The night of Friday 12th September saw me back at Firebug in Leicester for a fantastic lineup of Chris Ilett, Rai Waddingham, L’Ku, Kevin Hewick, Sally Hossack and J.J. Lovegrove.
I was sporting my X-T5 accompanied by my 35mm f1.4, 56mm f1.2 and the trusty 90mm f2. They’re all firm favourites for gig photography. I did also have my 27mm f2.8 in the bag but I didn’t use it.
In music venues like this one I do find the wider aperture of prime lenses more than makes up for the flexibility of a zoom – which will more than likely have a smaller maximum aperture. The light gathering capabilities of these primes is amazing.
I also find myself astonished at the noise control of the X-T5, and indeed most more modern cameras. All of the photos I’m sharing here were shot at ISO 1600 and I feel pretty comfortable going up to ISO 3200, even ISO 6400 at a pinch when needed (but maybe only for black and white). My first DSLR, a Canon 20D, produced very grainy images at these ISO settings. But hey, I need to remind myself that was 20 years ago. What’s also true is that noise reduction in post processing software has improved dramatically over recent years.
What I really should do is take along a second body as a matter of course so I can have the 90mm on one camera and either the 35, 56 or indeed 27 on another. That way I can have most of the utility of a zoom lens but with much wider apertures just by swapping bodies.
