Car Camera Storage?

eli griggs

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There are those among us that habitually keep photo kit, materials inside our vehicles for whatever photographic opertunities may present to us whenever we are not generally prepared with our 'normal camera kit', to take advantage of.

Any vehicle storage comes attendant with myriad conditions in which our every day traveling, to the store, work, home, etc, might damage or degrade that IMPORTAINT Opportunistic gear, materials, experience, so I ask, "What do you do, practically passive and actively, to protect the integrity of your kit and films?
 

AnselMortensen

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I keep my "car camera" in a wrinkled, washed-out empty potato chip bag on the floor of the back seat of my car.
Back in the day, I used to leave my Calumet CC-400 monorail in a beat-up cardboard box on the back seat of my equally beat-up VW Bug.
Some people leave a Halliburton case full of Hasselblad gear on the back seat of their Maserati and wonder why it got stolen.
 

rcphoto

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Depends on the car you have. When I had my small pickup, everything got stuffed behind the rear seat. My fullsize pickup, the windows were tinted dark enough that you couldn't really see what was in the truck. My current vehicle has basically no tint so I like to keep my gear covered with a sweater or other less desirable clothing.
 

runswithsizzers

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Like @jeffreyg, I would be more worried about the heat than anything else.

Personally, I never leave any photo gear in my car, except for maybe long enough to eat lunch or do some shopping. But if I was going to leave a camera in a car all the time, I would get a cooler -- beer cooler, Igloo, ice chest, whatever -- and I would put the camera in there with some padding and gel packs for thermal mass. I am thinking the temp inside the cooler will equilibrate to some average of day time and night time temperatures. This time of year, where I live, that average is still going to be hotter than what is good for film and batteries -- but it should be less than the daytime peak.

The cooler will also keep the gear out of sight, and if you can wedge it in or strap it down, it should keep the gear from sliding around.
 

George Mann

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Solution: Small rangefinder or point& shoot camera, diminutive fannypack.

Always with you, and never a reason to be left in your cars hostile environment.
 

MFstooges

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Almost never. Too hot here. The last thing I want is oil vapor on the lens.
 

mshchem

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I remember my father being ever mindful of his camera and film when we vacationed. He would keep his exposed and un-exposed Kodachrome in our Coleman cooler when we traveled. Never left the camera in heat.
Mobile phone makes a great "car camera"
 

abruzzi

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Waaaaayyy to hot in cars here. Some of you guys remote start your car in the winter to warm it up before you go out to it, here I remote start my car in the summer to cool it down before going out.
 

Philippe-Georges

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I don't keep camera- or other gear in my car as it is a VW T5 minibus with windows all around which allows a kind of 'window shopping' for certain people...

A few years ago, a little and not so value device like my Garmin GPS got 'taken away' out of the closed glove compartment, he managed to open the car with a brine needle...
 

Don_ih

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I tested leaving film in a car last summer or the summer before - I posted about it here somewhere. No impact on the film after a week of generally hot weather.

However, I brought a Mamiya NC1000 camera somewhere with me - had a 200mm lens on it (I think - this was a few years ago). Left it in the car for about 6 hours. That was enough to make the aperture stop working in that lens. The camera was fine.
 

Sirius Glass

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In my area storing a camera in a car long term is a bad idea due to the heat build up and damage to the film and the camera.
 

BradS

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I NEVER leave camera gear in the car - not even for a few minutes.
 

MTGseattle

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I go back and forth about this. If I think I can cram a brief photo outing into my workday, I will load the appropriate kit into one of my many bags and it will ride along but get brought into the house when I get back home.
If I am doing some medium off-roading, I load whichever kit into a Pelican case that gets strapped/secured and throw the empty "walking bag" for that gear into the car as well.
 

Paul Howell

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Before I retired, in the winter I kept my Speed Graphic, film holders with film, a light meter and a set of filters in a cooler, in the back of my SUV.
 

GRHazelton

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One of the best suggestions I've ever heard was to carry your kit in a diaper bag..... Of course since Flora and I are well above child bearing/rearing ages people might wonder....
 

MattKing

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GRHazelton said:
One of the best suggestions I've ever heard was to carry your kit in a diaper bag..... Of course since Flora and I are well above child bearing/rearing ages people might wonder....
Click to expand...

Great/Grandparenting is quite popular
 

Pieter12

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Someone had suggested a tool bag from Home Depot, but I would think that would be just as enticing or even more than a camera bag.
 

Don_ih

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Pieter12 said:
Someone had suggested a tool bag from Home Depot, but I would think that would be just as enticing or even more than a camera bag.
Click to expand...

It's much easier to sell stolen tools than stolen cameras. There's way more demand.
 

MTGseattle

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Most of the tool brands are heavily color coded. Dewalt= yellow and black bags, Millwaukee= red bags, Makita= teal+black, etc. Anyone remotely inclined to steal tools will be able to spot the color pretty quick. If you are after a generic unbranded tool-bag, they are all pretty lame (bad stitching, cheap zippers etc.) added to this is a complete lack of padding. The padded zipper bags that a lot of tools seem to be packaged in still have the branding/color problem and are often pretty thin rectangle shapes. I have a Milwaukee one that fits a small wood field camera ok, but that's it. (Same basic idea as the Stone photo gear cases).
I like the diaper bag and the cooler ideas for the incognito aspect. I wouldn't want to walk around town with a cooler though so a second bag would need ride shotgun.
 

Alan Edward Klein

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GRHazelton said:
One of the best suggestions I've ever heard was to carry your kit in a diaper bag..... Of course since Flora and I are well above child bearing/rearing ages people might wonder....
Click to expand...

When they give you that look., wink at them.
 

Don_ih

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I highly doubt anyone would steal my Makita tool bag. It, and the tools, look like they've been through a couple of train wrecks.
I also doubt a thief could lift it. It has about 100 pounds of miscellaneous screws in it....
 
OP
OP

eli griggs

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Don_ih said:
I highly doubt anyone would steal my Makita tool bag. It, and the tools, look like they've been through a couple of train wrecks.
I also doubt a thief could lift it. It has about 100 pounds of miscellaneous screws in it....
Click to expand...

You might be surprised by what others, especially drunk or high people will do when a mood hits them.

I will always remember a killing here in Charlotte, many years back, when two drunks were sitting by the road in the grass, and one of them shot his best friend because that man refused to give up the trash can lid he was sitting on to the man who shot him because he wanted to sit on that lid.

Take no chances when traveling with stuff you tote and be aware of everything going on about you.

My opinion is hyper awareness has its time and uses; critics be damned.
 
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