What's in your bag? (LF)

[ToddB]

View Omega 4x5, Bogen Tripod and 10 double sided film slides.

ToddB

 

[TareqPhoto]

I really would like to buy a bag for my LF, but i couldn't decide on one yet, here or on another websites i have hundreds of choices, everybody will feel happy with what they get, so i can't choose one over another if all or most are good enough.

Well, i won a lens for my Graphlex from ebay and just placed the order, also bought a ground glass for my Shen Hao hoping it will be better or bright to use over the manufacturer one came with it.

 

[ROL]

…and then, of course, there's my giraffe.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

Doremus,
Great ideas in there! Thanks for sharing that. I took a look at your website as well, some very fine work. =) ...

Shawn,

Thanks for the kind words.

At second glance, my list seems really long. However, I carry all that stuff around along with wooden folder, five lenses, meter, filters, and filmholders and hardly notice. The accessories are not really very bulky or heavy and fit in various pockets in my photo vest, which often remain unopened for months at a time

In another thread one poster mentioned that he had a cloth tape measure sewn into the edge of his darkcloth for measuring bellows extension. Great idea.
My darkcloth is homemade; white Gore-Tex on the outside, black non-slip material on the inside. It has saved my camera from a few crashing breakers at the coast and kept me and my pack dry on rainy days as well.

As for packs: I prefer a lumbar pack with an additional shoulder strap. Then I can just unbuckle the hip belt and swing my pack around to my side and work out of it like a shoulder bag when setting up. The only thing that ever touches the ground when I work are the feet of my tripod (and my shoe soles, of course).

@ROL: Love the giraffe! I'll look for it on the trail.

Best,

Doremus

 

[winger]

…and then, of course, there's my giraffe.

Love it! I have a purple teddy bear on my smaller format bag.

I don't have much others haven't mentioned and I'll be adding some things from your lists. ROL, that grey card idea is great for my Chamonix, too.
One thing I have that most of you probably don't need is hair elastics. They mostly get used to hold my hair, but have pulled double duty on occasion. I also have a Buff from REI that can keep bugs off my neck and hold my hair down when it starts falling out of the braid or ponytail.
I'm still looking at bag ideas, too. I'm currently using a DeviantArt backpack - it's ok, but basically a large cavernous space with one smaller slot where I put the lenses.

 

[ROL]

Buffs are fantastic! My wife and I buy them whenever they're on sale at REI, and what do you know, I actually do carry one in my camera pack, as well as having them squirreled away in various other transport items. I've been using them for over ten years at Burning Man as fashionable dust masks.

FWIW, I found the giraffe (he found me?) on a trail one late fall day some years ago, presumably dropped from a child backpack. Being among the last persons to use the trail before being closed for the winter that very day, I picked it up and attached it to my pack, hoping to come across its owner in the parking lot. I was the last vehicle to leave that day. He's somehow never left my pack since, often reminding me not to take photography too seriously.

 

[Black Dog]

The relevant OS maps for wherever I'm going-1:25,000 is best, plus local bus and train timetables [also some beer money].

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Linhof Technorama 617S, Gossen Variosix F, Tri-X, yellow filter, cable release, chronometer (long exposures), lens cleaner (old fresh handkerchief), felt pen to write on the rolls, little water level (horizon!) and some bits of aluminum foil to wrap the exposed rolls if needed, that's all!
Next, a tripod…

PS: I consider the 6 x 17 cm as LF, what?

 

[BradS]

My main 4x5 bag is a LowePro MiniTrekker classic.
Contents have been relatively constant over the past few years...

• Ebony RW45
• 90mm Grandagon-N or 300mm Nikkor-M
• 150mm Sironar-N
• 210mm Ysarex or 210mm Geronar
• Gossen Luna Pro SBC light meter
• Harrison darkcloth
• black tee shirt
• a pair of 3x reading glasses for viewing the GG
• Ebony clampy thingy that lets me use a dark slide as a lens shade
• 1/2in camel hair paint brush
• red, orange, yellow, green and polarizer filters
• collapsible rubber lens hood
• spare battery for the light meter
• spare lens caps
• a plasticy tape measure marked in inches and millimeters (from the fabric store)
• a few cable releases
• a notebook (mead composition book) and a handfull of pens and mechanical pencils.
• a black 'sharpie' magic marker
• some rubber bands and about twenty feet of heavy nylon string.
• the boy scout ten essentials (in a 1 gallon zip lock bag that moves from pack to pack as needed)

 

[JohnArs]

I have almost always a small pocket digital camera with me, first as tool in fast changing light, second as a viewfinder which tells me which lens will fit and also as a spare light meter. This day's its the Sony RX100 very small 20 MP camera.

