Cover up. Or not

I was recently up in my attic looking for slides worth scanning.

As in usually the the case I got distracted and began looking in other containers as well. I came across my old lens caps. 

I learnt early on in my career that situations can change fluidly when you are on a job. For this reason, I have never bought an ever ready case, ( also known as a never ready case ) to put my camera in. There's nothing more frustrating than trying hurriedly to get a picture but first having to snap open two studs on the case, manoeuvre  it over the camera and lens, switch on the camera then bring it up to eye level ready to shoot.

 My old lens caps. Some dating back to 1982.

My solution is to get rid of the caps and to protect the front element of the lens with a good quality UV or skylight filter and a deep lens hood. In the early days I used the collapsible rubber lens hoods which also acted as shock absorbers.

 Body caps. L-R  EF, FD and FL (I think)

If I later sell a lens, I will of course include the lens cap but I do tend to keep my equipment for a long time.

It's embarrassing to bring the camera up to eye level then realise that everything in the viewfinder is dark. Also if you are using a range finder camera (without live view obviously), you probably wouldn't notice that the lens cap was on like this unfortunate gentleman. . . .

Thanks for reading.