photo bag geeking…
Went out and bought my new bags yesterday. ended up getting a Pelican PCS183 as my big storage box and a Tamrac Pro 8.
The Pelican is a carry-on sized roller with a zip on computer bag that counts as your second carry on. That way, if I fly, I can haul everything with me if I want, but mostly, it stays in one bag now and when I drive on a photo trip, I’m not carrying zillions of bags with parts (and yes, I have ended up somwehere without my battery charger, which is no fun)
The Tamrac is a mid-sized shoulder bag; it’ll let me pack for a day trip and to walk around with more than one lens, and a 2nd body if I want.
I still have my Tamrac zoom bag (shoulder, fits a body and 100-400) if I’m giong somewhere with a single body and one or two lenses, and my CompuTrekker backpack (lowepro) if I’m headed somewhere on an extended hike.
If I travel, I can carry a day bag, probably compact them in space bags if I want to in checked luggage.
(yes, I’m a gadget/bag geek.) My problem with the computrekker as the primary bag was two-fold: first, I had two much “stuff” for it, so my gear was really spread out across 3 bags and my desk. Too easy to forget something or misplace it. Second, it was just too damn heavy and there’s no reason to carry it all around all of the time. Now the too-damn-heavy bag is even heavier, but wheeled, and for trips, I’m actually combining up four bags into one (including the computer backpack) and then carrying a day bag. Should work much better.
It also forces me to think about what I’m expecting to do and pack appropriately; I found I was doing a huge percentage of my shooting with the D30 and the 100-400. That’s not bad, per se, but I felt I’d let myself choose my shots based on what was easy and handy (the 100-400 in the zoom bag) rather than unsling the backpack and change setups. By picking my parts and carrying them on the shoulder, I should make it easier and be more willing to be more flexible.
Because of that, I’ve also decided to “retire” the 100-400 for a bit. When I went to Palo Alto yesterday to try out the knee (answer: time to see the doctor, it got sore and stiff again), I walked with the 17-70 on the Rebel on my shoulder and the 300/F4 + 1.4x on the D30; I’ve been seeing too many shots with camera shake (another side effect of the 100-400, you start thinking you can hand-shoot everything), so I’m also committing to going back to shooting on a monopod. I haven’t downloaded the photos from that yesterday, so we’ll see…
I may see if Laurie wants to head out today, maybe to Ed Levin, for a bit. Or maybe Shoreline, see if I can find the pelagic cormorant and the loons…
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