No announcement yet.

Low Light Photography Lesson (Yes another one of these)

  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Low Light Photography Lesson (Yes another one of these)

    Yeah- another low light cameras thread... but this one is different!

    For those with no time to read: Sony A7S DSLR+ any lens that is f2.8 or lower and is fixed or will reach down to 24mm. There, that was easy! Now read on to get it CHEAP!

    So... this is for those of you that wear ALL the hats at your haunt- I learned a lesson that I will share to save you time and money (maybe) and help get better pics- 'cause the lord knows we all need better pics to sell the show!

    After WEEKS of searching "best low light camera" I ended up learning from the internet- that the camera body means very little and "fast glass" aka CRAZY EXPENSIVE lenses is what really mattered.

    So... I bought ANOTHER camera body and a 50mm, 1.8f lens annnnd... found out that a fixed 50mm lens is "to long" for a typical room in a haunt... FAK! You can't get shit in the pic! They don't call them portrait lenses for nothing- in that size room all you are going to get is actor waist to top of head.

    So... I bought ANOTHER fixed (because fixed lenses are cheaper) 24mm 2.8f lens annnnd... got ok results after MUCH playing around with settings and photoshopping the shit out of the images. I felt non-plused, but made it work for a year or two.

    (BTW I had already bought other "low light" cameras and video cams.... they were all bullshit. If I took ALL the money I spent individually and put that into one camera it might have turned out different...)

    So... after years of messing around buying this camera or that lens, or have photography students come and embarrass themselves after waaay overselling thier skill (lol), or even hiring (ticket trade in my case) someone with top notch equipment and skill (which did work amazingly well, but was only 2 hours of his time) it occurred to me... why am I not renting high end equipment and getting TONS of images?!

    Yes, renting camera equipment is a thing and its REALLY affordable in comparison to buying. REALLY.

    Yes, you will need to already have a grasp on how DSLRs work and how to change the settings. That is the only downside to this approach.

    So... I had a decent camera body already... so I rented a $2500 lens for next to nothing annnnd... I got better images, and it was a little easier, but it just didn't make me excited. It couldn't reach all the way down into those shadowy corners...

    Then one day, because google is peeping you 24/7, it threw a video at me for the Sony A7S camera body... Amazing low light action they said... annnnd... they were right! annnnd... I was originally deceived about the camera body not really mattering. Maybe it doesn't for normal lighting, but it sure does for extreme low light!

    Like I said you have to learn camera basics and play with the camera for 15 minutes, but HO-LEE-CHIT MANG! This thing turns night into day! It's ISO goes up to 400000 FFS! That is F'n INSANE! But even at 12000 (which is still insane) it gets the shot that is SOOOO within expectations for a haunt I laughed like a giddy school girl... But the real reason it works is the CCD- its just waaaay better.

    On top of that- I can rent this setup for 10 seasons for less than buying it!

    Your welcome.


  • #2
    I'm basically on a similar path to yours. I had not reached the conclusion of renting. So thank you sir!


    • #3
      I bought a super high end camera and a fish lens and it shoots perfect in low light but i hardly ever use it. I just use my IPHONE and I'll bring along an LED light with controls for dimming. These new iphone camera's are pretty good.
      Larry Kirchner