Photographing for Choir Royalty

[carvinrocks2]

I'm photographing for our HS choir royalty, and it's not a payed gig or anything but I'd like the pics to turn out good. My question is would a Canon 300d with a 50mm $99 prime lens work better than a Canon PS 120 IS?

I can cram to try and buy the 50mm prime, but I'd rather not have to suffer to buy it. The venue will be a dimly lit PAC with a spotlight focusing on the royalty as they make their way to the stage. Would a PS cover this well enough?


My current lens for my 300D is a Sigma 17-50 mm 1:3.5-5.6 DC and it is horrible in low light.

 

[Blake.Oney]

The 50mm prime would be better for low light, but I don't know about the DOF for a big group.

 

[tirediron]

While it's hard to say, my guess is that the camera matters very little; what you REALLY need here is more light. Could you beg/borrow/steal a speedlight to use on your DSLR? My preference would be to go with the DSLR simply because I think that that larger sensor will return better lights. Blake brings up a good point; look at some DoF tables and determine whether you'd gain anything by having the 1.8. You might wind up having to use it at f4 just to get everyone in focus.

 

[carvinrocks2]

For most of the picture taking I'll be following two people down the isles onto the stage! I have a external flash, but I have to use it in manual, so I don't want to use it without trying it in the same conditions first...