What can and will happen with equipment at a wedding

[joel_stowe]

Maybe this is a dumb thing to do, but I notice alot of newbee's wondering why

you need backup equipment at a wedding, while with portriats ect.. you may not.

I have had all 3 camera's quit at variouos stages of one wedding.

I have had my nice secure camera on tripod get knocked over, and hit the

concrete, more than once.

I have had my Sunpak 544's begin to fail at the same time. This was my fault in

that I moved from a dry climent(sp) to a moist humid climent. The contacts

needed to be cleaned.

I have even had my trusted Nikon FE2 simulate the fact that I had shot 2 rolls

of important shots not feed the film. This cost me big time.

I am sure that we can get the point across with hard earned lessons so that

they don't have to.

Joel

[raysgallery]

I just videoed a wedding and had the B's father twirl his granddaughter into my GL-1 with a $1000.00 Century fish-eye on it. I had the tripod at about 6ft' and lucky all it did was bend the medal on the lens.

 

My friend said that you need to be more careful, they like to throw chairs around here.

 

Ray

[steve_crist]

Since I've gone 100% digital I've never had a problem. In my film days I had a Mamiya 330 (twin lens reflex) hang up on me for about 10 minutes after changing lenses. I had a backup but it was a Nikon 35mm. Luckily the Mamiya "unjammed" but it was the longest 10 minutes of my life. That was my only camera problem. I may be lucky or it could be the fact that I treat my equipment very gentle and always have it checked out annually by a local camera shop. Over the years I've had flash cords fail intermittently and battery connections act up also even though I'd check them all the night before the shoot. Backup equipment, though rarely needed is required. Anyone not being prepared is foolish.

[errol young]

If it can go wrong, it will. I feel I have enough backup.

I use 2 D70's one sb800. 18-70, 28-80, 70-300, 50 1.8.

My camera's flashes back up the 800.

I would like a wider lens and a second flash. More jobs, more equipment.

 

Errol

[picturesque]

I've had several times where I had to use my back-up camera, lens, flash, etc., etc. You must be lucky (so far) Steve, because over the weekend, I was accosted by a another photographer's assistant who asked whether I had a spare camera the photographer could borrow or buy as her camera (a digital Nikon) stopped working and she was desparate--I guess she had no back-up. The assistant would have bought one from me if I had anything she could have used. I was using a Canon film camera as back-up at the time, and I had another assignment to go to, or I might have helped her out by shooting until they could get a replacement. I had my 20D go out on a shoot, but luckily it was toward the end of the wedding. My 5D went out on a portrait shoot.

[ken c oshkosh, wi]

I go to a wedding with no less than 3 bodies. I have my primary pair of 5D's and leave at least a 20D in the car for emergencies. Lenses I am triple redundant with primes and zooms. Flashes I have at least three 580EX's. As a professional we should be prepared...

[ronald_moravec1]

I know people who have had cameras stolen and been followed to their cars and robbed.

[jenseay]

I dropped my camera about ten minutes before a ceremony on June 9th, and broke the hotshoe attachment on the flash. If not for a backup, I'd have been at a wedding BEFORE THE CEREMONY EVEN STARTED with no source of lighting! Scares the crap out of me!!

[DickArnold]

I always went to weddings with five bodies. Three MF and two Canonsl; three flashes, three battery packs, several lenses and lots of film. I dropped a 70-200 2.8L on a cement sidewalk while trying to manage too many cameras. It bounced but came up shooting. I had my tripod and Bronica knocked over in the mud. I wiped it off and continued shooting formals with maybe a slight soft focus filter of mud. I never had a camera quit but I was lucky. I did most of my weddings out of doors near the ocean in rain, wind, dripping, humid heat that fogged my glasses and the equipment was always in jeopordy. I certainly would not go without full backup with digital especially with the sensitivity of modern electronics which appear to be more susceptable to failure judging from what I have heard. There is also the fact that a great many current wedding photographers do not use weather resistant bodies typified by Canon EOS 1 digital bodies as there are a lot of 20d, 30d and some XTis in use. My XTi does not look like it is built for heavy duty use but I could be wrong. I don't shoot weddings anymore.

