the hard bit!
 
Ah right ok, I've not had any work since may time, everything has gone stale.

Too true, nightspot tried to use me once for £20 a night.. No thanks! :bonkers:
 
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