You could always get the new panny 35-100 f2.8 to replace the canon 70-200 f2.8. A LOT lighter!

__________________
www.rwcphotography.zenfolio.com
Reformed Canon user.
E-M5 | 12-50 | GF-3 | 45-200 | 14 | 14-42 | FL-300R

Love your shots, very inspiring. I was asked to photograph my sis-in-law wedding. It would be my first wedding. I'm not a professional but I take decent photos. I have E-M5. Any tips on how you manage swapping lenses during the wedding? Or you have 2 E-M5? I'll probably be using 20mm f/1.7, 45mm f/1.8 and zoom kit lens 14-150mm and 9-18mm wide lens. I bought E-M1 as a backup. Thanks.

yeah kinda holding out to see what Oly announces with the maybe rumors of a constant aperture zoom reaching into the 300 range
and Panasonic has that 300 2.8 coming soon ? or somewhat soon

also a bit disappointed in what I have seen so far quality wise in charts and a few shots ? its nice but not sure if its that nice and since the 75 1.8 is really nice !!!! like nicer in some ways than my 70-200 on sharpness down into the corners I am finding I can live with a bit less reach

for sure I will get on in my hands to try out though so I can make up my own mind on quality cause often I can live with some rougher edges and such
but I dont want to live with less detail in the center on the long end of a zoom like that and so far it might seem to fall short for me ?

thanks :)

just one OMD at this point since I have a few FF bodies dont need the second one yet but going to go that route soon since I can wait a bit on a second OMD
we had 5 cameras covering that wedding though :) if I shoot alone which I do a lot I always have 3 cameras with me and two of them on my almost all the time except getting ready when often the other one is in hands reach and at reception when things are just dancing etc..

no tips on swapping really camera on strap so I am not holding it in my hands and have the next lens ready to go with the back protector off ! and swap the lens with one hand and quickly put it on with the other hand

I do not like to throw my lens in without the back cover since I do not want dust in their getting into my sensor area :) front cap I dont worry about to much

for the ceremony I work out of a waist pack system from Kinesis going to switch to think tank had the kinesis about ten years now ?

I dont swap lens that often and not during any key things since I tend to have my other cameras ready to go with what I need and swap my gear to whats needed and think of the wedding as a bunch of small shoots
so
getting ready
first meeting if they do that ?
ceremony
post ceremony (often when I do groups)
group shots
bridal party
then go off with bride and groom
detail shots (cake and reception room etc..)
grand entrance and first dances etc..
party time !

so I might switch before each one of those to kinda setup what I need I think that makes sense :)

so one camera is always wide and the other is either a longer reach for what I need

so getting ready 16-35 is my fav can get a lot in and use one lens that I can get details so maybe a 50 since rooms are small

groups I tend to shoot with two cameras cover my rear !!! in your case the 20 and the kit on the omd

example of what you have
getting ready I might want that wide on my OMD and the 20 1.7 on the em1
thats me though :) my fear of that purple mark showing up freaks me out hahahahh but sure its over done and I would do it that way

but for say the ceremony if its outdoors indoors I might put a prime on and try to get a bit closer ? I would have my kit lens for the reach on the OMD and the 7-14 on the em1 since that wide wont be as critical of detail as the closer in shots you want to get

I also tend to change batteries before ceremony just to make sure I wont have one run out ! same with my cards
on my OMD the second battery and grip is a nice safety net and I am using a 32 gig card so dont need to swap it
but something to think about :)

biggest thing though is lighting !!
IMHO you need a flash big enough to bounce and not run out on you ? enough batteries to make sure you are not waiting for a recycle :)
I use 580s on my canon and on the OMD as you can read see I knew the fl600 was to weak but tried anyway and my thoughts were correct

the metz 50 though has enough power to bounce and since it can rotate both ways I can control my bounce the way I want IMHO so is a must have


hope that helps :) best of luck and sure you have researched things a bit but I can say having a good flash and bouncing light is a huge thing
not sure when it is ? but practice that :)

Thank you. Great tips. Im always worried that i'll get stuck with the wrong lens. but one prime and one wide is a great tip. Mostly the wedding is indoor.

I have 2 Fl36r. Its the same as fl600 but slower recycle time. But i can shoot lower ISO if i have to since OMD is pretty good at 1600 or even 3200. The photos will end up on a 8x10 photobook so i guess a little noise wont matter much?

For group at the ceremony. im thinking of using prime at f3.5. Is that correct? So no one will get blurry. Then ill use my 2 fl36 remotely on umbrella set up on each side. I can shoot lower iso since i can wait 10 seconds recycle time till the next shoot. Maybe 400 iso.

Then on the reception, ill bounce 2 fl36r. My challenge is to carry the flash on stand with me. Maybe ill ask my Nephew to assist me. I'll shoot iso 800 if i have to.

