Ahoj! This is Zdenka! Another beautiful morning sunrise is about to happen. Today
I thought I should answer one of the most frequently asked questions and that
is can you use EOS M50, Canon EOS M50 for professional wedding photography?
Let's roll the intro.
And for a new faces, welcome my name is Zdenka Darula. I work as a photographer
since 2007. I make tutorial, tech reviews and fun vlogs and creative camera
challenges, so you might consider hitting the subscribe button. Here in Canada we
are in full swing when it comes to weddings. I'm also in full swing. Always
very busy. First of all, what do I normally shoot with during weddings? My
main camera is Canon 5D Mark III, my backup camera is Canon 5D Mark I that used to
be my main camera but now it's just backup. It's actually almost ready to go.
Technology has developed so fast and it's sometimes very hard to keep up, it
seems like you need to change your camera almost every single year. With
those two cameras, I'm normally using three lenses. The one is just a regular
portrait lens 24 - 105 mm, the second one is telephoto lens 70 - 200
mm with image stabilization F/2.8 and then the third lens I'm using
sometimes is nifty 50 just a 50 mm lens F/1.8. For 50 mm
lens I also bring macro extension tube so I can take some of those beautiful
macro shots of rings and jewelry. I also bring CPL filter for the mainly
the telephoto lens. If I'm shooting outdoor ceremony at noon and the light
is super harsh and I want to get rid of some of the highlights in hair. And
then obviously I bring two flashes with me, quite a big amount of memory cards
and it always seems like I bring too many batteries but it's never enough
especially when it comes to AA batteries for the flashes.
Last weekend I decided to take the Cannon M50 with me to a wedding just
because everybody is asking me the same question if you can shoot with this
camera at weddings. And it was a long wedding. I was shooting
for 13 hours so I had plenty of time to test it it out.
I brought three batteries with me one is Canon brand, the other two are non-canon.
I wanted to save some money. I didn't bring 15 to 45 mm lens kit lens
because I knew it's going to perform very poorly in low-light. I thought
it'll be kind of useless during the wedding so I decided to bring with me
Viltrox speed booster and use it with a 50 mm lens and also with
telephoto 70 to 200 mm. I knew that the 50 mm lens will
be used only here and there because I'm all about candid. Those special moments
and with no zoom, I simply cannot get there fast enough. I usually shoot at 70
to 200 mm because I can frame it right away in the camera, I can get
very close on their face and I can catch that crying or smiling moment. I'm all
about candids.
Judgment time. So what do I think about Canon EOS M50 when it comes to photo
quality. Well, when you combine it with Viltrox speed booster and very good
lens and if you shoot during very good light, right there in a very good
lighting conditions, the photo quality in some of the instances was actually
better than my main camera 5D Mark III when I looked at the computer. I
personally like the photos way better. They were very crisp, very clear, nice
colours. Nothing wrong with it. And here I had to say one thing. When it comes to
photography, it's all about the lenses. It doesn't make sense to save money and
just buy cheap, cheap, cheap. If you are thinking about doing this professionally,
it's always better to save money and wait and just buy one lens and then save
up and then buy another good lens. I'm talking about the very good lenses with
very low aperture where you get the most light and fast lenses. The quality is
beautiful. For example, my telephoto lens 70 to 200 mm. I have that lens
for 13 years now, it's a mint condition. Looks like brand-new, works extremely
well. There's nothing wrong with it. Cameras on the other hand, it's not
really that important which camera you really have. You will be changing them
down the road anyways. Technology is developing so fast and yes you will
probably go through few different cameras doing you photograph years. How
did the camera felt in my hands during the wedding?
Well, I shoot in full manual mode, I always been. That's just the way I work.
And on 5D Mark III I know that there are two wheels. One wheel I turn and I spin
and I control aperture. The other one I spin and I control my shutter speed. On
canon M50, I truthfully felt that the controlling
the camera was slower. There is only one wheel which controls one thing but the
rest I had to do on the screen, so working with that camera, yes it was
slowing me down a bit. It would be faster on the 5D Mark III but that was my
experience, my feelings, working with that camera first day at the weddings. I'm
sure I would probably find faster way to work with that camera but that day my
first day, I felt it was slowing me down.
Let's talk about focus. I have to say, here I enjoyed the small camera more,
mainly because of the face tracking. Especially, when it came to the candid
shots and I had the telephoto lens on, I simply pressed the face and I kept it in
a face tracking position and then I was just like a sniper waiting for the
perfect shot. When I was taking photo with the full-frame camera, with the
DSLR, I have to always half press the button quite a bit, before I took the
actual shot, so I have that person in focus. It felt like a new toy for me, I
literally have that much fun. Let's talk about battery. Yes, that battery.
