DSLRs at concerts

[Newbie66]

I know this is a taboo topic for some, but I'm just curious, has anyone ever success bringing in a DSLR camera into an arena concert? I know they're prohibited, and I've heard many talk about methods upon sneaking them in, including many discouraging the act, but has anyone here ever pulled it off, without getting noticed by security?

 

[Village Idiot]

You can try and sneak one in, but you're going to need a longer lens to be able to see anything with it and it's going to be obvious that you're shooting with it. I don't recommend trying it.

 

[skieur]

If you are keen on concerts pick up a pocket camera with a fast lens and a long telephoto. The Sony HX5V and the latest Fuji EXR are 2 examples of cameras that are capable of doing the job. There are others as well.

skieur

 

[cfusionpm]

The few times I have taken one in, I remove the grip and walk right in with a small 50mm lens on it. I'll give a small telephoto to a friend to keep in their purse. Haven't had a problem using the small black 70-300, but I keep the big white L at home. Smaller concerts and events don't seem to care one way or another.

 

[Josh66]

Smaller concerts and events don't seem to care one way or another.

Hmm... I've had the opposite experience.

Larger venues, security is usually pretty lazy. Every small venue I've gone to a show at, I was patted down before entering.

I think they were mostly looking for guns & knives, but an SLR would have been impossible to hide.

 

[AprilEye]

I had a tiny point and shoot Fuji (a little bigger than my Blackberry) at Rush, the Eagles and Kings of Leon. It has a 12x optical zoom. Not very good quality but better than nothing and I would never have tried to take in the Canon.

 

[mbbye]

Just act confident. I recently went to a Lakers game at Staples Center and according to their rules you can't being a camera with a removable lens, a camera with a super zoom or a camera with a lens bigger than 3 inches. I walked in with my Canon XTi and 18-200mm zoom (breaking all 3 of those rules) and just acted like I had done this a million times before and no one said anything.