Gear advice sought for piano recital

[[but am concerned about it's focusing speed.]]

Is your daughter a very dynamic player? Does she move and jump around while playing? Is she likely to move so quickly that you won't be able to focus on her?

(These are rhetorical questions, Mark.)

Take a single photo and then sit down and listen to her play. Afterwards, stage it so you can shoot 'till your heart's content.

You dont want to use flash (distracts player), you dont want too much click click click (distracts everyone) and you dont want to change lenses too much (it'll distract you).
If it was me......well I'd use the 5D2's fantastic low-light video function, set it up ahead of time as close to her as you can get with the ideal lens for the distance, set it running leave it alone until the clip limit is reached and trigger again etc until the end, and enjoy the wonders of your daughter's performance live and relive it again and again in HD later.

Have you ever performed in a recital? As a child? My advice is NOT to photograph any of the children while they're playing. Do posed shots after the recital. One snap of the shutter, flash or no, is enough to trip up your young daughter and render her utterly embarrassed in front of a small sea of judjment. Very simply, don't create any distractions for the children. This is one of those moments in which it's best to set down the camera and enjoy the moment. :-)

C'mon, it is a piano recital, not Mick Jagger jumping around. Pianos don't move so focus speed is not that important, just prefocus (as an aside, yeah, the EF 85/1.2 is not a focusing speed demon but given enough light it will focus faster than many a zoom...)
OTOH 85 mm may be not long enough and/or there might be not enough light, although the later is not really a big concern because I can easily get 1/125s @ f/2.8 in many classical concert venues @ ISO 800-1600.

I'm with Sarah on this one. Enjoy the recital and leave the camera at home. If you still feel pictures are a must, stage them before or afterwards. She'll be under enough pressure without having dad moving around trying to get the perfect shot.

Take it from someone who has filmed and photographed lots of recitals and other indoor performances by children (not always mine) - take your whole bag of lenses with you and, before the show starts, see what works. While most of the comments above warn you against disturbing your child, the other children and the audience (and all of these comments are wise, for sure), I am guessing you have already formed that judgment and have decided to join the legion of the other parents (probably 50% of those attending) who have also chosen to film or photograph their children.

If you choose filming (and I guess we are talking about a 2 minute to 5 minute clip here, right?), you can always pull decent (not magazine cover) quality stills from the video footage. Even though the 70-200 f/4 is the slowest lens you have mentioned, I will bet that will work just fine. Be sure to custom your white balance before you begin filming. Do you have an external zoom microphone - that would be nice but not necessary. If you do film, manually check your sound levels and set them based on the performances before your child's. If a tripod is too imposing, bring a monopod. Sit in the back with your monopod and the 70-200 f/4 - but, if you are too far back, you will wish you had a good zoom mic like the Sennheiser MKE 400.

If you must take photos - and, at your child's age, I'll bet plenty people will take photos -

Your distance from the piano will have a bunch to do with determining what lens to use. I think you will feel comfortable with an ISO of up to 3200 - so any of the lenses will maybe be fast enough - even the f/4 with its IS - and your child will not be moving around much anyway. (But I'd probably try to position myself relative to the piano so that my 135/2 would be the best choice). Consider setting for live view and that will keep the clicking of the shutter to a minimum. As stated above, try to take a bare minimum of shots. Do not use the flash unless everyone else does. Of course, you will shoot in RAW, so, you need not worry much about the WB. I agree with the comment above that filming the recital would be more memorable. If you are really intense and the footage is great, consider posting it unlisted on YouTube to show to anyone who wanted to go to the recital but could not. Show it again to your daughter at her wedding reception...

Strangely enough, we had cameras even back in the 1960's when I was a small child performing in piano recitals, and my mom was the very stereotype of a camera bug. Did she (or any of the other parents) pull out her Leica IIIf and pop off a bulb in the middle of any of my pieces? Thankfully, no. She knew I was already a bundle of nerves as it was, and she didn't want to do anything to compromise my brilliant performance of "Whirly Spook" (the composition I chose for my debut). Sometimes I think parents these days take too many photos, and I pity the kids.

The video idea sounds like a good one, though.

Video the live performance and stage all the photos you want after the performance.

I'm a dad to 3 pianists and the first thing that their teacher told me 10 years ago was that if I ever wanted to not get invited to future recitals, just take a photo during their playing.

I've been to dozens of recitals and it is the same every time - some parent, meaning well, snaps a photo of their child playing and it throws the child off their game.

Video yes, still photos No. Pose those after the show and you'll all be happier.

Dave

David - it's a given that one does not take photos, videos, or eat crackers during a piano recital without getting permission first and most won't - or shouldn't - even with permission. Since the poster took the time to ask our advice re the equipment, I am more than certain he will have equally good sense in checking with the organizers of the event for protocol. I am sure that's already done.

Sarah - loved your note. Of course, one of my favorite photos - which I can no longer locate - is a shot of me on a stage in 1962 (I was about 5 years old) with the family lime green Kodak (a square box - looked like a jack in the box) dangling from my hand on its strap. It's funny that we, as photographers, can actually look back and say how glad we are, decades later, that our parents refrained from taking a photograph of an event we remember so fondly! That's not a criticism - I do the same!