[russ_butner___portland__or]

I don't shoot a wedding without three of everything at my disposal.

 

Russ

[cjogo]

Usually batteries --in the flash or camera --I shoot mainly film >>> SO with a Canon EOS S2 under $100 ..I can afford to bring 2. And carry a $40 Metz 36CT3 > for backup of my Quantum Qt5. Glad I no longer have those HASSY & MAMIYA RZ to worry about.

[joel_stowe]

I started this post not to scare any one new to the business. In fact I would tell you that there is more than enough business for all of us. But a Bride is not going to be simpathectic(sp)if your camera breaks down or some other piece of equipement breaks down and you don't have something to back it up, to you or anyone when they have paid you to cover their wedding. Having an attitude of I have camera and can take pictures will not do it. This can be one of the most rewarding businesses that there is, both in the money, and the satisfaction of a job well done.

[cjogo]

I agree JOEL -- especially shooting film--there is no excuse for not spending another $100 or so ...for a backup camera.

[iskandar_azaman___kuala_lu]

Anything can happen at a wedding. I use a 5D but always have a fully charged backup 20D attached with a 10-22 and a 1gb memory card in there. If anything happens that comes out and i can shoot straight away. My assistant uses a 30D so all batteries, cards and lenses are compatible. I only have the 10-22 ef-s but the other lenses are 24-70, 17-40, 70-200IS, 50 and the 100. So there's always a last resort backup.

 

All cameras have grips so that's 6 batteries in total. So they can always be interchanged.

 

With regards to flash, i use the 580ex and my assistant uses the 550ex. I also have an old 420ex somewhere in the back up rolling case. So i can always shoot if something happens.

 

Back up goes into one rolling bag and the shooting stuff goes into a shoulder bag. The assistant will have to carry her own shoulder bag. So 3 separate bags in total. That way the only situation i won't be able to shoot a wedding is if we get carjacked on the way to a wedding. I'm quite sure the probability is very small for a multiple equipment failure i.e. 3 cameras, 3 flashes, multiple lenses.\ etc. That's just pure bad luck.

 

Even if that did happen, I'd probably get my assistant to go to the nearest store and get a 400d, 17-55IS and a 430ex.

[steve george]

I've had a lens fail to autofocus, another decide back-focussing was it's favoured method of operation after being fine when initially used, a sensor seem to condensate when going outside from a hot room in winter (that was a fun one), and a 5D think it was on timer (counting down from 10 seconds) every shutter-press when it wasn't on that setting at all. I've also had the 5D get a complete and thorough soaking on a rainy day, and without a back-up available (not needed thankfully) I would have had no confidence at all I would have been able to finish the job.

 

For back-up I have a 400D in the bag. In the car I have a film EOS (so I can use the same lenses as for the digital) with a Leica M6 (fully manual in case of completely terminal battery failure in every single respect) and a selection of colour and black and white film from 200 iso to 3200.

 

Quite often, just out of them being "there" out of recent usage the car will have a Holga and a TLR with a selection of 120 film in the boot too.

 

I like to think that whatever happens, one way or another, my couple are going to get their shots :-)

[gary van schaick]

I agree with everybody. Three is the magic number for me. I even shoot with two bodies, fuji S5 around my neck and D2X on a flash bracket. Fortunately never had a camera problem, did have a CF card problem. I shoot small cards, 1GB or 2Gb. I use only Lexar which is a big plus. The 2Gb card went bad in the middle of a wedding, about 130 photos. I immediately changed cards and I really didn't miss anything because I had been switching between the cameras.

 

The card was so bad that Neither the MAC nor PC would recognize the card, so no recovery software would work. The card went back to Lexar. The card was replaced for free and a CD arrived in the mail 6 weeks later with all the photos on it, and for free. It pays to use the best equipment such as Lexar media.