Bags, Bags, Bags

Camera bags that is. I just ordered another camera bag. If I really thought about it I could count the number of bags I’ve bought, but why bother it would take a while. Some I still have, some I’ve sold and others are almost ready to put on EBay to be sold. It seems like the perfect camera bag just doesn’t exist. They look so organized in the pictures in the catalogs but for some reason they just don’t hold my equipment. I think they must use cutouts in the pictures instead of the real stuff.

Hopefully this will be the last of the bags I buy for a long time. Now I have three camera carrying ‘systems’. 'Systems' because two are bags and one is a belt.

Last fall I bought into the Think Tank Modulus system which consists of a couple of pouches on a waistbelt. I have 4 pouches and I can carry 3 lenses, filters, batteries and other small stuff. It worked very well shooting the north shore last fall. Strap it on and go shooting.

Then I bought a Think Tank Urban Disguise 40 for our trip to Florida in December. This is a rather sleek shoulder bag that carries the same equipment as the belt system and a little more. I can also put my camera body and flash in this bag. It is a great lightweight setup, although it does get a little heavy with all the gear in it. It will be really good for around town and I love that it doesn’t scream out ‘expensive camera equipment’. As it’s name implies ‘Urban Disguise’ it looks just like another professionals bag.

The latest camera bag is a 'real' camera bag. While it won’t hold all of my lenses it will hold almost everything I would need for a multi-day shoot, including a laptop. The Tamrac 613 is a rather large shoulder bag, the kind of bag I thought I would never get. But I have to admit I have been seriously influences by a photography video I’ve seen recently, thanks Ralph. In the video the pros, about which the video is about, are seen scurrying around the wilderness carrying pretty large camera bags. I also took a workshop last fall and the instructor had a similar bag. They are able to pull out stuff I would have had to leave at home with the smaller bags I’ve owned. Plus this bag should be a good bag to store my equipment in at home.

The good thing is that I was able to find the last two bags on EBay so I saved a ton of money. Now I need to get a couple of my bags listed on EBay.

Roger