I basically take seven types of photos, and I will deal with those one by one.

1. Events.

Most events I attend are concerts, theaters, carnivals and similar types of events. For this kind of event, I bring the EOS 1D Mark IV because of its good low-light performance, the 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM or the EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM, plus an additional battery. I might also bring a flash if that’s allowed. These kinds of photos are mostly for personal use, so if I bring a backup, it will be the Canon Powershot 210SX.

2. Sports.

My favourite sports are motorsports and ice hockey. What all the sports have in common, though, is that they all require a really fast camera, both with respect to shutter speed, frames per second and high-ISO capabilities. Indeed, many sports are even performed in the evenings or indoors. The perfect lens for ice hockey is the 70-200mm lens, but since I do not own one, I mostly bring the 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM, although it is a bit too long. For backup, I bring the EOS 50D and the 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM.

3. Nature.

For nature photography there is only one thing that works, the EOS 1D Mark IV and the EF 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM. I have started bringing a flash as fill-light for those close-up shots of frogs and other critters. I have tried bringing the 50D and 24-105mm f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM for landscape shots, but I rarely use it.

4. Family.

I normally bring the EOS 50D, the EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM and the flash for family photos. If we have an outing, I might bring the 100-400mm f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM as well.

5. Museums.

The most important thing to bring to a museum is a big-ass flash gun, in particular for airplane museums, and when taking walk-around photos. The camera in this case is much less important. I typically bring the EOS 50D. Of course, the lens is the EF 24-105 f/4.0 L IS USM. At times, like at the Duxford Air Show, the museum visit is combined with and airshow, and the bag contains more stuff. Now, because I always run out of batteries, I always bring my Fuji Finepix A800. This camera has saved me more times than I would like to remember, simply by the fact that runs on normal AA batteries which can be bought anywhere.

6. Airshows.

Most of my airshow events take place overseas, and are very important to me, so I always bring backup to these events. My main equipment is the EOS 1D Mark IV and the EF 100-400 f/4.0-5.6 L IS USM. My backup is the EF 50D. I also bring the 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM for flight line photos.

7. Touristy stuff.

I like to travel light and mostly I bring the 50D and the 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM which is an awesome combination for walk-around photography. It’s not quite wide enough for photos of famous landmarks and buildings, but I normally solve this by stitching several photos together by software when I get home. It’s also not quite long enough for close-ups, and the only solution is either to bring a longer lens (which I don’t) or crop the final photo (which I do):

I own one more camera, the EOS 350D. This camera was a low-end camera when I bought it. It’s actually a really good camera, despite its 8MP sensor, its miniscule LCD display and relatively poor low-light performance, and I have been using it as my main camera for almost 9 years. I still like it because of its small size and low weight. It’s perfect for airline museums and tourist pictures and I still use it once in a while.