Cheers Armin

 

[Sirius Glass]

Film and cameras. Each bag has different format cameras and the appropriate film, lenses and filters.

 

[markbarendt]

This is quite eye opening. My (very different/strange) workflow is such that I never have to carry much at one time so it never really occurred to me how much "stuff" most of us actually have. I don't know how I would manage to keep it all organized in a portable way.

I agree.

My LF camera is packed in with my 35 mm kit in a Domke F2. 10 loaded holders in a small separate bag. Calumet changing room/dark tent in it's bag with my extra film stays in the car.

Camera gets setup with lens then snapped on the tripod and put on my shoulder, light meter goes in a pocket, grab the bag full of holders and I'm off.

 

[Soeren]

F-Stop Tilopa Containing a Chamonix 45 F1, 75mm/5,6; 150mm/5,6; 270MM/5,6 (and occasionally 65mm/8)
10 DD; Minolta spotmeter; caple releases; lenscloths; compas; flashlight; pocket knive; Lee filters (Big Stopper)
Best regards

 

[mjs]

Large F64 backpack. Hmm... what's in here... unzip

Oh, good grief: more granola bars. I think I rotated the old ones out last year... Anyone want a granola bar?

Triple extension Zone VI 4x5 camera, wrapped in a homemade oversized focusing cloth, old Sekonic light meter (ambient, 5 deg spot,) lenses (all on 4x4 boards with shutter release cables and wrapped in home-made padded lens wraps: Fuji 90mm f/8, Fuji 125mm f/5.6, Fuji 210mm f/5.6, Nikon 300mm f/8, six film holders, 3 with TMX and 3 with TMY, and focusing loupe. That's the main compartment. In the F/64's other compartments reside a viewing card I made from mattboard, a set of Lee sheet filters and filter holder, cleaning cloth, bulb brush, Leatherman pocket tool, small roll of duct tape (if that won't fix it, it isn't broken!), spare cable release, pen, pencil, small notepad, "torpedo" level, cheap rain poncho, penlight flashlight, spare AA battery for the light meter & flashlight. I carry a tripod separately. It weighs too much and I'm trying to decide which two lenses I can do without.

Mike

 

[Black Dog]

Granola bar? I'd love a bit of Verichrome....

 

[Noah B]

I like to keep it minimal -

Lowepro Super Trekker
Sinar F
6" monorail extension
Mamiya RB 67
Mamiya RB Macro extension tubes
Rodenstock Geronar 150mm
6 film holders
2 cable releases
BTZS dark cloth
Gossen Digi Pro F meter

This is a heavy set up that I haven't carried yet, it kindly sits on a shelf

 

[Shawn Dougherty]

Whoa. I have a 4x5 kit and an RB67 kit. Wouldn't dream of carrying them together! I hope it's a solid shelf

 

[jp80874]

Shawn,

As you know I have been shooting 7x17 in the Flats of Cleveland, Ohio, a run down industrialized area on either side of the Cuyahoga River. I prefer to go early on Saturday or Sunday when there are few working people there. The druggies and the bad guys are mostly asleep. I had been shooting with Peter and his 8x10. We agreed not to both be under dark cloths at the same time. After a year or more Peter has found other subjects to shoot. Alone feels very insecure. Mentioning this to my professor, she replied, “Yes, when I was in graduate school in Boston, one classmate was under the dark cloth focusing his 4x5 when he was hit on the head with a thrown brick. After several days in hospital he came home and eventually back to class. He was never quite the same after that.”

Gabby, my four year old, yellow, lady Labrador has become my new partner. She replaced eight year old Cindy who thought the set up time was a great opportunity for a nap. Gabby is tied to the back of the SUV on a ¾” nine foot horse lead. I set up the camera 12 feet from the car so she does not tip the gear over or get under my feet. On our first outing, the only person we saw was a man who crossed the street to avoid us, walked half a block by us, then crossed back. I first knew he was there when Gabby started growling. She followed him with her eyes and muzzle, continuing to growl, while sitting next to me, as he walked the half block by us. Since my Toyota Highlander is my camera bag, Gabby is my new tool in the bag.

If I go some distance from the car, the 7x17 and gear travel in a baby jogger. Gabby walks beside me. The pair of Labs on a split lead have pulled me up many a hill. Braking can be an issue.

John Powers

 

[winger]

Labs don't have brakes. Good Gabby.

 

[Shawn Dougherty]

Excellent anecdote, John. =) I've always enjoyed your yellow escalator.

 

[Shootar401]

This is what I have in my 4x5 bag, I usually just take out what I need and travel light.

