Accessories that make a difference when your working in the nightclub industry
Batteries & Power
The things that matter, getting the correct battery / power solution can take unnecessary stress away.
Covering:
Large-capacity batteries
How many you carry
Battery management during long events
Charging between consecutive shoots
Why cold/long shooting sessions can affect battery life
At the start of my photography career battery chemistry was very basic, You didn’t have issues like you do now with non genuine batteries throwing up camera errors & performance was not too bad, Albeit cameras had much simpler AF systems and weren’t as power hungry.
Today the world of batteries have evolved massively, huge capacities, external solutions, you name it.. Every year with a new Canon camera normally comes with an updates battery, for me using the Canon R6 models, its changed slightly, but not by much ( 1865 mAh ) its hard to gauge how well this standard battery did as the newer R6Mii has additional upgrades which i assume take more power. One of the best batteries I have found is the newer LP-E6NH designed for the Canon R5Mii, coming in at 2130mAH it works out 12.4% more shots per single battery.
Combined this with my Newer vertical grip & I find that two charged LP-E6NH batteries will last me a full show / festival, Impressive considering I could use 3/4 typical batteries. Yes they are significantly more at £109.99 per battery, but lets say you replace 8 batteries with 4 of these, its a no brainer.
Memory Cards
For nightclub / event photography, memory cards are arguably more important than many beginners realise.
Covering:
Capacity
Write speed
Burst shooting
Dual-card cameras
Why you shouldn't necessarily buy one enormous card
“Never put all your eggs in one basket” - Well that saying goes towards memory card storage.
Cards these days have become huge reaching over 1TB, on paper it seems like a great idea, maybe you only need one because you’ll never fill it. But in practise its risky, cards do fail and the more their used the higher the risk of a failure. Options like dual recording now exist, giving you an redundant safe option but again this has its pros and cons. For me I use 4× 128GB UltimaPro X2 SDHC/XC V90s & just write to each card individually swapping when full, usually shooting a long club night / festival I’ll be close to filling 2 cards ( 248GB ) Touch wood I’ve had no issues with these cards but again there is always a risk, I have shot both cards simultaneously at a wedding for safe peace of mind but you fly through storage, Again consider your circumstances, lets say its a large full day festival or a wedding, I would consider shooting onto a redundant card for a backup.
One overlooked option on memory cards is the write speed often indicated by a class number & containing read and write speeds, I’ve slipped up in the early days not having a fast enough card when shooting bursts of a DJ moving, consequently the camera would lag & I would miss a few frames. Now I ensure that I’m always shooting on V90 cards & remember the speeds also relate to transferring to alternative sources like your laptop or HD, the higher the cards read speed the faster transferring files will be, a game changer in the music industry when your trying to complete live updates.
Camera Bags & Travel Cases
Hard cases, backpacks, various options that need careful thought for your line of work.
Covering:
Protecting equipment while travelling
Airline restrictions
Hard cases vs camera backpacks
Working out of hotels/apartments
Moving between venues
Keeping equipment discreet
Backpacks, Peli cases, compact utility bags, Today you have an abundance of camera carrying options & maybe you need a combination of these options for the work your completing. Club work isn’t always the tidiest; spilled drinks, wet floors, often people balancing items on your stuff, you need a good solid option that will offer ample protection along with plenty of storage. Currently I own 2 options, an EVOC 35 backpack & A Peli air 1535 case, both options offer ample storage space, As you can image the case offers heavy protection but the backpack is more suited to a run & gun style with side zipped entry points to remove your camera swiftly. Now when I’m at a festival or a club I often use my Pelicase, I do like to make sure I’m able to bring everything in case I need to adapt to the scene, I’ve found before that I’ve not taken one or two lenses thinking its not required, & ended up been stuck with limited shooting abilities. The Peli Air 1535 offers rolling wheels ( although absolutely terrible unless your on perfect tarmac ) you can fly with this on 99.9% of airlines too which is brilliant, I usually have this as my carry-on and take a backpack for clothes ect, you will struggle though if your flying with Ryanair, I have found on a few occasions that they have tried to charge me and to put the bag in the hold as its usually over the 10kg hold weight and slightly bigger but still fitting in the Ryan air baggage checker. As far as storage, I’m able to carry 2 camera bodies, 5 lenses, a flash, batteries, SD cards & a few other accessories.
Other Essentials
You could include:
Cleaning kit
Lens cloths
Rain protection
Ear protection
Gaffer tape
Cable ties
Card reader
Hard drives
Some of these are inexpensive but incredibly useful when you're working in clubs.