Upgrade advice

Flukester

Flukester

Flukester

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Christchurch UK
Hi all

Posting this on behalf of the missus and so i can help her get what she needs.

She has recently setup a photography business and is doing great with baby, family, christening and weddings. She has a great eye for a photo and is a real people person which clients love

We are currently fully m4/3

Olympus OM-D EM1 II with 12-40 F2.8 Pro (FF 24-80 F5.6 equiv)
Olympus OM-D EM5 II with 45mm F1.8 Prime (backup and low light setup) (FF 90mm F3.6 equiv)

Those these two work great we have hit the issue when light gets low in some wedding / christening venues. ISO creeps up, shutter speeds get too slow

I'm desperate to fix the low light issue, so ordered a Metz 52 AF1 Flash, but she hates flash as it instantly makes photos unnatural. Remains to be seen if this is a cheap fix....


So here is the upgrade dilemma, is this a case for FF is needed ?. Fast primes are great on m4/3 but a pain when at a venue, and never can match FF light gathering ability. She loves having a classic 'wedding zoom' lens

Option 1:

Sony A7R III + Sony 24-70 F2.8 GM (crazy money)

Option 2:

Sony A7R III + Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and get a Sony 85MM F1.8 with the change as a classic portrait lens.

Option 3:

Sony A7R III + Sony 24-105 G F4 (unsure if we are losing too much light gathering ability but love the length and built in opt stabilization


Was also looking at a cheap Godox TT685S Flash


Any thoughts would be appreciated. Not after a Bokeh monster, as too shallow a depth of field is a nightmare in lifestyle type photography out of the studio (clients like to be all in focus lol)
 
Raymond Lin said:
Option 3 with a 2.8 zoom and not 4.0.

Get the Tamron 28-75/2.8 and perhaps a 16-35/4.0 for the wide shots.

I wouldn’t think you need the 42mp for this kind of work. You might find yourself needing a new computer to process them.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, so maybe a A7 III ?, we are processing on LR Intel I7 / SSD / 16GB PC... thought the extra res might be a good upgrade from current 20MP Olympus for cropping options. I guess if you are cropping that heavy you got the shot framed wrong :)
 
Flukester said:
Thanks mate, so maybe a A7 III ?, we are processing on LR Intel I7 / SSD / 16GB PC... thought the extra res might be a good upgrade from current 20MP Olympus for cropping options. I guess if you are cropping that heavy you got the shot framed wrong :)
Click to expand...

I’m never a crop person in post and 42mp is a large file, uncompressed is like 80mb each.

I mean you can use it like that but I would rather use the super 35 mode and crop in camera when you shoot, this turning a 50mm to a 75mm.

But for the money, A73 is a better buy, the savings literally can get you the Tamron.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the advice... must admit things went slightly away from advice except body recommendation

Got the A7 III on the way with the 24-70 GM, EM1 II with 12-40 is going to be backup camera (and mine for personal use)

EM 5 II and 45mm / 9-18mm lenses being sold

Got the Godox flash also just in case of major lighting issues...

Pretty excited :)
 
Bit late now, but I hated my flash until I got a decent diffuser (Sto fen Omni Bounce, though I'm sure there are better) and learned to only use it bounced off walls etc and not directly pointing at the subject.

That said the a7 3 has amazing low light performance and is a hell of an upgrade!

Dave
 
For a flash you also need to know how to use it. Don;t set the ISO and aperture such that the flash needs maximium power. You want to keep a fairly wide aperture (but nothing too narrow DoF), increase the ISO so the background is appropriately lit up and use the flash so the subject comes out crisp. This will result in much more natural looking photos. Going FF from m32 will gain you 2 stops, but when it gets dark that still wont be enough sometimes, and f/2.8 might be too narrow as well, especially when photographing small grouops you will stop down to f/5.6 and completely negate the inherent advantage of a larger sensor because you need to maintain the same DoF.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I’m never a crop person in post and 42mp is a large file, uncompressed is like 80mb each.

I mean you can use it like that but I would rather use the super 35 mode and crop in camera when you shoot, this turning a 50mm to a 75mm.

But for the money, A73 is a better buy, the savings literally can get you the Tamron.
Click to expand...



For shooting events and anything handheld really then compressed 12bit is plenty good enough. You can only notice a difference with 14bit uncompressed when pushing the processing to the extreme limits in photoshop, and it only affects the deepest shadows when you increase exposure by 4 to 5 stops. And if you are not on a good tripod with a remote shutter at base ISO the difference in detail is simply not visible. If your ISO ever goes above 50-100 then 12bit compressed makes no difference.
 
D.P. said:
For a flash you also need to know how to use it. Don;t set the ISO and aperture such that the flash needs maximium power. You want to keep a fairly wide aperture (but nothing too narrow DoF), increase the ISO so the background is appropriately lit up and use the flash so the subject comes out crisp. This will result in much more natural looking photos. Going FF from m32 will gain you 2 stops, but when it gets dark that still wont be enough sometimes, and f/2.8 might be too narrow as well, especially when photographing small grouops you will stop down to f/5.6 and completely negate the inherent advantage of a larger sensor because you need to maintain the same DoF.
Click to expand...

Thanks D.P. will bare that in mind for sure. The Godox flash has landed and it's huge, the poor A73 is gonna be swamped with flash and GM lens :)

I'm really happy with missus upgrade, I get a shiny new Em1 II and 12-40 pro to play with....
 
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