How do you store camera bits in a handy way

J

John Camp

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I've got two complete camera systems (Nikon, Leica) and I never carry all of it at once -- couldn't lift it, for one thing. So how do store stuff so that you can readily see it (and therefore don't leave it behind when you may need it) in a way that keeps it safely out of traffic, away from small inquiring hands, mostly dust-free, but at the same time, quick to get to? A chest-of-drawers perhaps? File cabinets? Shelves? Store it in bags? I have my Nikon system in two bags, which means that any time I want to take it somewhere, I'm tempted just to grab the bag with the bodies, and then later find out I left a desirable lens and the spotmeter in the other bag. And what about all the bits and pieces, like those big fat Leica lens cases, cable releases, filters and filter wrenches, tripods, color checker cards, flashes, software disks, digital storage units, manuals, spare tripod heads, extra bags, old camera bodies that are too good to give away, etc.? :eek:

JC
 
Keep a small kit easily available. Use it for dash and go. Body + 25/35/50/90

Other stuff is stored by catagory, ie Leica R + lenses wide to long in order.

Screw mount bodies in one location along with screw mt lenses and proper finders. Light meters go in another. M bodies and lenses in another.

Then there are small storage boxes for camera accesories like different focus screens, mirror releases, bellows adapter rings for viso lenses, short focus mounts, then there are filters stored by size.

4x5 lives in a back pack for now along with the different lenses.

Lastly a large safety deposit box for the surplus.

I won`t tell exactly where they are kept, but not where anyone would look should they try. I would suggest you do the same.

Maybe I should just get a digi cam!
 
Keep the small kit ref. above in bag warm and dry.

If you have a collection have small bag and large bag prepacked, including film and filters in both, if you are closet SLR, then the small bag might only have fav zoom etc in it, the big the rgfdr etc.

I pack a XA4 in walking jacket in hallway, if I'm carrying a big bag I remove the XA4. If I forget not critical, but there are no little hands to worry me. If I forget the jacket I get wet as well as miss phot opp.

I've gone to Kievs as they are really cheap if you buy them broken and fix yourself and you can think about three bags, the small the medium and the car trunk... Only the CV wides are expensive

You will still get caught e.g. rainbows needing a fish eye or pano or ultra wide, I miss these every time. The XA4 28mm marginal for rainbows...

Noel
 
I have an XA and XA2 always ready to grab and go in my home office desk drawer. Everything else is stored in see-through tuperware-type containers on shelves in a closet. There are silica gel packets in the containers just to be on the safe side. I plan out what I need and pack a tamrac bag or my rucksack from the containers.
 
I keep my stuff in my mother's old china cabinet in my living room. Cameras and lenses more or less on display behind glass cupboard; filters, caps, and other associated bits in drawers; bags, cases, film, and books in bottom cupboard. Cameras with film are on lower shelf, others on upper shelves. Lenses behind related cameras or in camera bag. "Active" camera either in cabinet or sitting out on shelf. I have no kids or other traffic, but as a child, that cupboard was "off limits," and really held no allure anyway when filled with, well, china :).
 
Organized chaos. Cameras and lenses scattered about in various bags on the floor or on shelves in my storage/darkroom.
 
I keep the Contax (which is always in its own soft case I bought in Croatia), one or two rolls of film, wrist strap, and a lightmeter all in a washbag thing. It's great. Shaped like a pill, unzips into two halves, one half having a waterproof layer and zip to get to the compartment, the other with elastic that held shower gel and anti-perspirant. That is almost always in my sidebag. The Contax is effectively double padded (case within a case) and the wash-pill thing is reinforced so no nasty surprises.

The other cameras are littered on a shelf or two on my mothers bookshelf/wall (a whole wall of shelves... she has a lot of books) or on the lower level of my deck stand - the top is also littered with camera bits that make using the record decks impossible!

i'm seriously messy, but everything is easy to reach, and I usually move things around enough I don't get dust settling
 
Maybe we all have just too much gear!
Do we actually use what we have or do we just have it because we like to have it?
Have you ever wondered what the basic minimum might be?

Keep my 'stuff' laid out pretty handily on a shelf in a warm cupboard. I keep camera bodies in small shoulder/waist type bags and lenses in 'tuppaware' type containers. Old ice cream containers and margarine tubs with tops come in pretty handy too - and cost nothing!

I'm having a mouse problem at present - I've caught 5 so far! I do know it isn't the same mouse 5 times!! So plastic containers of some sort are great. I keep looking at the soft camera cases and just wonder if when I next open up I shall find camera and mouse! (or mice)
 
Drawers. But light - sunlight - prevents fungus. And ventialation. if you keep lenses dry & in the light without caps you'll never get fungus.
 
Natural leather also a fungus risk,
I don’t keep the original boxes with the gear anymore because when I was burgled the thief took both and probably got a better price for them!
 
Try to keep everything together as anything I leave lying about gets packed away and If I can't find it myself I then have to face a lecture from my wife about leaving things at my backside.
 
Thanks. In the pictures of my darkroom that I posted a while ago, I deftly excluded the piles of stuff on the floor. What you leave out of a photograph is as important as what you include, I think.
 
I got myself one of these:
25 pair shoe organizer
Made for shoes but the compartments are just about big enough for a camera or lens and I can see what's there fairly easily.
Small no-name bag sits on top with my current kit in it.
The fun part was while I was looking at it the first time and seeing if my biggest camera would fit(Arax 60 body/WLF) and the stares of strangers was pretty amusing!
Rob
 
I hate to taunt you lot with my rather anal attitude towards storage :p but this little glass fronted cabinet cost around $150.00 and the cameras sitting on top will go in too if the others close ranks a little! It allows me to maintain eye contact with the little dears so I don't get too stressed.:D I'm in the process of putting a small heater in the bottom (its out of one of those gadgets you plug into a wall socket that heats insecticide pads ... lots of bugs/mozzies in Oz) which should create a through flow of warm dry air ... I hope.

Then again it might start a fire and incinerate the whole lot!:eek:

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