The wedding is next month. So hopefully ill be ready by that time. Thanks so much...

3.5 to 5.6 should be plenty safe depending how far you are and how deep they are :)
since the background wont be as out of focus as full frame just remember make it a nice background :)
a tip for groups get a chair or something you can stand next to for reference and allow you to stand on if you need it ! to get a better angle down if you get a large group and have more than 3 deep its a nice look IMHO at least :) I now use the tilt screen a lot on the OMD over my FF and I love that !!!!! and just put at arms length
but if you have a chair or something as reference and keep the bride and groom in the same spot and yourself for all the groups you will get a more consistent look and when it goes to album the images will look much more consistent :)

dont know how you are going to trigger the fl36 for reception but even at arms length gives better look or even if your nephew helps he might be able to just hold it and point it :) bouncing is better if the roof is low enough or walls are close enough you might be able to do some bouncing with on camera

for reception I push the OMD up to 4000 try to stay at 2000 but thats me :) also remember good light good exposures have less noise than underexposed and brought up in post
also I am a raw only kinda shooter :)

the auto iso works quite good these days IMHO :)

I would say remember not to over think it and get to hung up setting shots up as much as try to get what happens as it happens try to remember your back grounds as much as you can :)
cause again I think great shots with peoples faces expressions are way nicer than no expression no faces and great shallow DOF :)
my goal is to get peoples faces having fun at the reception

HI happyfish, tomorrow is the wedding and damn, it's at night! so anyways, it would be even more challenging! I can use flash at the church. I went to the rehearsal to try settings. I have to use a CTO gell because the light at the church are incandescent. the OMD did a pretty good job with just a bit of fill flash.. and even without a flash. at 3200 iso.. it's pretty good. On the other had, the E-PM1 is terrible. at 1600, it looks bad. So i decided to use the OMD and switch lenses. The E-PM1 will be on the tri-pod to take slow shutter wide angle shots.

just remember to have fun doing it and at least I think faces of people having fun are whats nice to see :) so try to position youself and think about background :)

best of luck :)

Finally, the result came out decent. I'll list some issues I had with the camera. Maybe post some when I have time to process. Remember, the wedding was at night so I'm not sure if I'll have same issues with DSLR camera.

The EM5 electronic viewfinder or OLED screen lags every shot for few seconds made me miss some shots especially at wide open and subject moving towards me. It's just not fast enough. On My 60D, the viewfinder instantly clear for the next shot and I could instantly re-focus and take the next shots almost like taking multiple shots. (I've read if I turn off the preview, it helps. But I didn't turn it off to make sure my shots are ok) It's not like film. So there's a trade off.

With DSLR, the preview (if you use it) shows up on the screen. So you can keep shooting and ignore it. The EM5, the preview shows up on the viewfinder.

At night, the viewfinder gets a bit noisy and refresh rate sucks. It bothered my eyes that I used the OLED screen instead. If you are a PRO, people will think you are using a point and shoot camera!!

Another thing is that the grip is a must especially I have a flash attached with diffuser. I don't have the grip and towards the end, my hand starts to cramp.

Few times, I accidentally turned the dials probably from bumping. So lets say if you carry multiple cameras, this could easily happen when it's dangling on the strap. The dials are so sensitive and it protrudes.

Another issue I encounter when shooting at a dimly lit room that I need to use the AF assist lamp. It's kinda annoying and if you are taking candid shot, people starts to notice and get aware and their expression changes from candid to being aware and to staring at the camera. I think with DSLR, as long as you have a bright lens, you don't need it. I remember I didn't need any AF assist with my 30mm f/1.4

So i'm not sure if this is a good wedding camera for pro? It could be that I don't know how to utilize the EM5? Or it's just maybe the wedding was at night and DLSR is much better at this situation? But for other use, I love this camera.

The good thing is that at ISO 3200, it looks pretty clean.

I haven't used many of the Olympus bodies yet, but on the Lumix bodies, you can select "Preview on Screen" or something like that. I haven't tried it on a body with an eye-detector, but I wonder if it would still switch or if it would not preview if you kept the viewfinder at your eye.

Barring that, the method that I would use would be to turn off the preview (I do this now, anyway), and then practice hitting the review button on and off with you thumb as you move the camera from and to your eye. That way, if you don't want to preview the shot, then you can just keep shooting, but if you do, you can simply tap the button as you take it away from your eye. Once you are done looking at it, tap it again as you put it back up to your eye. Practiced enough, this should become seamless.

__________________
Olympus E-M5, 45mm f/1.8
Lumix 14mm f/2.5, 20mm f/1.7, 45mm f/2.8 (Leica), 14-42mm X, 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6, 45-175mm X
Minolta MD 50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/2, 135mm f/2.8