Lens for use in a Theatre?

Stage lighting is pretty low level - so a fast lens is required - what focal length - depends on where you are taking the shots from - and exactly what you are shooting.
 
A wide aperture and good focus.
 
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They're all fast primes so, yes, I think so.

I have the Siggy 30mm f1.4 HSM in Canon fit and I think that it's a very good lens + you get a hood and a case with it. Those two Sony lenses look like bargains plus you'll benafit from the in body IS. I'd love in body IS but sadly for a Canon user it's just a dream...
 
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We need to know how far away from the stage you will be, of course the 30mm - 50mm - 85mm fast primes will do the job, but not if your in the mid rows or even the gods!

If your further back then you really want a 70-200mm F2.8
 
good luck with that, most theatres are strictly NO photography.
 
Thanks for your input sofar chaps.

Won't need any luck Carl ;)

My sister part owns and runs West End Kids and my Dad has been borrowing my camera to take photo's for them but as I am mainly into motorsport photography, my current lenses are no good for indoor photo's with out my external flash fitted, which isn't ideal.

For the reason above my Dad can get as close to the stage as he want's so decent zoom isn't an issue, a fixed will be fine.

Will a 2.8 be good enough for light levels that low?
 
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You don't need to get the lens in order to determine how fast it needs to be. You can meter the scene or fire a few test shots with any old lens, see how far from ideal your ISO and shutter speed are and then figure out how many stops you want to gain from the lens you choose.

e.g. if at f/5.6 you end up shooting at 1600 ISO and 1/30, but you want to shoot at no more than 800 ISO and no slower than 1/125 then you'll need to gain an extra 3 stops of light from the lens. That means you'll want f/2 or faster.

FWIW here's a shot from an am-dram theatre with my 50D and 85/1.8 lens at 1/125, f/2, 400 ISO, so I think I was quite fortunate with the lighting.

20091009_220450_4704_LR.jpg


With an f/2.8 lens I would have needed 800 ISO, as I was already pushing my luck with the shutter speed. An f/4 lens would have required 1600 ISO and an f/5.6 lens would have needed 3200 ISO. Obviously the tool (lens) you need to get the job done does depend on several variables - light levels, distance, field of view required, ISO performance of your camera, activity levels on stage. A prime may be fast, but pretty retrictive when it comes to composition. You may also find problems with very shallow DOF if you only throw big apertures at the problem.
 
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Quite a big range of settings there, Andrew! :)
 
indeed - but different shows in different theatres all need different settings - there is no one way to do it all. Most stage lighting is quite dim and does need high ISO - fast lenses - but not always. The last production shots I did I was working around 1/30th @ f/4 on 6400ISO - thank goodness for VR!!
 
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