If your camera bag doesn't look like a camera bag, what does it look like?

If your camera bag doesn't look like a camera bag, what does it look like?

  • ... a man purse.

    Votes: 18 9.1%

  • ... a "European shoulder bag."

    Votes: 79 40.1%

  • ... a fanny pack (or codpiece).

    Votes: 6 3.0%

  • ... the bag that homeless-smelling bike messenger carries.

    Votes: 70 35.5%

  • ... a diaper bag.

    Votes: 24 12.2%
  • Total voters
    197
wow

wow

looks cool, and ~$30 for a made in USA bag, unbelievable.

However practical, it just screams gun or camera inside though.

Alowisney said:
I've started using the Leaper's copy of that bag. It's big enough to hold my Fed 2 and GSN or one of those and my TLR in the main compartment and I just stash film rolls in all the other pockets. I just need to pick up an insert or two.

DSC05028.JPG


I had to cut off all the zipper pulls and replace them with para cord because I couldn't stand all the jingling when I walked. I think the Versapack comes that way.
Click to expand...
 
Count me in with the COOL crowd... I stash my backup gear in a hard-sided cooler in the trunk, or in the back of my pickup, and have a softside or sandwich cooler up front, with my camera de jour.
 
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Mine's a brown leather briefcase/backpack/shoulder bag. Holds just enough. When it comes to hailing stuff, I'm like the guy that goes to an all you can eat for $1.00 . .. and orders $2.00 worth. My bag makes me carry ONLY what I need .My shoulders ache from too much "What if I need. .. ..."
 
My Billingham Hadley looks (as most Billinghams do) like a fishing bag.

Probably because that's what it was based on.

John
 
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My Domke J-803 with a few years' dirt and wear comes with me everywhere. If I can't fit everything I need into it (sans a tripod for a flash stand), I'm carrying too much gear. It's so inconspicuous that people here in the city can't help but bump into it every time they step around me.

I look at Artisan & Artist bags every so often in the same way I look at current Leica lenses: nice, but I'm really not that kind of guy, and I don't need to be so flamboyant.
 
My two bags are both Tenba 995s from a previous century. The grey-green one I bought new about twenty years ago has lost it's shape and now resembles a very large lump of putrid meat. The other, a black one which I found used a couple of years ago and had to re-build is covered with so much cat fur that it seems to be a large mammal suspended on a strap.
I'm a non-trendy Luddite so I really don't worry about keeping up with trends or fashion with respect to my gear. They did the job when I bought them and they still do, so I've never bothered to replace them with the new "cool" bags that don't look like camera bags.
 
ampguy said:
That's awesome man. Do you have the economy 4.3l engine @ 9 MPG, or did you go for the 5.7l engine for a little more kick? 🙄
Click to expand...

Where did you get that bogus info from? 95 Caprice was rated for 26hwy/18city. I have a 95 Bonneville SSE with the 3.8L that gets 25 miles to the gallon. (calculated by the wife) Not all of us care to drive a crackerbox so our tripods hang out the side window. 😀
 
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Al Kaplan style

Al Kaplan style

I went Al Kaplan style and bought a Swedish gas mask bag that I dump my gear into. It easily holds two Leica bodies (one lens connected) and a spare lens, as well as a large cloth and some boxes of film. Lightmeter in the pocket and I'm ready to roll.
 
whoops

whoops

I was looking at the l/100km rating. sorry. 25mpg is pretty good for a big American v8 - hwy, right?

gb hill said:
Where did you get that bogus info from? 95 Caprice was rated for 26hwy/18city. I have a 95 Bonneville SSE with the 3.8L that gets 25 miles to the gallon. (calculated by the wife) Not all of us care to drive a crackerbox so our tripods hang out the side window. 😀
Click to expand...
 
John Lawrence said:
Anyone ever tried one of these?

http://www.meanandgreen.com/army/French_Army/French_Leather_Lined_Satchel/3210/1919.html?affid=20491

John
Click to expand...

To suggest bags like that is heresy here 😀😀

Seriously, I'm pretty sure your gear will be fine in it. From Al I learned that you dump film containers on the bottom, a hand ful. Next put one body in, toss a towel or a shirt on that, put in a lens in lens bag, and on top of that the other body with lens attached.
I leave the flap loose and the neck strap from the top body hanging out to the front. I carry the bag on the hip with my hand on it or on the front, never on the back since I cannot get to the camera quickly but somebody else can.

And yes the bodies will get scrapes and dents over time, but Jim Marshalls M4 with lens and Leicavit never got to look the way it did being babied and pampered, and it still worked fine.

I carry a BP M3 and a brassed M2 in it like that and let somebody else worry about resale value.
 
buzzardkid said:
To suggest bags like that is heresy here 😀😀

Seriously, I'm pretty sure your gear will be fine in it. From Al I learned that you dump film containers on the bottom, a hand ful. Next put one body in, toss a towel or a shirt on that, put in a lens in lens bag, and on top of that the other body with lens attached.
I leave the flap loose and the neck strap from the top body hanging out to the front. I carry the bag on the hip with my hand on it or on the front, never on the back since I cannot get to the camera quickly but somebody else can.

And yes the bodies will get scrapes and dents over time, but Jim Marshalls M4 with lens and Leicavit never got to look the way it did being babied and pampered, and it still worked fine.

I carry a BP M3 and a brassed M2 in it like that and let somebody else worry about resale value.
Click to expand...

What intrigues me about it is that it looks like it could take a Hadley or Domke insert and I wondered if anyone had gone down that road.

John
 
My "camera bag" is a Jumbo EDC bag from Maxpedition. I have used bags like the one you suggest, John, but found this superior. I use a couple of small towels for padding.

9845b_general.jpg


It's a combiniation of man purse, messenger bag and military rucksack 😀 Space for a 32oz bottle of water is nice, too, when out walkabout. Comfortable even when weighted down with all the stuff I carry every day (~15 lbs).

http://www.maxpedition.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=1319&idcategory=59 for more information.

William
 
John Lawrence said:
Anyone ever tried one of these?

http://www.meanandgreen.com/army/French_Army/French_Leather_Lined_Satchel/3210/1919.html?affid=20491

John
Click to expand...

No, but I use something similar - a reproduction US civil war era Union officers' private purchase haversack. similar in shape to the above, maybe a bit bigger. Black, painted canvas (functionally waterproof), leather strap rivetted to the reinforced canvas. I put a modified Domke insert in it. room for my M, meter, two extra lenses, film. nice vacation walking around bag.

the painted canvas gets a nice, used grunge look after a while. only a couple of fellow re-enactors have called me out on it

(edits for poor typing skills and general dyslexia)
 
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