A photo pass is a different night. Credential, real body, lens that comes off. That is not this.
This is a ticket like everybody else. Stubb’s, Emo’s, Bayou Music Center, South Side Ballroom — most of them bounce a camera with a removable lens. Some bounce anything that looks like a documentary is being made. Phones are fine until the light dies and the frame is a blur of a spotlight that cannot be used.
“No professional cameras” usually means no interchangeable lens. A point-and-shoot that does not come apart is the loophole written on purpose. Some nights still say no cameras at all. Then the phone is the camera, and the pictures still exist.
Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark III
The one that gets named in a parking lot. 1-inch sensor. f/1.8-2.8. Flip screen. It looks like a camera an aunt would own, which is why it gets in. Spare battery in a pocket, because it dies when the night is working.
Sony ZV-1 II and ZV-1F
Smaller. The F is cheaper and wider. Good if the bag needs to disappear and the crop from the back bar does not have to be tight.
Sony RX100 VII
If the money is there and somebody is moving under bad light. Still a fixed lens. Still check the door.
Looks too serious
Do not walk up to GA with something that reads like a Leica. A Ricoh in a quiet room is fine. In a metal-detector line with a guard who was told “no real cameras,” it can still earn the leave-it-in-the-car speech. Do not argue. Get to the spot.
Do not bring a camcorder. Do not bring a GoPro on a stick. Do not look like the show is being worked if it is not. The G7 X shoots 4K. That does not mean the night should look like a film set. When they say no cameras, the phone is the camera. When the email was not read and the compact stayed in the car, the phone is the camera.
