Show your old Crusty Billingham

I had a pro friend who carried his M3 ("This camera has never been sullied by color film") in a WW I gas mask bag. A fancy bag with "Leica" on it screams "Steal me!". I have an old ratty cheap bag I use for any camera I might be using. It looks like junk regardless of what is inside.

There's too many folks out there who have not made it to a recovery program who like to steal cameras. As always, YMMV.
 
Yes I’ve heard all the jazz about being stealthy and how the best use grocery bags.

I’m just a wannabe amateur and I somehow ended up with north of 10 billinghams.

The cool thing about this bag you see is that, uno; it has this rare Black Leica Logo, and Dos; it followed my in the Rio Favellas, the shadiest gypsy Mahallas around eastern Europe, Harlem in the wee hours, and a few dozen times on various beaches in Greece, Miami and the usual Cuba, Mexico… I go for a swim and I come back and there it is, hasn’t moved an inch. So far even my 35 Summilux AA + og BP M2 has survived beng carried into this crusty bag with a black Leica Logo.
 
I expect thieves know there are valuable items in any bag a guy or lady is carrying. It would just depend on opportunity and willfulness to determine if they attempt to steal it.

I don't have any pictures of my bags and all my Billinghams are really in great condition anyway.
 
I doubt the general public knows what Leica stands for.

When regular folks asks me what camera I use for photographing, the most common response to my response: “a Leica”; is “is that a Russian camera?”.

Billingham bags don’t look like camera bags to non-photographers. They look like posh British fishing bags - after which they are modeled - so that should come as no surprise.
Any fish loving thief would eye you out in an instant.

One problem with Billingham bags is that they are hard wearing and take a long time to look really crusty.
My oldest Hadley Pro from 2004 still looks quite presentable.
It is extremely annoying (for a man) to have people ask “did you get a new bag” two decades after the fact. We men don’t like others to think our stuff is new.

Here’s a picture of how it looked 5 years ago:
 
Not a single "crusty" Billingham..... Domke & Filson guys put you to shame...
 
Yes, Filson is very nice. But it took me a year to fut destroy a Domke. Like, I get it, bad quality canvas looks good once broken in… but my Domke really started looking bad. Frayed, corners open…
 
Nitroplait said:
I doubt the general public knows what Leica stands for.

When regular folks asks me what camera I use for photographing, the most common response to my response: “a Leica”; is “is that a Russian camera?”.

Billingham bags don’t look like camera bags to non-photographers. They look like posh British fishing bags - after which they are modeled - so that should come as no surprise.
Any fish loving thief would eye you out in an instant.

One problem with Billingham bags is that they are hard wearing and take a long time to look really crusty.
My oldest Hadley Pro from 2004 still looks quite presentable.
It is extremely annoying (for a man) to have people ask “did you get a new bag” two decades after the fact. We men don’t like others to think our stuff is new.

Here’s a picture of how it looked 5 years ago:
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I own one of the very first Billingham bags, use it a lot. Love that thing. The fishing kind…

I use my Billinghams without inserts, except the 207 which comes naturally padded.
 
Ororaro said:
Yes, Filson is very nice. But it took me a year to fut destroy a Domke. Like, I get it, bad quality canvas looks good once broken in… but my Domke really started looking bad. Frayed, corners open…
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Perhaps new ones, but I have a number of 20+ yr old Domkes that keep on ticking. Quality materials and good constructions.
 
Can't really agree on the Domke bags, Deardorff38. I think Jim Domke was still shooting for the Philadelphia Inquirer when he started marketing his bags and just about all the photographers at the two local dailies bought them. But within a short time all those bags had worn-through holes in them. They didn't stand up well to daily use and constant abrasion against our hips was a major factor. Some of us used duct tape to repair them because we like the bags otherwise but quality of material was pretty shaky. But the bags were cheap at the time so no one really complained. Today, they're not so cheap. I've owned a few since then and the later ones held up better. Maybe it was less frequent use but they held up okay. But nothing has held up and continued to look good like my Billinghams. They're expensive but worth it, IMO.
 
I had a Billingham bag years ago when I was shooting the only Leica I ever owned, an M5. I only owned the camera for about a year before I sold it. The guy that bought it really liked the bag and to seal the deal, I included the bag. I did not miss the camera as much as I missed the bag. I then started using Domke bags. I still have a 35 year old F2 that is mostly used for storage now. I currently use small Think Tank bags for my m4/3 gear.
 
