Best Cameras for Concert Photography

Whether you're a pro photographer shooting from the pit, or an avid music fan wanting to capture memories from your favourite shows from the crowd, there is a camera for you.

There are a lot of different cameras out there, which are made for different purposes. For that reason, we have divided our camera suggestions into different categories. The two main types are interchangeable lens cameras and fixed-lens cameras, also known as "point-and-shoots" or compacts.

This page includes affiliate links to Amazon and eBay. That means that if you choose to buy something via our links, CrowdSnapper earns a small commission at no additional expense to you.

Interchangeable Lens Cameras (ILC)

Having the ability to change lenses make these cameras very versatile. Swapping lenses in the middle of a show isn't ideal, though, so for some versatility, you're better off bringing two bodies that you can switch between.

Interchangeable lens cameras come with different sensor formats, which dictates how large the lenses are. Going from larges to smallest, these formats are Full-Frame, APS-C and Micro Four-Thirds.

Full Frame

Full-size cameras with great image quality and low-light performance. Longer zoom lenses are typically very large and heavy, though, so they are most practical for professional photography up close.

Browse Cameras

APS-C

The happy medium between image quality and size/weight. With APS-C cameras, you can get a decent zoom lens without it being too large and heavy.

Browse Cameras

Micro Four Thirds

The smallest format among system cameras. Since the lenses are small, you can fit a long telephoto without getting large and heavy. It's the system I'd recommend for longer shots from the crowd.

Browse Cameras

Fixed-Lens Cameras

Cameras with a permanently attached lens are often referred to as point-and-shoot cameras, compact cameras, or bridge cameras if they are a bit larger.

Depending on your needs and preferences, you could get a super-zoom for shooting from a long distance, or sacrifice some of that zoom range for a camera with a larger sensor, giving you higher image quality and better performance in low light situations, such as indoor shows.

Large Sensor Compacts

The best compact cameras suited for more serious photography, with a larger image sensor and plenty of manual controls.

Browse Cameras

Super-Zoom Compacts

Compact cameras for those who need an extreme zoom range, but usually with more basic image quality. Ideal for shooting from the crowd at larger venues where you can't bring large camera gear.

Browse Cameras

Camera Picking Guide

Need further help choosing the right concert camera? Follow the guide below for some pointers.

What to Look for in a Concert Camera

Lens selection: Some systems have more extensive lens lineups than others. Make sure there are lenses available that meet your needs for concert photography, such as fast prime lenses or zoom lenses with wide apertures. If you plan to shoot from the crowd from far away, you also need to consider size and weight, since long telephoto lenses can be very large - especially for larger formats, such as full-frame.

Reliable storage/redundancy: Event photography is all about capturing a moment. Whether you shoot a concert or a wedding, you only get one chance. Should you lose all your photos due to memory card failure, you can't just go back and re-shoot them. That is why redundant storage in form of dual memory card slots can give you some peace of mind. As YouTuber Jared Polin once said; storage is cheap, your photos are not.

Low-light performance: This is crucial for concert photography where lighting can be unpredictable. This is heavily dependent on the camera's sensor size and the lens' maximum aperture (f-number). Note that the "f" in aperture stands for "fraction", so f/4 is a smaller aperture than f/2, for instance. Something worth looking out for in newer cameras is also a technology called BSI (or BSI-CMOS), which stands for back-side-illuminated sensor. This technology further improves the low-light performance of the camera.

Autofocus performance: A reliable autofocus system helps you capture sharp images of fast-moving subjects, such as musicians on stage. A good continuous autofocus is also very useful, especially for shooting videos, as it helps you track the musicians as they move around and keep them continuously in focus.

Burst rate: Another thing that helps shooting moving subject is continuous shooting, or "burst mode". The maximum burst rate varies greatly between models, and having a fast one gives you a better chance of capturing that perfect moment. It also lets you shoot with a slightly slower shutter speed, since you can afford to throw away the shots that got too much motion blur in them. Taking bursts of photos is therefore especially helpful when shooting in low light with a slower lens and/or a small sensor camera, which undeniably leads to a fair share of blurry shots (as a MFT shooter with slow super-zoom lens, I can certainly attest to that).

Touch-to-focus: Seasoned photographers might scoff at this, but having a touch screen, or more specifically, the ability to touch to focus is actually very useful in your photography. At concerts, you shoot things in motion and need to get in focus quickly, so for this, selecting the focus point with a tap on the screen is very quick and convenient. On older systems lacking a touch screen, you can find some aid using back button autofocus, where you place the subject in the middle of the frame, lock the focus, and then recompose the shot before taking the shot. Touch-to-focus turns all of this into a simple tap on the screen, similar to your phone camera. Virtually any modern camera has this feature, but it's something to be vigilant about when shopping for older, used gear.

