Serendipitous altruism

I have another lucky opportunity to shoot an international soccer game from the sidelines on invitation by the Guinean national team. Last time’s soccer photography packing list was about a true ghetto rig. This time I managed to gather quite enough decent hardware :

• Canon EF 24-70/2.8 L
• Canon EF 70-200/2.8 L
• Canon EF 300/2.8 L
• Canon EF 1.4x Extender
• Canon Speedlite 580EX with two sets of four 2400 mAh batteries.
• Manfrotto 681B monopod with Manfrotto 3229 swivel head with quick release.
• Canon Eos 400D with Canon BG-E3 and four 950 mAh NB-2LH batteries.
• Canon Eos 30D with five somewhat aged BP511 batteries of various nominal capacities between 1100 and 1400 mAh.
• 8.5 GB worth of Compact Flash cards.
• Vosonic X’S-Drive VP2060
• Can of pressured dry air, moist lens wipes and a Gerber tool
• A 300D and a 380EX for backup.

That is definitely serious hardware. I guess that any excuses about a poor rig won’t be taken seriously this time… Building on my previous soccer photography experience, here is what I intend to do :

• The 300/2.8 with the 1.4x Extender will go on the 30D perched on top of the monopod assembly.
• The 70-200/2.8 L will go on the 400D with the BG-E3. The 580EX will join them as soon as speed at f/2.8 and ISO 1600 falls to 1/125s.
• I’ll keep the 24-70/2.8 at hand just in case there is really close action. Last time, except for the penalty shoots and a few lucky close encounters, the 24-70 on the second body was way too short. I felt that the 70-200 would be much more useful. I’ll test that hypothesis today.

We’ll soon see what I can do with all that…