Bag Camera

Camera Bags

by Philip Greenspun

The great thing about camera bags is that no matter how much you spend, you will never be at peace with one camera bag. It will always be too big, too small, not padded enough to check through, not slim enough to carry on, ... . You may be sure only of the following:

* you will eventually have a closet full of camera bags
* you will never regret having spent big bucks for quality

Ideal Shopping Procedure

The best way to shop for a camera bag is to gather up all of the gear that you think you'll be likely to use on a typical project and walk into a well-stocked camera store. Budget at least an hour to find the bag that best fits the gear collection.
The holster

A holster-style bag is sized precisely for one camera body attached to a particular lens. The ThinkTank web site is a good illustration of the possibilities. Tamrac is an alternative high quality supplier and publishes a useful fit chart. The holster is not used in between photographs; the camera needs to be kept out and ready. The holster is used to protect the camera/lens between projects and when the camera/lens is tossed into a standard backpack or duffel bag.
The small bag

A small bag holds a camera body, three lenses, and maybe a flash. Typically these are rectangular bags with a shoulder strap. Perhaps the classic example is Domke, the perennial favorite of photojournalists. I find this kind of bag good for leaving under a table at a wedding reception, but not great for access to gear while I'm in motion.

A minor improvement on the standard design is the addition of a waist belt that can be tucked back away when not in use. The waist belt, pioneered with the venerable Tamrac 709, stabilizes the bag on a long walk.

Some designs worth investigation:

* LowePro, especially the AW versions that are rain-proof
* ThinkTank Urban Disguise (shoulder bags) and Change Up (waist belt, backpack straps, chest harness); the ThinkTank bags include an integrated rain cover that can be spread over the bag

Photo.net reviews of small bags:

* Lowepro Photo Runner
* Lowepro Off Road
* Lowepro Slingshot 300 AW
* Lowepro Compudaypack
* Bags for small Rangefinder or DSLR cameras (Crumpler, Lowepro, Domke, Mclassics, & Billingham)

Once a shoulder bag becomes large enough to hold enough equipment to cover a wedding or an entire medium format system, it becomes awkward to carry and difficult to dig through. Consider a backpack. The best big camera bags that the author has used is the LowePro SuperTrekker AW backpack.

The SuperTrekker is a big frameless backpack divided up with foam. It has only one level so you don't have to figure out what goes on top of what, as with big shoulder bags. I've stuffed this one bag with two Canon EOS bodies, five EOS lenses (including a big telephoto L zoom), plus a Fuji 617 monster, lots of accessories, a tripod and film (it was that long ago!). The bag was not quite full. You can configure the case to hold a 600/4, a 300/2.8, a folding view camera, or maybe even all three.

Back before I got old/wise enough to hire assistants, I found the SuperTrekker very comfortable to wear and it had thoughtful and clever design features that took years to appreciate fully. The SuperTrekker can be a little tight for putting in an airline overhead bin, though a couple of times I checked it with no ill results.

The tripod case on the back is worth mentioning. It separates from the backpack if you wish to carry it separately, is big enough for a Manfrotto/Bogen 3021 and ballhead, and is well padded with foam.

If you are caught in the rain with the bag, unfurl the built-in rain fly.
The photo backpack

The SuperTrekker is too big and heavy to carry while taking pictures and, even if you force an assistant to wear it, getting lenses out while the backpack is in a vertical position is not easy. LowePro makes some smaller backpacks that are worth investigating. The Rotation 360 from ThinkTank is perhaps the most interesting idea in photo backpacks. The lower part of the pack can be swiveled around to your front temporarily. It opens at the top so that you can conveniently change lenses while standing and wearing the rest of the pack on your back.

source:photo.net