Shooting with two cameras simultaneously

- I'm getting ready to go shoot an event, a theater production, an improv show, so I'm getting my gear together here. I'm going to be taking my Fuji X-T2. I really like this camera for event shooting. I like this camera for everything, but I think it's a great event camera for a number of reasons. It's lightweight, it's got the lens selection that I like, does great in low light, and because it's a mirrorless camera, I can switch it into its electronic shutter mode and that makes it silent, so I don't have to worry about distracting the audience or the performers. And as long as no one is moving too fast, I won't get the rolling shutter problem that you can sometimes have with an electronic shutter.

So what I've got on here right now is an 18-55 lens. That's roughly a 24-70 in 35mm terms. This is the lens I'll use most. I try to arrange ahead of time a seat about a quarter of the way back from the stage. I need to be kind of level with the stage, so this gets me most of what I need, but I want an option for closeups, and so I'm also going to take this 55-200. This is the equivalent of a 70-300, something like that.

This is the rig that I've used for event shooting for quite a while, and it works really well. It gives me the focal length range that I need, but sometimes I get frustrated with changing lenses. Especially as the action is happening or developing quickly, I worry sometimes that I've missed shots because I've been having to change lenses. More than that, I get like, what do I do with the other lens, and then I'm worried about dropping something, I'm making too much noise, I'm trying to do this in the dark. It's a bit of a hassle. So lately I've added another piece of gear to my kit for event shooting, and that's a second body.

The reason for the second body, is I can keep my other lens mounted on this, and I don't have to worry about changing lenses anymore. When I want to shoot telephoto I grab this camera, when I want to shoot normal I grab my other camera. I can work very quickly, I don't miss shots, I'm not making a lot of noise. I don't have to worry about where to set a lens down as I'm changing them. I don't have to keep track of lens caps and body caps and all that other stuff, so this works really well. This is also an X-T2. I make sure that both cameras are configured the same way. They're set to the same white balance.

They're set so all of their custom menus are the same, and I can just grab either one and go. This is a great way to cover an event. However, there's some things you need to think about if you're going to do this. I'm not saying, also, that this is the only way to cover an event. This does make things much more convenient. I've gotten by just fine with a single camera before, but I'm really liking this setup. The downside to this-- and it's not really a downside, it's just something you need to think about-- is I need twice as many batteries.

And because I'm working in low light, changing batteries can be a hassle, so I might want to go to a battery grip, and which case I'm going to need two battery grips, and so on and so forth. So you need to think about power management. You might also need to think about storage. You're going to need twice as much storage as you normally would. I have some cards that are very speedy, and I like those for event shooting because as an action is developing, I may want to start bursting, to be sure that I get the moment that I want, and once I'm bursting I run into the problem of possibly filling up the camera's buffer, and then my camera is stalled.

Well, that's great, I've got another camera I can go to, but if I want that lens, I'm stuck. So I have fast cards for that. I don't necessarily have enough fast cards to drive two cameras so, since this is the lens that I'll use the most, I'll put my fastest card in here, and my other cards in here. It may be that I never have a need to burst or run into a buffering problem, but it's nice to think through that kind of thing if you do have the option. I keep a shoulder strap on this camera, and on this camera. Though I will mostly be working sitting down, sometimes I will get up and move to a position where I can get another angle.

For this camera, I'm using a spider holster. This is a piece of gear we've looked at in my Gear and Workflow course. It's just a little clip that goes on my belt, and there's a mount that goes on the bottom of the camera. I really, really like this setup. This is actually what I'm using for all of my wandering around shooting now. I've got some shoulder problems from carrying bags for too long. This lets me get weight off my shoulder, and now I can easily work with two cameras. I've easily got access to both of them. I could get another one of these mounts and put it on this camera, and then I could swap from one holster to another, but I'm actually okay just setting this down or hanging it around my neck, something like that.

So I can work very quickly with both of these cameras. I get my stuff shot and be sure that I'm not missing any action. When I get home, I've got twice as many cards to deal with. I work with Lightroom for my post production, so I take all of the cards into one folder on my computer. When I'm importing, though, I put keywords on the cards from each camera, so that I know which was my telephoto camera and which was my wide-angle camera. They all go in one folder, then I can easily sort them into, oh, here are my telephoto ones, here are my wide-angle ones.

Then I can start to get more organized from there. Again, this is not the only way to shoot an event, but it does make things much easier. Also, you don't have to go buy a second body. Camera rentals are very cheap these days through online services such as borrowlenses.com, or maybe you know someone else who has the same camera system that you do. You can borrow a body from there. So this is not some great breakthrough in event shooting that I made here. This is a pretty standard practice for event shooters, is to take multiple cameras. If you've never thought about it before and you do a lot of event shooting, consider renting a camera, borrowing one, and giving it a try.