You have set yourself a pretty difficult task. From experience in doing a fair bit of this type of photography I'll give you the best advice I can:

- Shoot in manual, the changing light at such events is a nightmare with Auto Exposure and you will end up burning out highlights which are then not recoverable. You'll need to take a lot of test shots, check the histogram and aim for best exposure without risking any burn-out (don't worry about having lots of dark areas, this is unavoidable in concert / gig lighting)

- Check what type of lights they are using, if they are 'LED' you will need to under-expose more than you think as they burn out skin tones so easily

- Be careful with the kit lens; it probably won't be fast enough for most shots with a K10D as your ISO would be too high. Do you have a F2.8 zoom, this would be ideal?

- Be careful if you're planning to shoot F1.7 with manual focus - you won't get many images sharp in the right place

- Keep your shutter speed up around 1/200 if you can so you don't get movement blur. You can get away with less if the performers are fairly still, but you will not get many keepers

- Sacrifice ISO for shutter speed - even with your K10D. Gritty noise is not an issue if you convert to Black and White

Best of luck, go and enjoy yourself and don't be disappointed if you don't get a high proportion of keepers!

Regards
David

I like these Drew, especially the first one, which is so sharp and precise. You've also got the exposure spot on in this one, which is probably the most difficult skill when taking shots in this lighting. The last one is also very good, it is a shame about the burn-out on her face, which detracts a bit, unlike number three which has better exposure, but not such a good pose! Frustrating this photography lark!

BTW, took my camera (K-5iis) and new DA 50mm 1.8 to the Fargo Railroad Co Gig on Saturday night and got no good shots at all! Lighting was awful. The lens is very good though and focussed like a demon, just a shame the photographer behind it was useless.

Cheers
David

Thanks for the thoughts Horst, unfortunately there are no trains to Melbourne from Sheffield Station!

Cheers
David

It will run, but how well it runs depends on a lot of different factors:

- Does your laptop have a dedicated graphics card, or just the one integrated with the CPU? Dedicated cards are much better for video

- Does it have a SSD (Solid State Drive), these are much faster than traditional hard drives

- The more RAM the better, 8gb is just about workable, 16gb would be a whole lot better

A core i5 processor can come in lots of different guises, some are better than others. In general an i7 is better than an i5, but it's the whole package and how all the components perform together that determines the end result. Sorry if this has confused you but there isn't an answer as simple as 'yes' or 'no' to your question. It also depends on the size of the video files you are processing and what file format they are.

There's a simpler answer to your flash drive question; 'yes' Cyberlink will be able to open it from a flash drive.

Best regards
David

I'm sorry too David, I was looking forward to meeting you, but never mind I'm sure we'll have a meet somewhere further North at some point. Hope Barrie can still come?

Cheers
David

I've just acquired a DA 50mm f1.8, which is great because I have several vintage ones that are not AF, which can be a bit limiting if you need to shoot quickly.

I do adore my M-50mm F1.4 though, a gem of a lens that generally finds a home on my K-01, where I use the focus peaking feature for manual focus on indoor shots.

I think F1.8 though is fine for almost all situations in low light, so the DA 50mm is probably your best bet.

Regards
David

Waiting's no problem.......

........time for 2 bacon butties!

Brilliant - looks like we will have a fantastic turnout - thanks to Gary, David, Barrie & Dave for coming from afar and apologies to anyone I haven't mentioned. I'm getting excited already!

Cheers
David

These look fab, with nice, natural colours and excellent clarity. Apart from that, and more importantly, they document what must have been a moving event really well.

Regards
David

That's great Gary, would be nice to meet another PU regular in the flesh so to speak, please let us know before the day if you can come so we can judge numbers.

Regards
David