Boys' Toys

Several people have asked me in recent weeks the inevitable kit-questions. Normally, I just say 'Canon' and leave it at that, preferring to see my cameras & lenses as tools of the trade rather than to marvel at the amount of buttons, custom functions, megapixels and variety of colour matrixes available.

BUT (there always is a but...) - this assignment is different, in the sense that it is ship-based and the destination is the Antarctic ice of the Southern Ocean. It means that what you've got is all that you will have, and no place to go if things break and need fixing or replacement.

So 'spares' was the magic word when I prepared for this trip, and spares is what I have a lot of: spare bodies, spare lenses, spare laptop, spare hard disks, spare chargers, spare batteries, spare cables, spare everything except for a spare pair of eyes or spectacles - those I didn't get done before leaving, and I do regret that now. Anyhow, before boring you any longer, here's my photographic kit list for those nerdy-minded correspondents among you - the computer stuff is just too boring to list, so I'll spare you (excuse the pun) the details:

Cameras:

1x EOS 1Ds II
2x EOS 1D II
1x EOS 5D
1x EOS 10D
1x PowerShot S70
1x Nikon D200 + underwater housing + 10 & 16mm fisheye lenses (Thanks Gavin!)
1x Linhof Technorama 617 S with Schneider 90/5.6 Super Angulon lens

Lenses:

1x EF 16-35/2.8 L
1x EF 17-35/2.8 L
1x EF 24-105/4.0 L IS
2x EF 70-200/2.8 L IS
1x EF 24/1.4 L
1x EF 35/1.4 L
1x EF 50/1.2 L
1x EF 50/1.4
1x EF 85/1.2 L
1x EF 85/1.8
1x EF 100/2.0
1x EF 135/2.0 L
1x EF 300/2.8 L IS
1x EF 500/4.0 L IS
1x EF 1.4x II Extender
1x EF 2.0x II Extender

When you have the whole lot in one place, you can't help thinking that it would do Mr Canon proud - what a good customer I've been, I just wish this stuff wasn't so expensive...
Given how much space this took to pack, I find it rather amusing that all of it fits into my toilet-sized cupboard workspace on the Esperanza, which you can see here: