Camera bags

I love camera bags. 

I am what you may call, a bit of a camera bag junkie!

I have six camera bags and an aluminium wheeled case.

In no particular order of preference, they are  .  .  .

Billingham 550

The oldest. 

I purchased it in 1988. It's a massive Billingham 550 and cost me £108 which, at the time was a LOT of money but I was prepared to pay this because lots of other photographers were using them as they are hard wearing.  The latest price on their website is now £500! You can read about it here. You can also read my review of it on that page.

The Billingham 550. 
Can accommodate one toddler or lots of camera gear

 

 

 

 

As I mentioned at the beginning, this bag is massive and oozes quality. With hand stitching, brass fittings and waterproof materials used in its construction, it's also quite heavy even when empty! It can comfortably seat an eighteen month old toddler and an SLR! I normally put loads of stuff in it or use it as an airline cabin bag.

Weighing in at 2.6 Kilograms empty, it's the bag that I put in my car and just take stuff out of it as I need it. At the moment it holds an EOS 6d, an EOS 7d plus grip, a 16 - 35 zoom, a 24 - 105 zoom, two Canon Speedlite 420 EX's plus cleaning cloths, batteries, memory cards and miscellaneous other items. The total weight of all these items together with the bag is 11 kilograms. Wash it occasionally with warm soapy water and treat it afterwards with a weatherproofing spray and it'll last for decades.


Billingham System 3

A smaller Billingham bag is also in my collection and I tend to use it for my GoPro Fusion or my Drone stuff. It's also an "oldie" and I paid about £20 for it second hand back in the early nineties (probably around 1994). I searched online for it to find out the model number but eventually resorted to contacting Billingham directly where the helpful Mel told me this: 

 

"The model of bag was a System. There were 3 versions of it System 2, System 3 or System 4. It definitely isn't a System 2, speaking to some of the longer working members of staff we think its a System 3 which was a predecessor to the 335".

I use it now for my GoPro Fusion 360 degree camera and an action camera together with all their accessories.

Hama Katoomba 190 RL

A more recent addition to my collection. The Hama Katoomba190RL. I bought it in 2012 to reduce the stress on my back and shoulders from years of using a normal camera bag. Old habits however die hard and I still find myself picking up and using one of my other "over the shoulder" bags. I wrote about it here and here. 

On my way to a photoshoot with the 

Katoomba and lighting stands

Really well designed and packs a lot in 

It also has a built in rainproof cover.

Tamrac 5606 System 6

Found in a charity shop. In my youth I always wanted a Tamrac but they were out of my price range. I use mine for my Fujifilm cameras. Mine holds a flash, an X-H1 with grip, an X-E2s, an 18-55 zoom, a 10-18 zoom, a 55 - 200 zoom, a 23mm and a 35mm plus batteries and memorycards This one has storage for rolls of film (which shows its age) and cost me twenty Swiss francs ($20 or £17).

 

My Tamrac provides lots of space and is great quality

 

Jessops noname 

Bought in London in the eighties. This bag has been a constant companion and has travelled the World with me. The colour has faded considerably but it is still lightweight and very comfortable to sling over my shoulder.

 

No name Jessop's own brand bag

 

Luckily the cat left before my job.

Mekko Report Series Professional Photo Bag

An impulse buy from an auction site. Not yet used and still in the cardboard box in which it arrived. Made in Taiwan from 100% natural cotton canvas with waterproof coating and lots of compartments and stainless steel hardware (zips, buckles etc.). It is a clone/copy of a similar Domke model but a lot less expensive. More details here. There is a great in-depth review of it on this site.

No Name former Makeup case

The last and most recent item in my collection is another charity shop find. 

It is a three section aluminium wheeled case. I paid the princely sum of twenty Swiss francs ($20 or £17) for it. There is no  maker's name visible and it has lots of bumps and scratches which bear testament to its ruggedness. A set of keys were included in the price. There is also a collapsible handle which makes it easy to handle and steer when wheeling it around.

  

 

According to a sticker which was attached to the case when I bought it, the former owner was a make up artist so I thoroughly cleaned it when I got it back home because I didn't want any left over residue (powders etc) getting inside my gear.

The case opened up.

