Best cameras and lenses to shoot weddings

There are many websites which suggest a list of the best and necessary camera gear exactly for weddings photographers and their second shooters. A wedding party is a wonderful day to get to capture magic moments, and to be invited into such a significant part of your clients' lives is a great honor! Shooting weddings is a big business and is a very specialized type of photography.

Today we're going to discuss our 5 best cameras and 3 best lenses for a wedding photographer, so let's move on to these matters right now!

It is dreadfully challenging and tough for any shooter to collect good equipment for shooting events. It's obvious, that it's an out-of-this-world investment of money to have all the staff needed to do that wedding justice. These events require multiple lenses, mounts, flashes, backup gear, and oodles of batteries and memory cards, specialized lighting apparatuses and editing softwares like Lightroom or Capture One, not to mention enough hard drives to back up the images properly!

Best wedding photography DSLR camera bodies

1. The NIKON D700

Source: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond700

You'll be amazed by its many qualitative features, versatility, and quality. It's really a pro level camera and you can buy it at a reliable price. It's small and mobile. The quality of a shot that the D700 sensor provides us allows great freedom in composition. Shooting wide, it simply gives more elbow room. The D700 provides a versatile base ISO range from 200-6400. If there is one issue with this camera, it would be a complaint regarding the battery grip. It only has one slot for a battery, the second battery is in the camera's battery chamber. Why is this an issue? You have to remove the grip whenever you need to charge both batteries. Not overwhelming, just a pain in the butt. Our wedding retouching service suggests you buying the videos, reading the manual and parallels your study with actual use of the camera.

Price on eBay: from $600 to $1235

Photographers' comments:

"I bought a D700 in an age where D800s, D750s, and D610s exist. The D700 is STILL one of the better values and still showcases why many people switched to the Nikon. Image quality is great, low light is amazing, and the menus + physical design are on point."

"A full frame camera of yester-years which still works well and is available at a discounted price which is less than some of the APS-C cameras of today. It is easy to use and produces good pictures. It shoots in RAW + JPEG, and colors are reproduced naturally. It has a 12 MP sensor and does not shoot video. I used it to shoot a function and the images were very good. I am happy with this camera."

2. The CANON 70D

Source: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-70d

This camera is a 20 megapixel 1.6x crop sensor DSLR from Canon. It should be mentioned that thanks to its sensor format, these cameras are absolutely capable of professional results. With the 70D, Canon has something that could be revolutionary: their Dual Pixel CMOS AF (DPA). It works by splitting each photodiode on the sensor into 2 sections. For the wedding photographer it means no significant light loss, and no change in the quality of the pixels.

Price on eBay: from $630 to $1200

Photographers' comments:

"I've been in the photography and video realm for a couple years using Point and Shoot products, and I finally decided to step my game up and get a "prosumer"; DSLR. This camera shoots amazing photos, even at high ISO settings. The main reason I chose this over some other DSLRs is because it shoots quality video."

"I use it primarily for wedding photography, and I've been able to get some really great images of my clients' wed-days. This is not a camera for a beginner, and neither is it the ultimate camera for the professional, but if you take the time to learn its capabilities, then you'll love the results."

3. The Canon EOS 6D

Source: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/canon-eos-6d

These camera's key specifications are 20.2MP full frame CMOS sensor, ISO 100-25600, 'Silent' shutter mode, 1080p30 video recording, stereo sound via external mic, and one more interesting peculiarity is the built-in Wi-Fi and GPS. One more great feature for shooting weddings is its 11-point AF system which gives the strongest low light performance of any DSLR on the market. With focusing down to EV-3, the equivalent of moonlight, subjects remain in-focus in even the most challenging lighting conditions - offering the freedom to shoot landscapes or portraits at night and capture the true atmosphere of the scene with minimal noise. Sounds great for shooting weddings at night, doesn't it?

Price on eBay: from $1243 to $1895

Photographers' comments:

"I've been photographing weddings and portraits for almost 15 years. In that time I have used dozens of camera bodies from Nikon, Canon, Olympus and Fuji. Currently I'm shooting a 5D mkII for backup, along with several older Canon bodies. It's as easy or as complicated as you make it. Set it on Program and it does a decent job. Set it on manual, take control of it and it does an outstanding job. Amazing quality at higher ISOs."

"If you are looking for a full-frame DSLR that operates well in low light, look no further than the Canon EOS 6D. Coupled with Phase One Capture One, you can create some fantastic final images with RAW images. If you are looking to do event photography at venues with high ceilings, you can get some great shots."

Best wedding photography Lenses

1.Canon 35mm f/1.4L

Source: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-35mm-f-1.4-L-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

This is an affordable wide angle prime lens with a fast aperture and optical stabilization. The 35mm focal length is great for wedding photography and photojournalism. You can use the 35mm for wide portrait shots as well.

Price on eBay: about $600

2.Nikon 35mm f/1.4G

Source: http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/35mm-f14-afs.htm

It's a high quality 35mm prime. At f/1.4 it's faster than the Sigma 35mm f/2, and it offers better quality and value than Sigma's own 35mm f/1.4.

Price on eBay: about $360

3.Nikon 45mm f/2.8 PC-E

Source: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/570498-USA/Nikon_2174_PC_E_Micro_Nikkor_45mm.html

This one is an excellent mid-range zoom. This is a very versatile lens, and a great choice for photojournalism, travel, weddings, portraits, or anything really.

Price on eBay: about $1,695

Summing up, it should be mentioned, that when buying camera bodies, look out for online retail scam companies. We can only safely recommend shopping from three online retailers: B&H, Adorama, and Amazon. (And be careful of Amazon 3rd-party sellers, especially with respect to things like memory cards!)

If you don't have enough money to buy a great camera or a lens right now, you can use our wedding photo editing service. We are a team of professional graphic editors who provide photo editing services to wedding photographers all around the world. You can outsource to us all of your wedding photo post processing tasks to save your valuable time, which you can spend on marketing and developing you photography business. Wedding season is too short to spend it on photo editing! If you like our wedding retouching samples, do sign in and make your clients satisfied.