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Thinking of Renting an L-Series Lens to Photograph Fireworks

Far-Out-Dude
Rising Star
Rising Star

I Thinking of Renting A L-Series Lens to Photograph Fireworks this year, I will be using a Canon eos-M50 with a Canon adapter to use EF lenses and was wondering if anyone would have any suggestions? Also any suggestion of whom to rent from in the United States if allowed? I too some pictures last year that did not turn out bad though I was closer to the fireworks than I would have liked and they were just some some friends and people in the neighborhood has shot off as I had gotten sick earlier in the day and did not want to go far. I had used a Canon EF-S 18 55 macro 0.25m 0.8ft lens on that day and I would like to try a lens better than that. Link to that thread below.This all depends on how my girlfriends health goes, she had a brain aneurysm bleed back in September and has been having problems with that and she fell and broke her hip in February so my life revolves around her, she is more important than photography right now. Thank you for reading and everyone have a good evening.

https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Share-Your-Photos/First-Attempt-at-Photographing-Fireworks/td-p/4...

18 REPLIES 18

Thank you much for the suggestion and the information.

shadowsports
Legend
Legend

Greetings,

Sorry to hear about your health challenges and I wish you and your partner speedy recoveries.  Lens Rentals does rent by the week.  They also sell.  I know the 4th is a ways off so hopefully both of you will be up and around and she will be able to sit and enjoy the festivities with you. 😀

~Rick
Bay Area - CA


~R5 C (1.0.7.1) ~RF Trinity, ~RF 100 Macro, ~RF 100~400, ~RF 100~500, +RF 1.4x TC, +Canon Control Ring, BG-R10, 430EX III-RT ~DxO PhotoLab Elite ~DaVinci Resolve ~Windows11 Pro ~ImageClass MF644Cdw/MF656Cdw ~Pixel 8
~CarePaks Are Worth It

Thank you, unfortunately she fell Friday night and broke her other hip in the same was as she did the other in February and had to have the same surgery done. I will check them out, thank you much.

krahe
Rising Star
Rising Star

I've been very happy with the EF-M 15-45mm "kit" lens for fireworks. Even if you can't get real close, I think this is one of those situations where it makes sense to take advantage of the high resolution of the M50 and crop to what you want. Here is one where I cropped a vertical segment out of a landscape shot.IMG_0845_crop.JPG

Kevin Rahe
EOS M50 Mark II

Turned out nice. Since I have gotten my L series lends for wildlife I have started to become a bit of a lens snob, I would like to get as many L series lenses as I can. I THINK an 85 is one I would like for landscape, but I am unsure how it would work for fireworks.

 

Unless you're pretty far from the launch site, I think an 85mm on an APS-C camera will be too tight. I took that shot at 33mm and it filled the frame vertically. I was about 1/3 of a mile from the launch site. (I think 85mm might be a little tight for landscapes, too. You might want to try before you buy!)

Kevin Rahe
EOS M50 Mark II

Thank you much for that advise. FlowersResized1.jpgFlowersResized2.jpg

I picked up the Canon EF-M 22mm f/2 STM Lens this week for the M50 Mark i, it was normally anywhere from $150.00-$200.00 but B&H had it as a send your email and they would send you a discounted price and I got it for $99.00 and I have been wanting to try a prime lens so I grabbed it. I can tell already that I wish I had been able to get the 32mm that I wanted but it is a nice little lens, the 32mm just gave a little more punch which is what I wanted, but I plan to get an R5 by the end of the year, I would have gotten on in April but there have been a lot of health problems here so I held off. Nothing special, just a shot outside the hospital where my GF is rehabbing her broken hip. I wonder if the new lens would work well for fireworks?

In short, YES - the 22mm should be good for fireworks, given the considerations that I went through in my post.


cheers, TREVOR

The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris

Tronhard
VIP
VIP

I am extremely sorry to learn about your partner's health issues. It must be terribly distressing for you and you have my sympathies.  I hope the treatments for her injuries progress well and you do get the chance to photograph the fireworks on July 4th as it will be a stress relief for you, which I suspect you will welcome and need.  When my wife was dying of cancer, photography was my escape: taking a photography brought me away from the stresses and distresses to be in the moment, and made me concentrate on something else.

As some of my colleagues have mentioned, much will depend on how far away you are from the action and the spread of the fireworks, which can vary quite considerably, depending on the budgets, restrictions and skills of the show hosts!

It might be a good idea to look for photos of the fireworks at that event in years past to figure from what points the images were taken from and the scale of the show compared to landmarks below.

Generally, I try to get a bit of the ground and area around the likely spread - it is better to crop in a bit than cut out the display,  and the challenge is that those lights can be very unpredictable in intensity and spread.   I shot on a tripod, in B mode with a remote shutter release and just opened and closed the shutter to try to capture significant bursts, or collections of them.

As far as lenses go, considering the lighting conditions and the spread, you could do far worse than looking at the EF-M 11-22mm, it's an excellent lens in its own right and if you bought one you may well like it for other purposes.

To give you an idea, I will include a couple of shots that were taken with a Full Frame camera using a 24-105L lens, so I shall translate the focal lengths into what you would need to get those Fields of View on your M-50.
On a Crop sensor camera: 16mm, f/22, 6.6 in B, sec, ISO-100On a Crop sensor camera: 16mm, f/22, 6.6 in B, sec, ISO-100On a crop-sensor camera: 16mm, f/11, 5.2sec in B, ISO-100On a crop-sensor camera: 16mm, f/11, 5.2sec in B, ISO-100I could have done with a wee bit more space, so while something like the EF-M 15-45 might work, in your place I prefer to have the extra width offered by the wider angle 11-22mm focal range.  If, on the night, it turns out the show is not as wide as you expected, if you have the 18-55 you can swap to that.   As others have commented, you need to be a long way from the show to use a telephoto lens, especially on a crop-sensor camera.

Again, however, much depends on where you are related to the fireworks, and how wide they spread.  It's not an exact science unless you know all the details of the setup for the display.

Again, I hope things for your partner stabilize and even improve, both for her sake and yours.

As we say in NZ: Kia Kaha, which is a Māori mantra meaning hang in there, or endure...


cheers, TREVOR

The mark of good photographer is less what they hold in their hand, it's more what they hold in their head;
"All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow", Leo Tolstoy;
"Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase" Percy W. Harris
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