Watching the Band

GRD III, f1.9, 1/10, ISO 800, RAW 2:3

I went back to the Cahrlotte Street Blues bar, this has quickly become one of my favorite places in London, the atmosphere is very good and you have live music 7 days a week.
I took a few pictures of the bands playing with the GRD III but noticed that even a f1.9 lens with ISO 1600 is not always enough to capture the motion. This picture is taken at ISO 800 but with the EV at -1 and in 2:3 format but I felt 16:9 worked better. The focus was on the two guys on the side and not on the band so this is why the background is slightly out of focus and overexposed.

In The Spotlight

GRD II, f2.4, 1/40, ISO 1600, RAW

Been to a concert after work today. While I don't remember the names of the bands it was quite fun. It was a small venue and this meant that I could get close to the stage and take pictures of the bands. I did not have my GRD I with me so had to use the GRD II.
One thing is sure, for concert photography you need a very fast lens and high ISO, something the GRDs are very good at. Most people say the high ISO on the GRD II is improved, I think it is the exact opposite and the GRD I performs much better. It is also easier to remove the noise, something very difficult on the GRD II. Overall the pictures came out ok aside from the jpgs being horrible to look at. This is my favorite picture from the evening. I changed the contrast and colors with the curves tool and removed some color noise.

For the GRD III my wish would be to put a faster lens on it, a f1 would be great. Or hopefully Panasonic or Olympus will bring out a small micro 4/3 camera like the Leica/Minolta CL that takes Leica M-mount lenses.