Three portable speedlights is a must for me at a wedding. When the first one blows the flash tube early on a wedding day, the rest of the day, on your backup, is not a nice feeling at all and is scarey. That is why I carry three speedlights to a wedding.
henryp wrote:
A decade old story about an almost catastrophic failure (mine) here.
Henry Posner [email protected] B&H Photo-Video
Interesting story. I noticed over the years that batteries are a problem; different per camera body, flashlight, speedlights, winders, radio triggers, light meters, phone, etc. This pisses me off. I like to carry AA batteries for my photo gear. There, I said it but it means nothing to the industry which cares nothing for battery compatibility.
williamkazak wrote:
Interesting story. I noticed over the years that batteries are a problem; different per camera body, flashlight, speedlights, winders, radio triggers, light meters, phone, etc. This pisses me off. I like to carry AA batteries for my photo gear. There, I said it but it means nothing to the industry which cares nothing for battery compatibility.
Back when I shot film I advocated carrying multiple bodies but the same model because I wanted all the controls under my hand no matter which I was holding. Now, with digital, there's good reason to carry different models from the same brand to get different features and performance,
But, when each requires a different battery and a different charger the frustration level rises.
Once went to a wedding reception to find out that my Alienbee Cybersync AC Powered wireless triggers had been eaten up by Alabama humidity the night before. Said ok will try another older set of Cybersync that I didn't use the previous night, but had been in one of my bags exposed to the humidity. That set didn't work either. Thought ok just go to the Canon 580EX in my camera bag, and use optical triggers on strobes. For some reason, the rechargeable batteries were also drained (got 10 shots) from previous nights humidity despite not being used. So then tried backup camera Canon Powershot, which also used rechargeable batteries (got about 4 shots), finally remembered had 16 foot cable to manually trigger light from camera, that worked but lights were completely across room from bride and groom at the reception. Had fortunately brought 70-200 lens with me, so had to shoot across room to dance floor while connected to the strobe light. Except for a few people walking in front of me between bride and groom, got the shots I needed after cropping.
Have not been able to get those Alienbee Cybersync wireless triggers to ever work again, so bought Pocketwizards to replace them. Also have replaced all rechargeable batteries that failed at that event. They may have been about 2 years old.
Total Failures at Event: 2 wireless systems, 2 Sets of rechargeable batteries, 1 camera, 1 flash. Saved by a wire and a 70-200 f2.8 lens.
I used to take 2 cameras but after having one fail at the very beginning of the day I realized that meant I no longer had a backup camera. Now I take 3 cameras. I always take 4 Nikon strobes along with 2 Quantum strobes so I am covered in this department. The concern is if a part fails what will you do to recover. Something that needs to be considered in advance.
DennisC wrote:
...an assignment? If so, what precautions have you taken since? About backup equipment - are your backups exact copies of your primary?
Anyone take the additional precaution of only shooting with bodies that have 2 card slots? That is, ever had a card fail or get corrupted?
Thanks.
Yep. Shutter failed in the middle of basketball. I grabbed 2nd body, swapped lenses and continued shooting.
The bottom line is that if it's an important assignment you need spares. If you normally only use one body then you need a second. If you use two bodies during the shoot you may require a third as a spare. It all depends on what you can do without.
In 2003 I made the transition from film to digital with the purchase of a Canon 10D. It being a new camera, and me being somewhat full of myself, I didn't think to back-up my one digital body with any of my multiple film bodies.
I had an assignment to shoot a concert and only had my 10D with me. I shot the opening act as a warm-up ... to dial in the lighting and angles to the stage.
On comes the headliner, who I was contracted to shoot, and during the first song the shutter dies.
Luckily the band manager was sympathetic and understanding. By my next assignment I had a completely redundant system.
