Hi Guys: I got asked last week to take the pictures at a local community organization's annual award ceremony: the event was last night. Bearing in mind all the good advice read recently about checking one's gear and having backups, I set myself down yesterday and put together the following kit to cover the event:
Bodies - MZ-S and ZX-5 Lens - FA28-105, M28/2.8, M200/4, Samsung 35-135, Sigma 18-35 Flash - AF330FTZ, AF160 Tripod, spare batteries(12 x AA, 2 x CR2), cable release, 8 rolls Supra 400/36. I knew the event would take place from 4:30 in the afternoon, about 20 awards would be presented, and a Senator would be making the presentations, together with an MC from the organization. The event coverage would have to include the arrival of various luminaries, the presentations, and then a 'Fire ceremony' afterwards. This ceremony acknowledges the traditional owners of our area, who would also be receiving some of the awards. I have to report that not one piece of my gear let me down at all! I used the MZ-S and the Sigma to cover arrivals, as the entrance was a very confined space and I would need to rely on AF as people moved through it. The presentations were made in a long narrow room, and in order not to get in the way I would have to shoot from the side, about 4-5 metres from the participants. I found to get good half-length shots I needed the longer zoom, so I used the Samsung almost exclusively, swapping it from body to body (along with the AF33FTZ) as I ran out of film. I had the films (four altogether) developed and 6x4's made at a Fuji Frontier lab this morning. There were only two technically unacceptable frames, out of 144! One was obviously shot before the flash had fully recharged, so was under-exposed - this is where the 2.5 fps rate of the MZ-S shows it's practicality, as it had actually beaten the flash to the punch: a faster frame rate still would probably have given more failures. The other problem frame was one where flare from the low, and _very_, bright sun had dazzled the Sigma. I had the flash set to second-curtain sync, and there was no noticeable after-image, as suggested in recent discussions. The MZ-S is still on it's first set of batteries, although I have not yet put all that many films through it in the two months I have had it. I was well pleased with the results, except for the two noted all of the shots were sharp and well-lit. It was nice too that the senator, obviously a media pro, made life easier for me by turning towards the camera at each presentation, holding onto the framed certificate so that the awardee had to turn too, and I could get good front-on shots of the two of them both holding the award! I used the Sigma to get a crowd shot, and it easily covered the room with about 100+ people in it, anbd not terribly bad distortion of those at the edges. All in all, a very satisfying job, and a couple of people noticed the MZ-S, so I've done my bit to pump Pentax too! John Coyle (feeling pretty good about having been enabled so much this year) Brisbane, Australia - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