I shot here and there with the M50. Getting ready photos during the ceremony,
I didn't use it all the time but once I reached 200 photos the first battery was
dead and that's not good at all. If this would be my main camera and I usually
take about 1500 photos during eight-hour wedding, I would have to bring literally
eight batteries. With my full-frame camera, I just need one for the whole day.
Let's talk about the screen. The ceremony was during the day, around
noontime at 2:00 p.m. it was a very bright day, it was very harsh light, so
now when I was looking at the screen, I could not really see the photos, even
when I brightened the screen a bit more. I was still unsure if I had my exposure
correctly, so I was looking through the viewfinder but what I saw was very
bright and colorful. Sometimes it was flickering, I really wasn't sure if I
have the right shot, so here and there when I took the photo, I had to really
check the photo if it is correctly exposed, if everything is ready to go.
Perhaps it's just matter of getting used to it but to be honest, I still prefer
optical viewfinder over the digital one. I guess that it's probably just a
matter of getting used to it. The day was over
and we were starting to get into the night shooting in low-light conditions.
Well, let's talk about that one. I knew that if I'm gonna use the Viltrox
speed booster and very good quality lenses, like 50 mm lens and the
telephoto, I would be able to keep the aperture low and the ISO as low as
possible. I didn't need flesh for the longest time, so I just shot in natural
light because I was keeping it so very low. I was introducing only a little bit
of noise. I was able to shoot ISO a little bit under 400 always under 400
but when I checked the photos on my computer, I still saw that I'm quite
seeing some noise. It's not as crispy clear as the full-frame DSLR. There is a
quite a bit of difference, so yes this camera is producing noise and for that
reason, I would say it was bothering me quite a bit. And as it got darker and
darker, I had to pull out the flash. Yes. And this part, I was really interested in
because I really wanted to see how it's gonna perform with flash, especially
those dancing shots, where you need to freeze the action, you need to catch that
moment. If they are dancing, you need a flash. I used this one. I used
to have Canon flashes before but I'm finding this one does amazing job as
well. It's a lot cheaper. I have two of them and the trigger. And here I was in
trouble. Literally. If I shoot a my full-frame DSLR and I half press the
button, there's a little red light which helps me beam, which helps me focus. On
the small camera, I didn't get it. I tried to change everything in a settings or
trying to go around it and I believe it's not there, it's just, it's not
definitely focusing with this flash. Maybe if I had Canon, things would be
different flash, but with this flash, it's not there. Truthfully, I didn't do much
studying or testing the M50 and flashes yet, so maybe I was doing something wrong
or maybe I didn't have my settings right but from what I saw that day, I just I
couldn't get that. Also, during speeches and some other moments, I wanted to use
just a touch of a flash, just a little bit of a flash. I like to use the ambient
light, a lot, and just flash it just a little. Well, with the M50 and that flash I
couldn't get it. The flash was overpowering. It was flashed way too much.
The person was bright, everything was dark, so I hit the end of the road for me.
When it came to M50 and flash so I obviously had to get my full frame
camera from now on to get those kind of shots and on the top of it, sometimes when
you're into speeches, you know when people are kind of looking into their
papers. They quickly look at the audience and again they look into the papers, my
flash needs to be quick. My camera needs to react very quick to get that tiny
second or two second moment. And with the M50, it was a bit slower. I could not get
it that fast. Canon M50 is entry-level vlogging camera primarily vlogging
camera. You can shoot with it during good light so you can do all these outdoor
photos, you can do family portraits. You can do portraits, I would say even fashion
shots no problem. In good light you can shoot with it 100%.
At weddings, you can use it during the day as well. You get very nice
results. You will be in trouble though in the evening during low-light. To use this
camera as you main camera during the weddings? No. If you want to be able to
do high-paying jobs, you need to pay a little bit more to get the features you
need to perform the job, to do the job properly, so I would definitely go with a
higher brand of camera, something like Canon R will be probably be very good.
My conclusion is. Bridal couples are spending thousands of dollars for life
event which cannot be repeated and they are expecting high quality work from
vendors, high quality work from photographers and it is our
responsibility to have the tools we need to produce those kind of images. Well,
that was my honest opinion. Hit the thumbs up button if you liked today's
video, subscribe to all future videos like this. If you have any questions,
comments or simply want to say hello you can do so in a comment section below. You
know I read it all and I always respond and I'll see you in the next one.
Cau... Ahoj...