Mark and Tracey Crown (@crown_photo) are a husband and wife creative team. They've been married for 15 years and they've run their photography business together for the last 10 years. The Crowns focus primarily on weddings, but also shoot a wide variety of lifestyle and corporate sessions during the winter and spring seasons. In addition to still photography, they also shoot wedding films which is where their love affair with Sony cameras all began.

They bought a particular camera so they could offer some video to their clients, but it ended up changing everything for this dynamic wedding duo.

“We weren’t always Sony shooters, but when we decided to start offering wedding films in 2015 we purchased a Sony Alpha 7S II to be our primary camera for filming and fell in love with it! A few months later Mark brought it along to a photography only wedding we were shooting just to have some fun with it and compare the images. Tracey took one look at the images when we got home and said we needed to switch! The dynamic range, color and image quality was just not even close. Since then we’ve purchased a lot of Sony cameras.” Keep reading for a breakdown of what they’re currently using for wedding photo and video.

Cameras

Sony Alpha 7R III: We love this camera so much that we have three of them. Our primary workhorse camera for every session we photograph, we absolutely love the Alpha 7R III for its 48-megapixel sensor and incredible dynamic range. During a wedding day we’re shooting in all kinds of different lighting conditions and we haven’t found a camera that handles the demands of our run-and-gun style so seamlessly. The auto-focus is laser sharp and incredibly fast. Whether we’re in AF-S for portraits or AF-C while the bride’s coming down the aisle there is never a moment we miss because our camera can’t perform, and that is worth its weight in gold!

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 35mm f/1.4. 1/320-sec., f/2, ISO 640

We also use this camera body for filming weddings (for secondary angles and reactions) and have been very impressed with the image quality of the 1080p 60FPS footage as well as the 4K 30FPS footage.

Sony Alpha 7S III: This is Mark’s primary video camera. With the ability to film in 4K 60FPS and still hold all of the crisp detail towards the edges of the frame, this camera has changed the look of our films dramatically! The tilt screen makes flying it on a gimbal super simple, and the IBIS (In-Body Image Stabilization) allows Mark to shoot handheld shots during the portrait and getting ready sessions where a gimbal would interfere with the pace and intimacy of the moment. There might not be a better camera anywhere in the universe for wedding videography.

Lenses

Tracey’s Lenses

Sony 35mm f/1.4: One of our favorite lenses for any situation because of how versatile it is. We use the 35mm for the getting ready, ceremony, portraits and reception images. With its super fast aperture and stunning color/detail this Sony Distagon lens is one we’ve recommended to numerous up-and-coming photographers. It is sharp as a tack and allows us to keep enough of our surroundings to show context.

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 35mm f/1.4. 1/500-sec., f/3.2, ISO 320

Sony 50mm f/1.4: Tracey’s favorite lens. There is just nothing better than a sharp, wide open 50mm. Our SEL Planar F/1.4 is super sharp and the bokeh is so dreamy. This is our primary portrait lens, but when we have the space to back up at larger reception venues we will use this lens for the dances and details too! You can be sure that one of us will ALWAYS have this lens on a camera during the wedding day.

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 50mm f/1.4. 1/640-sec., f/2, ISO 160

Mark’s Lenses

Sony 35mm f/1.8: Mark chose this smaller 35mm because of how light and compact it is. While filming on the Ronin gimbal the smaller footprint of the lens makes balancing much easier. Though we don’t love it quite as much as the Distagon F/1.4 the fast aperture and good color profiles of this lens makes it super useful and we use it all the time.

Sony 85mm f/1.8: Mark uses this lens when he needs to fly a tighter focal length on his gimbal. The 85mm focal length is so perfect for portraits and this lens is light and fast enough to run perfectly on the gimbal!

