Marco, More gear will not make you a better photographer. Only a more confused one. Your existing set of gear seems more than adequate. I don't mean to put you down, but I honestly don't think you'll get your moneys worth out of your eBay purchases -- unless you got a good deal, which is scarce on eBay these days.
In a dimly lit church, you won't get very far with your 17-85 as it's f/5.6 at the long end. This means your AF system won't focus very accurately (only the center point works at f/5.6 and I think it even works as horizontal sensing only!) You can certainly manual focus, though. You might have better eyes than I do... Also remember that while IS works great on camera shake it does nothing on subject movement. I don't really understand why you chose to upgrade your Speedlite 420 to a 580, but maybe that's just me. They're both great flash units. Personally, I prefer pictures with natural light (or pictures that look like they were shot under natural light -- something that's incredibly challenging with on-camera flash). Like everyone else, I'd suggest that you let your friends hire a pro for the job. Just make sure that it's a reasonable pro who allows others to show up with their cameras as well. You can then shoot the wedding at your own pace (use the 50/1.8 and leave the flash at home). I "shot" my cousin's wedding a while ago in that mode. My grab shots can be found here: <http://students.washington.edu/tomchr/pictures/Wedding/Wedding.htm> or in case your email client screws up long links, here's the tiny url: http://tinyurl.com/op7xw The first shot on the page is with a Zeiss Sonnar 135/2.8 at f/2.8. The remaining shots were with a Zeiss Planar 50/1.7. Camera: Contax Aria (35mm). Film: Fuji Neopan 1600. Thanks, Tom On 3/19/06, Marco Gamba <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello everyone, I'm a newbie of the newsletter so don't kill me at once :D > :D > > A couple of my friends is going to marry next month and they asked my to > take the photos of the wedding. I know this is a big responsibility, but the > told me that there is no problem at all... > > So I have: > > Canon EOS 350D > Canon EOS 650 > SpeedLite 420EX > EFS 18-55 (kit lens) > EF 70-300 IS USM > EF 28-105 II USM > EF 50mm f/1.8 Mark 1 > > I've bought on ebay: > > Speedlite 580EX > BG-E3 Grip for the 350D (In case of battery lack...) > EFS 17-85 IS USM > > I was thinking of a set like this: > > Canon 350D + Battery Grip + EFS 17-85 + Speedlite 580EX > > Canon 650 + EF 50mm + Speedlite 420EX > > I still don't know if I could go really close to the altar, but I think that > at 85 the 17-85 EFS will do the job... * **** ******* *********************************************************** * For list instructions, including unsubscribe, see: * http://www.a1.nl/phomepag/markerink/eos_list.htm ***********************************************************
