Originally posted by sarge Hello everyone,
Due to some significant back and neck issues I am thinking about selling my Sigma 17-50 2.8 and going with a Limited 20-40.
I have shot several weddings this year and used the Sigma as my main lens on my K-3II with the grip and flash on the camera.
This configuration shooting for 8+ hours has left me useless for days after. I have tried sling straps and cannot stand them.
I am thinking seriously of doing away with the grip and using a 20-40. I will loose a stop on the long end but have not found the Sigma to give much separation wide open anyway. My DA 70 Limited does a much better job.
What do you all think?
I am not a wedding expert by far. Only shooted 2 with primes and it worked well even if of course it limited a bit reactivity. But I did them with DA21, DA35 f/2.8 ltd and FA77 just fine. For flash I used my Metz 44 AF1 in one hand wit a diffuser and the camera in the other hand.
My understanding is that the gear is heavy but the problem is also of course because you do that for hours.
To me there several things to investigate:
- Tamron 17-50 is smaller/lighter. It seems to be very good but has some field curvature.
- There very small prime available that do a nice job in low light/subject isolation and that are small/light. Like FA35 f/2, FA77, DA70...
- There small flashs too. The metz M400 go with 40 number guide, all advanced features you could want including HSS, is very small/light and weight 220g without batteries. My own 44AF1 is almost 100g heavier and also overall bigger.
To me, you could depending of the moment carry the tamron 17-50 or DA21/FA35/DA70. That cut the lens actual weight by more than a factor of 2. with proper carrying equipment the lenses are not currently using should not put any weight on the neck/back.
Added to that, you could check for a very small flash unit that does all the things you need and again take care to not carry it all the time.
Finally you can likely reduce your setup a bit futher with mirrorless.
Fuji 18-55 f/2.8-4 is f/3.2 at 24mm and f/3.6 at 35mm. Not perfect but not bad. More light gathering than DA20-40, not that much bigger 310g so you are saving more than 200g vs the sigma 17-50. And going 55mm f/4 mean more subject separation and reach than 40mm f/4.
The Fuji bodies are much lighter than than the K3. With batteries included Fuji XPro 2 or XT2 are 500g or less with batteries included. That 300g saved. You can combine that with 3 primes of their system and combined with the new metz flash, I think you can overall reduce the overall weight by a factor of 2. You can also get fast small WA if that important to you.