Wolf-pack goes 5 and 0 and head for EuroBasket
Warm and humid night in Tirana - with Susijengi going 5 and 0 in the EuroBasket qualification + challenging times for Canon 1DX
Right - this entry is as much about basketball as it is about the performance of Canon 1DX in the very low light conditions.. we start with the basketball :-)
It was yet another of the 'unknowns' of basketball world as Finland traveled to Tirana to face Albania - and the team managed to give the Finns quite a scare in the opening half of the game. The Finns once again were finding it hard to get going on the road, with the same effect having been witnessed in Switzerland earlier on this week - and Albania hung in the game quite well until the half time.. when coach Dettman surely once again gave a rousing half-time speech for his players, who duly stepped up and delivered with a strong second half performance.
Finland were missing their long time absentee Teemu Rannikko, as well as veteran Hanno Mottola from their line up in Tirana - but one of the strengths of the team is their rotation. This time it was Roope Ahonen, a player who only joined the National team earlier this summer, who shot almost 20 points and recorded his best performance in the senior team. But the Finns top scorer was Shawn Huff - who managed to get almost 30 points in the game..
Plenty of rest time for some of the 'key players' - like Koponen, Lee, Salin.. which hopefully will help the 'Wolf pack' once Poland comes calling on Wednesday at the Ice Rink in Helsinki. The win in Tirana all but guarantees Finland a EuroBasket spot for 2013 in Slovenia.. only a way Finland are out is if they lose all three remaining games.. or if they lose to Poland and then to Belgium by over 40 points (i think).
Game today did not offer anything special with the level of play on offer, Albania played at their own pace and for half of the game Finland allowed themselves to be slowed down to the same pace. Both teams were guilty of missing some basic shots from inside the paint - and both coaches possibly came out of the game with few more grey hairs.
The crowd initially seemed like half of them would be Finnish (that was when we had about 10 people in with 10 minutes until tip-off) - but the rest found their way in to the arena.. and we ended up with maybe 150-200 people watching the game.. and they were treated to few slam-dunks from both sides of the court.. Albanians of course getting the loudest cheer.
After the game, it was the usual routine.. one is still sitting in the press box (although I was the only one there 2 minutes after the game had ended) editing away.. and the lights are being slowly switched off. Then off to the back corridor to get few comments from the players.. talk a bit more and then head to the hotel.
The Wi-Fi (yes, I know that's a boring fact) was stable inside the Arena - perhaps not as fast as would have been good to have, but the images were wiring to various clients from the opening minutes of the game. When one sends images during the game, the way the game is going really gets lost to you.. you see one side of the game, but you also have one eye on the computer and putting in keywords, players names.. and sending them on FTP, Email and Web galleries.
So - the Wolf Pack is now 5 and 0 in their EuroBasket qualifying, at a stage where they initially said they would have been content to be 2 and 3. Two tough games, Poland at home and Belgium away in the next SIX days for the team, before the final game in Helsinki against the Swiss. And with the way things are going, Finnish travel agents might be soon getting an influx of queries about flights and accommodation in Slovenia. Let's hope some group/individual gets the idea to organise a group tour for the fans to enjoy the EuroBasket 2013.
The Wi-Fi at the hotel - well, it was what I am used to on this travels, no hotel so far has offered REALLY GOOD speed on the internet - so once again it took over an hour to upload the interviews to YouTube - but finally got them there, time to pack up!
That's the basketball bit, so if you came for only that.. you can stop reading now!
Now we talk about the way my Canon 1DX handled the lighting at ISO8000/ISO6400 - now, if I would have had only my 1DMKIV, this would have been a BAD assignment. The lighting at the gym was with the VERY old lights that give light in 'waves' and the colour cast of each wave is slightly different so the White Balance of the images also keeps throwing surprises, as well as the lighting levels. But the changes are so sudden that metering at AV mode is not possible, so Manual mode it was and just having to live with the fact that some spots are under exposed and others over exposed. 
With the ISO8000/6400 - the shutter speeds were still only 1/500 or 1/640 at f2.8 - which tells something about how 'bad' it was. But I was quite happy with the way the 1DX handled the conditions - yes, the AF does suffer a little when it comes to these conditions, but the 'hit' rate was still better than I have had with a 1dMKIV in similar conditions. There was some visible noise in the images, but in general the way most images came out was good. And definitely a big improvement to previous models - so the 1DX really did save my bacon on this occasion, with one my clients being the main Press-photo Agency in Finland. 
Shame from my point of view that Finland play in dark strips away from home, so the dark blue jersey eats the light and on contrast the Albanian white strips would be much nicer to photograph. But - this is nice for the photographers back home, who must enjoy the white strips in the Helsinki Ice Rink.
I'll post few sample images at various lightings from the game - some of them are just crops of action for the basketball fans, but I'll add few 100% crops as well for the photographers to peep at. 
