College graduation, do I need to rent a lens??

[GarryB]

I will be attending my son's graduation soon and was looking for some opinions on whether or not I should rent a lens. The graduation will be held in the college gym. I am still new to DSLR's and I have a Canon Rebel T2i with the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 IS kit lens. The gym holds about 1500 people, so it is not huge. I have only seen the inside once and the lighting is like most gymnasiums, so so. Since I am not taking any action shots can I get by with the kit lens or should I rent a lens for the weekend? Has anyone out there been in a similar situation and if so would you share your experience?

If I am going to rent a lens I was looking at a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L USM or something similar. If a rental is the way to go would this do the trick?

[Biomech]

I'd probably rent one. Even though it looks bright - in that yucky green lighting - gyms are actually usually very dark from the POV of the camera. I think you'd struggle with that f4.

Also, your T2i has a (smaller) APS-C sensor, so you might want something a bit wider. Essentially, you need to add 50% to each figure to get its 35mm equiv (or there abouts, mins exactly x1.5).

So that 70-200 that you hire would in fact be more like 105-300mm which would be pretty tight!

(Crop factor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

[Gaurav Prabhu]

Hire the 70-200mm f/2.8. You can get past the kit lens but for that you'll need to raise the ISO to maybe 3200 or even above which would introduce noise.

[Jim Bryant]

Yup..rent the lens!

[gturner]

70-200 2,8 IS will make a huge difference. You should ok to shoot Av mode, at 2,8 and with ISO at 800
make sure you shoot RAW because the various light sources (and their cycle times) can play havoc with the white balance.

[kirbinster]

Originally Posted by gturner

70-200 2,8 IS will make a huge difference. You should ok to shoot Av mode, at 2,8 and with ISO at 800
make sure you shoot RAW because the various light sources (and their cycle times) can play havoc with the white balance.

Agree 100% plus with the above. I shot my daughter's graduation a year ago with my Nikon D300 and 70-200 f/2.8 at ISO1600. I would say I was about 150' away in a large auditorium. The shots are OK, but I could have used even a faster lens to get better shutter speed. Did not want to shoot wide open either.

Exposure (1/125)
Aperture f/4.5
Focal Length 200 mm
ISO Speed 1600

You can see in the first shot in the lower left corner my "Second Shooter". I gave my dad my D5000 and told him to see if he could get up close -- worked well.

[GarryB]

Wow. Unanimous. Looks like I am renting. Thanks for the quick replies. kirbinster, thanks for the pics and settings. I really like the colors in the second pic.

[gturner]

Originally Posted by kirbinster

You can see in the first shot in the lower left corner my "Second Shooter". I gave my dad my D5000 and told him to see if he could get up close -- worked well.

You need to teach your dad how to hold a camera