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7S III. Sony 85mm f/1.8. 1/800-sec., f/2, ISO 500

Sony 55mm f/1.8: The first lens we bought when we converted to Sony and still one of the ones we use the most! This partnership between Sony and Zeiss has resulted in a super lightweight, super sharp, incredibly reliable lens with extremely fast autofocus. As a bonus, the autofocus is so quiet that it doesn’t affect the audio recordings while Mark is filming! We would recommend this lens to anyone and everyone without hesitation.

​​Sony 70-200mm f/4 G: Mark’s favorite lens and an absolute workhorse for wedding days. We love the compression of this lens at 200mm and the way that it makes everything else except the couple fall away to nothing. We use this for both photography and video coverage of the ceremony as well as portraits and to capture speeches in the receptions. One other amazing feature about this lens is that it has independent Image Stabilization, which you can combine with the Alpha 7S III IBIS for incredibly steady footage. It’s not uncommon for Mark to handhold this lens while shooting video at 200mm!

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 70-200mm f/4 G. 1/400-sec., f/4, ISO 800

Accessories

HoldFast Gear Moneymaker Straps: We don’t go to a single session without these straps. They look so cool, allow us to drop our cameras down to our sides when we need to lend a hand and save our backs from being sore by the end of a 12-hour wedding day! For Tracey especially, having a strap that cuts across her body was quite frustrating and not very flattering. Instead, we are constantly complimented on how cool our straps look. They’ve become part of our uniform for every wedding.

Speedlights (3): We need to be prepared for any lighting situation, so we’ve learned to shoot with speedlights in manual mode, which allows us to use our old Canon units as well as a cheap third-party unit we bought online.

DJI Ronin RS2 Gimbal: This gimbal makes filming so much more fun! We love going on adventures with our couples and we need to be able to shoot stable footage no matter what’s going on. Having this gimbal means that Mark can follow a couple, create movement during portraits and track important moments during the ceremony and reception without worrying about his footage looking like it came from the Blair Witch Project.

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 50mm f/1.4. 1/4000-sec., f/1.8, ISO 160

Tasca DRL-10 Voice Recorders: Mark loves these recorders because they are super compact and he can put them almost anywhere. We usually mic the Groom and officiant during a wedding ceremony with their own independent units. We also prefer them because they are hard-wired units and so you don’t have to worry about wireless interference. One other super cool option is that you can record two tracks simultaneously at different levels, to ensure you don’t clip your audio in the event that someone starts speaking loudly.

Rode Link Filmmaker Lavs: Sometimes it’s nice to be able to send your audio signal from a DJ’s board to your camera and that’s what we use these wireless lav units for. Nothing flashy or amazing, but they are pretty reliable.

Smallrig Camera Cage (For Sony Alpha 7S III): As we mentioned earlier, Mark really enjoys shooting video portrait sessions handheld and this smallrig cage has made that job so much easier. The added weight and top handle give the footage a cinematic feel that we’ve really come to enjoy.

Photo by Mark & Tracey Crown. Sony Alpha 7R III. Sony 35mm f/1.4. 1/2000-sec., f/2.2, ISO 250

Drone: When it’s safe and where we’re licensed to fly it, we love using our drone to capture fun portraits as well as cool establishing shots for our films.

INVISII 2 Pocket LED Video Light: Sometimes you just need a “pop” of light behind your subject and we really like this INVISII LED light. It’s color adjustable and the battery life is good enough to last for a wedding day. It’s also the light we use to help our cameras focus during night photos that are backlit with speedlights.

Clear Umbrellas (Times A Million): When you’re photographing 30-38 weddings per year you can almost be certain that you will have a few rainy days in there. So we decided early that we would be prepared to offer the best experience no matter what the weather is doing. Every year we roll into our local dollar store and buy 20 or so clear umbrellas that we keep in the trunk of our car. In the event that it rains, all of the wedding party get a clear umbrella to stay dry. We like the clear ones because they don’t cause shadows to fall on our subject’s faces on the darker/cloudy days.

See more of Mark and Tracey Crown’s work on Instagram @crown_photo and at crownphotography.ca.