Say you're engaged to do the team T&I, or, perhaps, senior night to get a pic of the athlete with their parents, do you take backup? (dumb question, right?) Do you own a 2nd body/lens? Is it the same body/lens combo? For example, do you own two 28-70/2.8s? Or, do you just rent?
Dennis... at first I thought you meant a file backup system. The answer to your question is YES. I have backups for everything and in some cases... double backups. For a cheer show, where I might take 30,000 shots, I need to have a double backup. Maybe it's not exactly the same, but formidable enough to get me through a shoot. Here's what it would look like...
I would say it's more important to have a backup body than a backup lens, but a backup lens wouldn't hurt either... especially if the shot is crucial. As for backup bodies... absolutely. And in the case of long weekend shoots... two backup bodies are important as well. Yes, I have seen two blown shutters from one photog in one weekend. It can happen.
Luketrot had two bodies go down at Worlds last year.
T&I is easy, because you can get away with D50/D70/D70s as backups. For action, I only have backups for the larger (to me) jobs and for those I rent another body just for that event. Other than that, I use a two body system. I had a shutter go during a game last year, and that dropped me down to single body for a little bit, but it was basketball season so I survived with 70-200.
Primary 1D Mark IV - 70-200 IS II + 24-70 f/2.8 + 580EX flash
Secondary 1D Mark IV - 70-200 + 24-70 f/2.8 + 580EX flash
Tertiary 1D Mark III - Primes + 580EX flash
My backup/panic story: My very first paid wedding I had two 1D Mark IIn's, both of which had a ton of shutter activations from doing event stuff. The morning of the wedding I'm doing final camera prep...synching clock and settings and one up and dies on me! Now I'm down to 1 body with a very high shutter count. In a panic I call around and find a store with a 1D2 in stock, whip out the plastic and buy one on the spot to take to the wedding.
Since then I always have 3 bodies on hand...
I also had a 70-200 f/2.8 and a 135 f/2 (my 70-200 backup lens at the time) go down on me at one event. So I keep two 70-200's and 24-70's, both workhorses for me, around as well.
