LONDON 2012 - CAMERAS, BAGS, RESTRICTIONS, ETC - PLEASE POST HERE

Had a great day at the Athletics with my D7000 and hoodless Sigma 150-500mm, 18-105mm kit lens and 10.5mm fisheye. People sitting either side of me were very understanding when I whipped out my Sigma! Guy beside me then pulled out his Canon 100-400 with hood attached! Had people around us chuckling with the sight of the ridiculous length of our lenses! Army guys at X-ray machines had no questions whatsoever when my bag passed through. Also saw so many tripods around the Olympic park!
 
I too had a great morning at the Athletics yesterday.... 450d, 70-200 L in it's pouch, Kenko 1.4x TC and 17-85 attached... no one batted an eyelid... to be honest... the 70-200 was one of the smaller lenses in and around my seat...
 
Bloody useless bunch of morons at AP. They've been publishing nothing but negative stories about amateur photographers and the Olympics since the initial announcement. The latest bit of trash journalism was the final straw.

Why are they not publishing stories like - "Thousands of people manage to get big cameras and long lenses into games venues with no problems" or "Not a single soul has been blocked from taking their camera gear into an Olympic venue"?
 
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I got into the North Greenwich Arena without too many issues - with a Canon 60D + battery grip + 100-400mm lens. The person who did my bag search looked a little 'off' until he pulled my ticket out of the plastic folder it was in and noticed I had a printout of the article about the *** refusing to clarify camera rules; he raised an eyebrow then let me in. Didn't have any problems one in and at my seat.

This is some of the finals of the individual women's floor exercise as taken from Block 420 Row K
[YOUTUBE]y7CcshreNZg[/YOUTUBE]

I'm quite happy with the results, and the video is a lot better than the photos I took. Next time I wouldn't bother with photos.

*I did notice two people with monopods in there, but nobody else with Canon L lenses. There was one person with a rather long looking camera bag on the way out - Nikon kit I believe.
 
I was at the Olympic Stadium last night. There was a young guy with a monopod sat in front of me. He was using an entry-level Nikon (think it was a 3200) and a Tamron zoom lens (probably a 70-300).
Didn't see any other monopods, but there were a fair few SLRs.

I had a baby strapped to me in a sling, so only took a GF2 and 14-140. Not checked them on PC yet but I doubt they are good enough to show off (but good enough for memories...)
 
Went to the Olympic Park last night for the athletics and there was no problem wih kit at all - they were only interested in passing you through the metal detectors. Didn't even open the bag, it just got scanned and that was it.

Have fun if you're going - the atmosphere was brilliant.
 
I'm lucky enough to have got tickets for the Paralympic Athletics on Monday and im thinking of hiring a lens for my 60D. Looks like I will be lucky to find any availability of the canon 70-700 but I can get a 100-400 do you think I will be OK getting this in?

Also I have to eat a really strict diet for health reasons will there be any problem with me taking sandwiches into the stadium?
 
mattd said:
I'm lucky enough to have got tickets for the Paralympic Athletics on Monday and im thinking of hiring a lens for my 60D. Looks like I will be lucky to find any availability of the canon 70-700 but I can get a 100-400 do you think I will be OK getting this in?

Also I have to eat a really strict diet for health reasons will there be any problem with me taking sandwiches into the stadium?
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100-400 will be fine, plenty have been in with this lens.
Your sandwiches will be fine too. I had to take lunch, dinner and snacks for a 4 year old to the park on several occasions and never had a problem. Just don't take more than 100ml liquids as you'll be made to pour it away it drink it.

Have a great time.
 
mattd said:
I'm lucky enough to have got tickets for the Paralympic Athletics on Monday and im thinking of hiring a lens for my 60D. Looks like I will be lucky to find any availability of the canon 70-700 but I can get a 100-400 do you think I will be OK getting this in?
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I had no problems getting in with my 100-400.

mattd said:
Also I have to eat a really strict diet for health reasons will there be any problem with me taking sandwiches into the stadium?
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None at all. The restriction is against excessive amounts of food. The 'back-pocket guide' I was given as a volunteer defined 'excessive' as 'more than will fit in a 25L bag'.
 
Was wondering same - are the military people still doing security?

Had no problems at the Olympics....
 
Me and Yv have just been to the Equestrian at Greenwich and the military are still doing the security checkpoints. The guy who we had asked to see our cameras and asked if we had accreditation. We said we hadn't but they were our own cameras for personal use and we checked the criteria to do only the allowance and he said fine and let us through.

Our whole experience today of the volunteers and staff and police was superb. We even got pictures of the police doing the Mo-bot and the Bolt.
Everyone had a smile even though it had poured down. Two of the volunteers even gave us their rain ponchos.
 
Excellent, thanks for the advice. I have a Canon 100-400 on its way from the hire company, really looking forward to it!
 
Back again at Greenwich Park this morning. Exactly the same bag etc. Straight through with an "Enjoy your day"
 
kelack said:
Back again at Greenwich Park this morning. Exactly the same bag etc. Straight through with an "Enjoy your day"
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Is a 70-200 on a crop going to be useful, or too short?

What were the queues like to get in? Going tomorrow for a 10.00 event start (unfortunately, many of the events I wanted to see have been removed from the schedule...)
 
I went to the Athletics last night and had a great time, everything was fine getting in and the Air Force guys who checked our bags were excellent.

The queues were quite long on the way out particularly at the station but that was more to do with South Eastern Trains only running 4 coaches so cant blame the Olympic people for that.

Overall it was a great experience and I have some excellent pictures.
 
So guys you I will be ok with my gripped 7d and 17-55 this is the combo I am thinking of taking unless anyone can suggest different from my lens line up.
 
1.2f said:
So guys you I will be ok with my gripped 7d and 17-55 this is the combo I am thinking of taking unless anyone can suggest different from my lens line up.
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If you're not OK then I'm really in the deep doo-doo. I'm going to the athletics tonight with my 7D, 10-22, 24-105 and 100-400.
 
1.2f said:
So guys you I will be ok with my gripped 7d and 17-55 this is the combo I am thinking of taking unless anyone can suggest different from my lens line up.
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As long as you can fit it in a 25l bag and the lens isn't longer than 30cm in length you'll be Ok. As you can see from this thread, people have already taken much larger kit than you and had no problems.
 
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