As mentioned, it is in three separate compartments. I use the top compartment to hold lighting gear. There are three Speedlites, a Phottix Odin flash trigger set and various Lambency Universal light diffusors and filters.

The middle part holds two DSLR's and four lenses together with a small Tupperware container with spare batteries and memory cards in it and a bag with cleaning cloths.

The bottom section has all manner of accessories including screwdrivers, hotshoe spirit levels (invaluable), filters and batteries etc

This case is slowly getting more and more use from me especially on a big shoot.

So that's it. I have a collection of bags which have served and continue to serve me well.

Sometimes however, I just can be bothered to schlep a bag around with me and if I know that I won't be needing lots of equipment, I'll but take the bare minimum, like this when I recently did an interior shoot near Zürich!

EOS 6d, tripod and 16-35 zoom lens

Thanks for reading. Do you also have more than one camera bag? Let me know in the comments.

Tom

These are a few of my favourite things...

No this entry isn't going to be  about that song from "the Sound of Music"

Rather, I'm going to list some of the items that always have a place in my camera bag.

Let's start with the bag itself. Mine is a Billingham Classic 550. I bought it in the mid eighties when I was doing freelance press photography in London. I noticed that just about every other photographer I came across was using one. I stumped up (I think) £107 and bought one from Jessops in Tottenham Court Road in London. It's a heavy beast, even when it's empty!

Billingham Classic 550. Pic courtesy of Billingham bags

Weighing in at 2.6 Kilograms. It's the bag that I put in my car and just take stuff out of it as I need it. At the moment it holds an EOS 5d, an EOS 7d plus grip, a 70 - 200 zoom, a 28 - 135 zoom, a 17 - 40 zoom, a 50mm f1.8, a 24mm f2.8, a 16mm fisheye, a Canon Speedlite 420 EX plus two external drives, cables, card readers, cleaning cloth, batteries, memory cards and miscellaneous other items. The total weight of all these items together with the bag is 11 kilograms.Wash it occasionally with warm soapy water and treat it afterwards with a weatherproofing spray and it'll last for years.

Sto Fen bounce flash adaptor

Next is my Sto Fen flash bounce adaptor. Again I bought this in the eighties after seeing other snappers using them on jobs whilst working in London. It fits in the pocket and softens the flash light output. It's also useful for when there are dark or coloured ceilings which may influence the colour balance (remember I got this in the days before I could dial in my white balance).

Hotshoe spirit level

This is a little spirit level that I use to ensure that my shots are correctly aligned when shooting architecture. The little bubbles show if the camera is tilted up or down and whether it's correctly positioned with regards to a left or right tilt. My new EOS 7d has an electronic level built in which was actually one of the plus points that I considered when purchasing it.

 Panamatic panorama adaptor

The Panamatic camera adaptor has a built in spirit level and enables me to shoot a seies of photos one after another which can be later "stitched" together to make a panorama.

I bought both the panorama head and the spirit level from 7dayshop but they don't appear to list them anymore. They do however have an electronic level.

My Benbo tripod has been with me since June 1988. I've taken it everywhere with me. It can adapt to any uneven terrain and the legs are waterproof up to the first section. It looks unusual (even after all these years but I wouldn't be without mine.)

Vapor 1640 by Ken Onion

I always carry a knife with me and use it almost daily. There's always packing to cut open, an apple to peel or wires to cut and my 1640 VAPOR from Ken Onion does all of these and more. Looks nice too!

The ubiquitous iPhone

Last but not least is my iPhone. There are lots of photography Apps available for this. I use the Swiss tourist board programme to find out if anything photogenic is happening near me. I use another programme to calculate depth of field when shooting close-ups. A sunset / sunrise programme helps me know the best times to photograph according to where the sun is at any particular time of the day. The sunset part of the programme also lets me know when it's best to take pictures "at night" (Dusk is the best time as there is roughly a half an hour of magical light when details are visible in the sky which isn't too dark)

One cool thing about the iPhone is that when I open a picture in Irfanview, it shows me the GPS co-ordinates. This is useful when I'm out and about for the day and take pictures in different locations. I simply take one snap with the iPhone at each location. When I get back home, I simply open the image in Irfanview and can see where it was taken. I use this a lot when doing stuff for Google Earth.


Well that's it for now. It's the weekend and I'm off to take some pics.