Ergonomics and usability: Consider how comfortable the camera is to hold for extended periods and how intuitive its controls are, especially in the darkened environment of a concert venue where you need to be familiar with your camera enough to know where buttons are even when you can't see them.

You Can't Have Everything

When it comes to cameras, there's always a compromise, mainly between three things:

Image quality and low-light performance
Focal/zoom range of the lens
Portability

Typically, you would have to compromise one of the three. For instance, a camera with great image quality and long zoom reach will be quite large and heavy, thus sacrificing some portability. On the other hand, if you manage to get close to the stage you could choose a smaller wide or standard angle prime instead, and thus have a lighter camera with potentially even better image quality.

The mighty triangle of compromise, when it comes to cameras.

The triangle also makes it apparent why dedicated cameras are still better suited for photography than smartphones are. Most dedicated cameras deliver in two of the three aspects, while phone cameras only really have one thing going for them; portability.

Portability - Is it That Much of a Difference?

Professional photographers shooting from the pit typically use high-end full-frame cameras, since they generally offer the best image quality and low-light performance, due to their large image sensors. And looking for means to improve your own concert footage you might be tempted to buy whatever gear they use.

While these cameras have traditionally been quite large and heavy, modern mirrorless bodies have revolutionised the market, and when you look at modern full-frame bodies alone, the size difference to smaller systems has diminished.

Just look at the illustration below, where we put a full-frame camera body side by side with smaller formats.

Four modern, mirrorless cameras with vastly different sensor sizes, yet very similar in size.

It's All About the Distance

Looking at the bodies alone might make you think that if they are all about as compact, why not just get the one with the largest sensor, and thereby get the best possible image quality?

While you could pair up any camera with a compact wide or standard-angle lens (like the pit photographers often do) and get really nice images, everything changes when you need some flexibility in terms of focal length and zoom range. This is often the case when shooting concerts, especially from the crowd at variable distances to the stage.

To give you a better idea of what to expect, let's compare the different systems with lenses that are more realistic for crowd photography. For medium-sized venues, you might then look at a lens that can reach around 300 millimetres (in full-frame equivalence) at the telephoto end.

Here we can tell the systems apart more clearly. As illustrated in the example below, the full-frame system is twice as heavy as the Micro Four-Thirds counterpart, which in turn is twice as heavy as the compact camera with a one-inch sensor. Thus, you can expect a full-frame camera to be four times heavier than a premium compact. So if you need the zoom range, you'll have to draw the line somewhere and decide how much bulk and weight you find acceptable and practical to use, going back to the portability aspect of the mighty triangle of compromise we introduced above.

Four modern cameras with zoom lenses of decent lengths, viable for crowd shooting at medium-sized venues. The focal ranges are re-calculated for full-frame equivalence. The weights refer to the full system, including both body and lens.

If you need even more zoom range, for instance, if you want to shoot pictures from the crowd of a larger venue, you might look at a lens around 600 mm (full-frame equivalent) at the long end. Here the difference is even greater, and even a compact camera with a one-inch sensor offering this kind of zoom range becomes quite bulky. So here, you might want to consider small-sensor compacts. Especially if you need something pocket-friendly. If you can bring a bag, Micro Four-Thirds might just be the sweet spot when you factor in both image quality and portability.

With long telephoto lenses, even a point-and-shoot camera with a 1-inch sensor (Sony RX10) becomes quite bulky, which make more basic, small-sensor compact cameras like the lower Panasonic ZS/TZ series relevant.

The Micro 4/3 system also makes a compelling offer by actually being smaller and lighter than the RX10 compact when paired with this relatively small Olympus lens. The downside of that lens is its lack of image stabilisation. The RX10 also gives more versatility since it covers a wider zoom range. A Micro 4/3 camera kills it in terms of image quality, however.

Other Factors to Consider

Apart from the distance, size and weight, there are other things to consider as well. The most prominent ones would be 1) the camera regulations for the event/venue, and 2) the light conditions. We'll cover those aspects briefly below.

Camera Regulations

The first point is quite obvious and can strictly limit your choices in cameras. If the arranger doesn't allow professional cameras, you might still get away with a small point-and-shoot or at the very least you could resort to your phone camera. That is unless you can get a photo pass, which of course changes everything. I won't cover the process of getting a photo pass in detail here, but there is plenty of info on YouTube and on the web.

Light Conditions

The lighting conditions should be considered as well when choosing your gear, but it's likely your third priority, and would mostly affect your choice of lenses, unless you own several camera systems already, like full-frame as well as APS-C or MFT.

If you're shooting in a small, dark pub, you might choose to sacrifice the versatility a zoom lens gives you for a fast prime lens with a wider aperture, giving you cleaner images. Reversely, at a summer festival with a large crowd in broad daylight, a good zoom range might be the better choice. Since the lighting conditions are better, you can get good results even with slower lenses.