Luggin' it all about....

What do you use to carry your equipment when you're out and about? Does it depend on the terrain, time of year, phase of the moon etc. For myself, I usually use 3 different bags and vary the combination depending on the terrain or which camera I'm using. If I'm going scrambling somewhere, over rough ground, I'll take my Nikon F80 in an old small(ish) CCS bag. I'll use this with an equally old pair of Lowepro lens cases strapped to my rucksack waistbelt. If the walk is of a more sedate nature, I'll use my Karrimor Pro am (don't laugh) gadget bag. I get a surprisingly large amount of gear inside. The F5 or the C330 end up in this, again with the Lowepro cases for lenses/lightmeter etc. Very rarely, I'll use a Lowepro Nature trekker sack, but it's too big and heavy in its own right to be used for anything other than very short trips. Frustratingly, and I reckon I won't be alone here, I've never been able to find that one bag/sack that's perfect for every occasion. How about you?

I just use one of a few various size packpacks I have depending on where I'm hiking and how much other gear (food & cloths etc.) I need to bring. I usually have the cameras (35mm SLR and/or Mamiya Rangefinder) in their own cases within the backpack.

I do have a good Lowepro bag but only use that for the RZ67 and don't hike with that camera. I'd need a donkey for that

Peter

Funnily enough, I used my Lowepro bag for toting my RB67 kit around. I managed one short(ish) walk up Hardknott Fell in the Lake District and almost crippled myself in the process. Seriously, a donkey is a necessary bit of kit when carrying any of the Mamiya 6x7 stuff around!

For long hillwalking days with a camera I use this rucsack - Macpac are a New Zealand based company who make great quality outdoor kit. This is very comfy to carry long distances, and the crampon bungee cord and ice axe loops make it easy to carry a tripod in a stable way. (In fact, it works a lot better than my Lowepro Dryzone which I use for my Pentax 67 kit):
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I have cut a cheapo foam camping mat to size the inside of the rucsack to stop the tripod bashing camera gear, and I put my climbing camera (Fuji GA645zi) in a camera bag then inside a fold-over drybag. Has been tested in rain, hail and snow this winter and all works well..!

Drybags are great, really handy for making camera bags / cases totally waterproof. I keep my 120 film in one too. They come in lots of different sizes. See
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Cheers,
Gavin

PS- Also, on the North West Outdoors website, they use some of the cracking landscape pictures of Scottish photographer Ian Cameron. Here's a link to his site:
http://www.transientlight.co.uk/

For everyday use I use an old medium sized US army rucksack or very occasionally a messenger bag from the army surplus store.
For short hikes, mostly to go climbing, I'd use the rucksack with the external frame and keep climbing gear in the main compartment and some camera gear in the outer pockets. Needless to say, I've lost several cheap camera's with that setup.
For full-day hikes I'll use my smaller internal-frame backpack and seperate things with airline blankets.
For multi-day excersions I use an Arc'teryx Bora 80. Extra bodies and medium format stuff gets packed safely in the main compartment with camping gear, accessories and a couple lenses (in their cases or wrapped in a handkerchief) go in the outer compartments -with ziplock freezer bags for everything- and I take one camera on my shoulder ready to use.
Where space and wheight allow I keep the extra 35mm body, 50mm lens, and bag of silica in a small pelican case. When I go rafting or sailing I take a cheaper camera and a 35-70 zoom instead of the 50 and everything else stays on dry land.

Good morning;

An interesting question. I have just purchased my first dedicated photography backpack; a Lowe-Pro Compu-Trekker Plus AW. I have no idea how it is going to work. I have just begun to see how things fit into it. I have tried it on to see how it fits, but I am not really sure about that part yet. My logic for getting it was for the ability to carry a laptop computer in relative safety. We will see.

For the 4 by 5 SINAR F1, I have been breaking it down, folding it, wrapping it, and putting it into an old Kelty Redwing internal frame backpack when going out a short distance to get to the scene. If I am working alongside of the road, I just put the SINAR case in the back of the Subaru. If I am going further, then the SINAR goes into a Gregory Shasta internal frame backpack along with the "ten essentials" and other things if I wind up being out longer than I anticipate.

The 2.25 Square gear or the 35mm gear can go into whatever pack seems appropriate for the distance and time involved.

For mountain topping with the small radios, I put everything into a Gregory Denali Pro expedition size internal frame backpack. This includes the tent, sleeping bag and pad, a small solar panel, and other things, along with usually a Minolta X-700 35mm camera and a couple of lenses. I have tried to carry much more in the past, but this excessive accumulation of years is starting to get through to me, and while the Denali may have a lot of space (it really does fit the antenna system inside the pack), I am trying to keep the weight down to something manageable.

Enjoy;

Ralph
Latte Land, Washington

Hi guys,
I thought you might be interested in seeing how I carry my gear and what it is. Hopefully the links will work. Gary Higgins took these shots of me when we went on a small trek in the Otway Ranges in Victoria, Australia.

Mike




http://users.ncable.net.au/~higgins1/_APUG/Trans-Otway Waterfall Walk/album/slides/IMG_2544.html

http://users.ncable.net.au/~higgins1/_APUG/Trans-Otway Waterfall Walk/album/slides/IMG_2555.html

Here's a link to a post on my adapted climbing rucsac which I use for mountain photo trips:

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Cheers,
Gavin