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Event photography with the DP2M

biglouis

Well-known member
Am I nuts? What kind of flash would I need to be able to do an engagement party with the DP2M, or do you think it is a total non-starter? The alternative is to add a strobe to my GH-2 but to be honest, I find one piece of kit inspiring and the other faintly irritating.

Advice?

LouisB
 

usathyan

New member
Its actually quite easy to use - the hotshot syncs up to 1/2000th sec i think...I have used it with cybersyncs (alienbees) and with Elinchrom remote units (for use with quadra) - and with pocketwizard systems....works with all of them.

I have not mounted a big flash directly on the hot shoe though...for 2 reasons: I am not really sure what the sync voltage will do to the flash or flash to the camera, and a big flash on the tiny camera will make it unstable to hold and may break the hotshoe contact from weight ....

Most good flashes have sensors to fire when it sees a flash...so, you may use a small flash to trigger it...and create a strobist kind of light kit.

my 2 cents
 

vieri

Well-known member
Louis,

I think you can use pretty much any flash with the DP2. The problem is in the camera's speed, I don't know what kind of shooter you are during an event, however focus speed and - especially - file write speed would dissuade me from trying and using it at an event where things can be hectic and shooting speed might be necessary.

Let us know your final decision and how it did turn out! :D
 

biglouis

Well-known member
Thanks for the replies.

Darn, Vieri, I had not thought about the write speeds. I never worry about it when doing landscape work. What's a few seconds? But you are right - doing event type stuff it would probably be a pill.

I'll probably go to my fallback plan. My GH-2 and an external strobe. Thanks for reminding me!

LouisB
 

vieri

Well-known member
Thanks for the replies.

Darn, Vieri, I had not thought about the write speeds. I never worry about it when doing landscape work. What's a few seconds? But you are right - doing event type stuff it would probably be a pill.

I'll probably go to my fallback plan. My GH-2 and an external strobe. Thanks for reminding me!

LouisB
Sure thing Louis, I enjoy the DP Merrills a lot, and as you I tend to forget the speed bit because I use them for landscape work - when I use them around town, I just shoot them like a film camera: no screen picking. Their buffer is deep enough for street shooting, provided you won't peak, but I wouldn't risk it at an event. Your fallback plan sounds great in this case :D
 

kgelner

New member
What about medium res?

Thanks for the replies.

Darn, Vieri, I had not thought about the write speeds. I never worry about it when doing landscape work. What's a few seconds? But you are right - doing event type stuff it would probably be a pill.

I'll probably go to my fallback plan. My GH-2 and an external strobe. Thanks for reminding me!

LouisB
Have you considered using the DP-2M in medium resolution mode? The resulting output will have 7.5 million pixels, which means about the same amount of detail as the GH2 images. The write speed should be double and the buffer size also doubled. At medium res also you can probably push the ISO bounds a little more.

Then when finished you can still process the images using the SPP Monochrome conversion...

On a side note the UH1 SD cards make a noticeable difference over the plain old class 10 cards, if you want to get the most write speed possible.
 
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