Speed Graphic with 127mm Ektar
Kodak Aero-Ektar
Graflex 15" Optar
Heiland flash with 7" Reflector
10 #11 bulbs
10 #40 bulbs
2 #3 bulbs
5 Grafmatics
2 loaded with Foma 200
2 loaded with Provia
1 loaded with Portra 400
10 4x5 sheet holders loaded with whatever I feel like that day

 

[Shootar401]

Shawn,

As you know I have been shooting 7x17 in the Flats of Cleveland, Ohio, a run down industrialized area on either side of the Cuyahoga River. I prefer to go early on Saturday or Sunday when there are few working people there. The druggies and the bad guys are mostly asleep. I had been shooting with Peter and his 8x10. We agreed not to both be under dark cloths at the same time. After a year or more Peter has found other subjects to shoot. Alone feels very insecure. Mentioning this to my professor, she replied, “Yes, when I was in graduate school in Boston, one classmate was under the dark cloth focusing his 4x5 when he was hit on the head with a thrown brick. After several days in hospital he came home and eventually back to class. He was never quite the same after that.”

Gabby, my four year old, yellow, lady Labrador has become my new partner. She replaced eight year old Cindy who thought the set up time was a great opportunity for a nap. Gabby is tied to the back of the SUV on a ¾” nine foot horse lead. I set up the camera 12 feet from the car so she does not tip the gear over or get under my feet. On our first outing, the only person we saw was a man who crossed the street to avoid us, walked half a block by us, then crossed back. I first knew he was there when Gabby started growling. She followed him with her eyes and muzzle, continuing to growl, while sitting next to me, as he walked the half block by us. Since my Toyota Highlander is my camera bag, Gabby is my new tool in the bag.

If I go some distance from the car, the 7x17 and gear travel in a baby jogger. Gabby walks beside me. The pair of Labs on a split lead have pulled me up many a hill. Braking can be an issue.

John Powers

One of reasons why I ALWAYS carry a .45 1911 with me, even where it's illegal. I'd rather be arrested then dead.

 

[jp80874]

One of reasons why I ALWAYS carry a .45 1911 with me, even where it's illegal. I'd rather be arrested then dead.

Ohio has a conceal carry law/permit that I am thinking about. My first job out of college was as a pro for Remington Arms. I am really more comfortable with a 12ga. At age 73, that was a long time ago. It is a big step, beyond what I consider the joy of photography. On the other hand, I do carry Bear Mace with me now.

John

 

[Rafal Lukawiecki]

No one mentioned tea bags. Two. Usually Twinings Earl Grey, often pilfered from a hotel or a (British) airline lounge. And an Allen key for tightening the head to the tripod.

Right now considering a backpack upgrade.

 

[jp80874]

Thanks Shawn. This is becoming an excellent list. I will only add a few things I don’t think have been mentioned.

People seeing that large 7x17 have actually asked where they might see or buy my work? Who am I to question their wisdom? I carry a small pack of business cards.

A professional carpenter friend told me that the smaller the bubble level the less accurate. The extreme being the tiny little things on our cameras or tripods. I carry a nine inch level with horizontal, vertical and 45 degree angle bubbles. This fits nicely front to back or side to side on either 8x10 or 7x17. It says Johnson Level & Tool on it, but there are many brands. They are available anywhere tools are sold.

I still carry a 2” face analog Heuer stop watch for those long exposures at f 45 and f 64. Yes I carry a smart phone that has a better one, but I am shooting analog and I like old watches.

There is a quart zip lock with: small pocket knife, 3’ Stanley metal tape, tweezers, slot and Phillips screw drivers, needle nose pliers, Linos or Rodenstock flat stainless Copal shutter wrench.

Long ago I read that a flat, 1/8” thick perforated 5.5” rubber pad, normally used in the kitchen to open jar lids, will keep a large camera from twisting on the tripod head. They wear out easily so there are two in my bag. I have found these in hardware or kitchen supply stores.

In the car I carry a two part five minute epoxy plunge dispenser and sand paper.

A thermos of hot coffee. Boy is that nice a couple of hours into a shoot, especially on a cold day.

The area where I am shooting is bordered by Lake Erie. A very commercial Cuyahoga River winds through the Flats. 600 foot freighters move up and down the river, by themselves, or with one or more tug boats or barges. The curves in the river are so sharp that the ships have to almost stop in the middle of the turn. Even high f stops and long exposures work there. Problem: When is the ship going to come up the river? When are the bridges going to swing or go up? Will there be a tug or two? Does a ship have to wait for a train to cross the lift bridge?

All commercial vessels have transponders just like airplanes. Marinetraffic.com has a cell phone app that will tell you what ships are in Cleveland, what ships are approaching or expected in Cleveland, at what time. At one minute intervals a ship will show as a moving dot on a map that also shows intersecting streets. This app reports on any marine traffic, anywhere in the world.

I’ll consult with the yellow Labrador ladies and see what else comes to mind.

John Powers