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Hi all,

I have a question that I believe is on a lot of people's minds:
If at a concert for example you take photos and security intervenes ( they may ask questions and may tell you to stop taking photos); what are their powers ?

Provided you have stopped taking photos after being told to do so:
Can they confiscate your camera ?
Can they evict you from the venue ?
I tend to believe that none of above (confiscation, eviction) is on the cards.
I also believe that you should not have to surrender the camera and even if you had to it must to be returned to you after the event.

I'm looking forward to your replies,
CD

Christian

I think you'd need to look at the fine print on the back of the ticket - probably gives them a lot of legal lattitude.

As I understand it. not even Police can take your property from you - unless it has been part of a crime and they are collecting evidence (even then they probably need some sort of documentation to allow it).

What you will find however, is that if you are private property (and most concerts and other events are!) then security may require you to leave if you do not follow their requests. There's not much you can do once they tell you to P...off

CD - This has been addressed a few times on the forum before. I think it all boils down to their conditions of entry and the 'small print' of such. If it says cameras or ''professional cameras" (what is that btw?) are not permitted, and then they decided what is professional or not then they have the ''authority'' to take it. I would hate to pay hard earned $$ for a concert and then be told that they are going to take my camera and not be allowed to pick it up until after - NO WAY...not with the D200 and 70-200VR!!

When Kris & I saw Pennywise recently I only just got the D70 in - and only because it had a 50/1.8 on it. The security guard took a good long look, wasn't happy, but I smiled sweetly and she let us in. I reckon if a bigger lens had been mounted she would have said no.

It's all pretty stupid though, considering every second phone is a camera and the average P&S is the size of a cigarette pack.

Hi Geoff,

I certainly appreciate your view and thanks for the response.
Thanks to all the other responses too.
Geoff, if you like give me a pm sometime before the concert.
we may be able to meet before going in.

Regards,
CD

christiand wrote:Hi Geoff,

I certainly appreciate your view and thanks for the response.
Thanks to all the other responses too.
Geoff, if you like give me a pm sometime before the concert.
we may be able to meet before going in.

Regards,
CD

Sounds good CD, we will have 4 of our friends with us but that shouldn't stop us from saying hi!

christiand
They can tell you to stop taking photographs and they can ask you to leave, but they can't take your camera or force you to delete any images. It's very important that you understand that. Not even the police can take your camera unless they have reason to believe it was stolen or can be used as evidence in a criminal matter.

Christian,

Give the promoter/organiser/whatever a call for the event and get them to clarify any rules/regulations via email. Print it and take it with you to present to gate security.

I've done this before and it minimises the hassle at the gate immensely. If they try the "professional cameras", write back and get them to define that in tangible rules - ie derive a significant proportion of your income, representing a media outlet or freelance, zoom in mm greater than etc.

The gate security guys will be more accepting when you're nice to them and present the printed document with the promoters email signature at the bottom saying that it's ok (or you're within their guidelines).

Geoff,

I think we just pull your D200 apart.

Stuff the 70-200 VR in Bel's handbag, the body in Rachel's (under the kitchen sink) and stick the flash in a bag of Smith's potato chips.

We did something like this with a mates D100 with 5 blokes (no handbags though) at the Crusty Demons at Homebush. We had 3 guys run a blockade to allow the 2 carrying the goodies to walk through security and not get looked at.

Cheers.

what is the concert.

On many an occasion i have considered smuggling a camera into a concert under a jacket.

Take the lens off the camera and give it to a female friend to put in handbag.

But i must say that a press pass makes things SO much easier, cheaper (getting ticket for free) and alot more enjoyable

Geoff wrote:NO WAY...not with the D200 and 70-200VR!!

I guess u just answered your own qu on what a professional camera is...

Hi all,

I've sen't an e-mail to the AcerArena Website and here is the answer I got:

The venue has a general policy of no cameras and no recording devices for any event but this is generally relaxed some time for certain events only to allow BASIC DOMESTIC TYPE STILL SHOT CAMERAS ONLY.

Comments: Hi there, what is your policy on taking a camera to the venue and taking photos during a concert - no flash ! and no impact on the artists and spectators ? Thanks, CD

HTH,
CD

I believe they will definately tell you to stop when you fire off a SB800 at full power from the spectator's stage. Its too strong and may affect the performer on stage.

Be sure to bring small but fast lenses, the 50/1.4 or 85/1.8 can do pretty well.
A 70-200VR will be treated as 'professional' lens no matter how you explain its purpose, they just wont listen.

You may want to keep the bowens and brollies at home!

P

I would still tend to contact the promoter, not the venue as the promoter/artist representation may have no problem at all with you taking photos with any type of camera, this will overide any restrictions that the venue have in place

Cheers
Rod

This are the responses I got from frontiertouring:

my first enquiry is about a D70 with 50mm lens,
the second enquiry is about a CoolPix 5900.

Hi CD,

We believe that a camera of this size should be fine to take into the
venue, but you're best to double check this with the venue themselves.
Different venues have different security policies, so to be 100% sure,
please check in with the venue closer the show date.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards
Frontier

-----Original Message-----
From: nokin@tpg.com.au [mailto:nokin@tpg.com.au]
Sent: Thursday, 10 August 2006 8:22 PM
To: Frontier Info
Subject: RE: taking photos

Thanks for your reply,

would you allow a pocket size Nikon Coolpix 5900 which is a point and
shoot
camera ?
Again this is for my personal use only - no commercial aspect whatsoever


Quoting Frontier Info <info@frontiertouring.com.au>:

> Hi CD,
>
> Thanks for your enquiry. Unfortunately a camera of this size won't
> be
> allowed into the venue.
>
> Hope you enjoy the show.
>
> Kind regards
> Frontier

Hi there,
>
> could you kindly inform me what your policy about the following is.
> I'd really like to take some nice concert photos of the Billy Joel
> concert.
> This is for my personal use only - no commercial aspect whatsoever -
> memorabillia,
> a momento.
...
I do however have a Nikon D70 and would like to use it with my 50mm
> f1.8 lens.

I'll probably leave the D70 at home, don't want any hassle.

Cheers,
CD

FWIW Christian, the D70 with a 45 f/2.8 P looks quite like a Coolpix of some description.

Well I'm going to the G3 concert later on this year, hopefully they'll allow DSLRs in.