U82583I1532775528.SEQ.0.jpg


This lot fit in my Hadley for a road trip, bag is from 1984, has had a new insert, I reckon it'll outlive me.
 
Ororaro said:
Yes I’ve heard all the jazz about being stealthy and how the best use grocery bags.

I’m just a wannabe amateur and I somehow ended up with north of 10 billinghams.

The cool thing about this bag you see is that, uno; it has this rare Black Leica Logo, and Dos; it followed my in the Rio Favellas, the shadiest gypsy Mahallas around eastern Europe, Harlem in the wee hours, and a few dozen times on various beaches in Greece, Miami and the usual Cuba, Mexico… I go for a swim and I come back and there it is, hasn’t moved an inch. So far even my 35 Summilux AA + og BP M2 has survived beng carried into this crusty bag with a black Leica Logo.
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"I've been driving with bad brakes for years and haven't had an accident." Yeah, right. I follow the rules that insurance companies practice: expose yourself to as little risk as possible. As always, YMMV.
 
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boojum said:
"I've been driving with bad brakes for years and haven't had an accident." Yeah, right. I follow the rules that insurance companies practice: expose yourself to as little risk as possible. As always, YMMV.
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Okay, I will try to deconstruct this.
You’ve had a “pro friend” who used his “M3 in a WWI gas mask bag”. So this was your main argument.

But what will happen if I happen to have been more Pro than your friend? And if I had carried more M3’s than your pro friend had? Grocery bags accepted?

Would this suddenly overturn my argument of sometimes using a camera bag with a Leica badge sown on it somewhat more acceptable?

If I happened to have been more Pro than your friend, would you maybe consider asking your friend to sow a Leica patch on his WWI bag, because another pro is doing it? 😀✌🏻

If an argument works one way, maybe it could work both ways…
 
Ororaro said:
Okay, I will try to deconstruct this.
You’ve had a “pro friend” who used his “M3 in a WWI gas mask bag”. So this was your main argument.

But what will happen if I happen to have been more Pro than your friend? And if I had carried more M3’s than your pro friend had? Grocery bags accepted?

Would this suddenly overturn my argument of sometimes using a camera bag with a Leica badge sown on it somewhat more acceptable?

If I happened to have been more Pro than your friend, would you maybe consider asking your friend to sow a Leica patch on his WWI bag, because another pro is doing it? 😀✌🏻

If an argument works one way, maybe it could work both ways…
Click to expand...

Concerning my pro friend, he has been a professional for the last forty years or so that I have known him, paying his bills solely with his cameras. I am sure that you have much more experience than that. Carrying a camera in a WW I gas mask bag is not an argument it is an example. Concerning carrying cameras the crux of my position is, as I stated, to expose myself to as little risk as possible. Carrying an expensive camera bag with "Leica" plastered across it is more risk than I wish to incur. Your risk exposure is whatever you wish it to be. It is way more than I would choose. And, as I said, YMMV. Got it?
 
He wins. Send him my regards.
I am now pondering restitching the BILLINGHAM leather patch… but this has me thinking. In the grand scheme of things, that is where I dwell, Billingham is about as notorious as Leica. Meaning none.

Besides, a patch does does not reflect what’s inside a Crusty bag. Like right now, if Crusty had to ve stolen, the thief would only earn two babanas and half a dozen peaches. And I dont think those fruits are under any danger.
 
Fortunately none of my Billingham’s look at all crusty. In fact I suspect it would take a concerted effort over many years to make one look convincingly worn at all.

I must admit I do have a laugh when I read the comment “bag [x] screams steal me”. Maybe it’s just me but I’ve never heard a bag make a sound beyond “scrunch” or perhaps “swoosh”. Regardless it seems utterly ridiculous to contend that a bag, and often it’s a Billingham as the subject, somehow communicates a desire to have itself stolen. What bullshit. If you really live in fear of being mugged for a bag because of how it looks, move somewhere else or just suck it up. Criticising someone else’s bag choice because it “screams steal me” is paranoid, hysterical and, frankly, perverse. You may as well criticise all their other choices as to how they dress, how they walk, the camera they want to use, their haircut, and a thousand other factors that make someone a target for theft. Get a life. Get a Billingham ;)
 
Mute-on said:
Criticising someone else’s bag choice because it “screams steal me” is paranoid, hysterical and, frankly, perverse. You may as well criticise all their other choices as to how they dress, how they walk, the camera they want to use, their haircut, and a thousand other factors ...
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Hey, this is the Internet! Isn't that what it's for?
 
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