Newbie here... :) Can anyone recommend a good travel sized lighting solution?

DocFrankenstein · May 6, 2005

What kind of quality are you looking for?
What kind of documentary photography is it? Will it be sold?
What budget? What weight/size?

ModelPerfect · May 7, 2005

DocFrankenstein said:
What kind of quality are you looking for?
What kind of documentary photography is it? Will it be sold?
What budget? What weight/size?

As good as I can get.

I'll probably be shooting at full resolution (2272x1704) or maybe 1600x1200 to save storage space. The photos will be used primarily online, so higher resolutions than that aren't necessary. Some will go to magazines, but they don't need higher resolution either for their purposes (they've bought much lower resolution than that before).

The photos are serving 2 purposes. (1) it's a personal documentation of a philosophical/martial quest I am initiating in exploration of the world. (2) It's a production of figure photography which will be sold to online publishers and magazines. The negotiations of which have already been initiated, so it looks promising that the photos will indeed be sold.

My initial budget is extremely limited; I'm looking at spending no more than $500-600 to get my gear in order, including camera, lighting, storage, etc. Since I already have a 4 megapixel camera with cards and batteries (although I'll probably need another battery), it seems logical to spend the money elsewhere.

The biggest limitation will be the size/weight. I'll be traveling around in sketchy environments, sometimes with my pack, sometimes without. I'd like to fit my camera in my pocket to reduce exposing it to potential theives and keep me from carrying anything in my hands. Plus, I don't want to be weighted down if I have to move quickly. In the areas we're going, I'm sure we'll end up having to scrap a little...

DocFrankenstein · May 7, 2005

Your best bet is a film camera then.

Seriously

Especially if you want to publish it in a magazine...

ModelPerfect · May 7, 2005

DocFrankenstein said:
Your best bet is a film camera then. Seriously

Especially if you want to publish it in a magazine...

As much as I appreciate your help, I really don't see how I could justify a film camera. Even if I ignored the other variables I mentioned earlier, the processing alone (not even including initial film costs) for 15,000 photos would be almost $3000. For that amount, I could get a pretty kicking dSLR camera, lighting, 4 bodyguards and a personal valet to carry all my stuff in Central America. lol.

I don't know the logistics of it, but my magazine buyers have bought at resolutions I personally would never use off the Internet. But, it's their money, so they can do what they want with it.

DocFrankenstein · May 7, 2005

LOL With 15000 frames you can make a 10 minute video

You don't need 15000 pictures to document your journey, however deep and spiritual it may be.

I'd say you need max of a thousand shots and some knowledge of portraiture and composition. Or a video camera... haha

That'd make the camera 100 bucks and the film around 300

ModelPerfect · May 8, 2005

DocFrankenstein said:
LOL With 15000 frames you can make a 10 minute video

You don't need 15000 pictures to document your journey, however deep and spiritual it may be.

I'd say you need max of a thousand shots and some knowledge of portraiture and composition. Or a video camera... haha

That'd make the camera 100 bucks and the film around 300

Well, there's two purposes of the photos. One is to document my trip. The other is to produce photos to sell, which I already have some buyers lined up. The latter will take up the vast majority of those 15,000 pics. The for-sale pictures are what's funding the "quest".

I'm confident I can sell the pics, so the more the merrier. There'd be no profit margin on 1000 pics during a 3 month journey...

lazarus219 · May 8, 2005

S7000 would be a good digital option, i nwo you dont want to change but to get the lighting you need this camera would be perfect and is relatively cheap otherwise film woulds be the best option, 15000 photos is a lot, you sure youd shoot that many?

Andrea K · May 8, 2005

i would prob choose film if i were you...15000 pictures is a lot, do you really know how many that is...its a lot

for $500 you can buy a great digital camera, but if you want to stick with the one you have i would suggest just not shooting in low light conditions

good luck with the trip!

ModelPerfect · May 8, 2005

lazarus219 said:
S7000 would be a good digital option, i nwo you dont want to change but to get the lighting you need this camera would be perfect and is relatively cheap otherwise film woulds be the best option, 15000 photos is a lot, you sure youd shoot that many?

Thanks for the suggestion. I think 15,000 photos is a very realistic number. Knowing how trigger happy I am, I'll shoot about 40 per day walking around. Plus, I figure on the low side, I'll shoot an average of 2 models per week with around 500 pics per model minimum (just going by past experience). In 70 days, that'll come out to 2,800 walking around shots and 10,000 model shots. Also, there will be two of us, doing essentially the same thing, so our total number of shots may be massive. I can't imagine doing all that with film, especially when the only experience I have is digital.

My friend still hasn't bought his camera, so there is some flexibility there, although he's really broke (just graduating). I've considered letting him borrow mine and then biting the bullet and getting either a digital rebel or d20. My biggest concern there is the size, expense and of course target potential of thieves... However, the s7000 looks really good: cheap and the 4AA battery option and movie mode is a plus. How does it compare to the rebel or d20? Thanks.

ModelPerfect · May 8, 2005

andreag5 said:
i would prob choose film if i were you...15000 pictures is a lot, do you really know how many that is...its a lot

for $500 you can buy a great digital camera, but if you want to stick with the one you have i would suggest just not shooting in low light conditions

good luck with the trip!

Like I said above, I'm kind of gaining flexibility on getting a new camera. What would you recommend? lazarus suggested the s7000, which runs on 4AA (a huge plus if they last a fair amount of time) and a 30 fps movie mode, which is also a big plus. I'm afraid I can't guarantee avoidance of low light conditions. Most of the areas have frequent power outages, some shoots will be at night, and I somehow doubt the areas I'll be staying will have ample lighting to begin with indoors. Plus, it's the rainy season, so outdoors shots will not always be an option. I definitely want to stay digital, but I'm not married to the Sony...

Andrea K · May 8, 2005

i would recommend a canon g5, has a lot of nice features and i believe you can get one for 500 might be less because the g6 is out

here's a link to dpreview for the g6 which you can get for about 500, good luck
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_g6.asp

Andrea K · May 8, 2005

you could probably pick up a g5 for like 400 on ebay, then get memory and a flash and still be withing your budget

Big Mike · May 9, 2005

I guess you know the needs of who you are selling the photos to...but something seems odd that they would buy 500 shots of the same model. Or that you should need to take 500 shots to get an adequate number of usable shots. Maybe you should concentrate on quality over quantity.

Have you considered how many batteries you will be going through with that many shots? With a digital camera using flash plus another flash...you would need an arm full of rechargeables and a day off to recharge.

ModelPerfect · May 9, 2005

Big Mike said:
I guess you know the needs of who you are selling the photos to...but something seems odd that they would buy 500 shots of the same model. Or that you should need to take 500 shots to get an adequate number of usable shots. Maybe you should concentrate on quality over quantity.

Have you considered how many batteries you will be going through with that many shots? With a digital camera using flash plus another flash...you would need an arm full of rechargeables and a day off to recharge.

I have thought of the battery issue. If I stay near an AC source, I should be fine, since I can run the camera directly from the wall or have batteries recharging while I'm shooting, but if I venture away from such, it would sure be nice to have a camera that runs on 4AA (dpreview rates usage to about 4.5 hours per set cycling between flash/no flash with lcd on...that's pretty good). With the camera I currently have, I can shoot constantly for about 1 hour per battery...that's probably not going to cut it unless I have tons of batteries, as you mentioned.

The market I'm shooting for is very different than traditional photography. At least with my clients, emphasis seems to be on quantity than quality as long as quality is decent. Minimum shoots are 300 pics/model and if you find a top quality model, you'll want to shoot thousands...