Should I be concerned about the movement of control dials on a battery grip when the camera is moved in or out of a camera bag?

Question

I have a Pentax K-5 with battery grip D-BG4 attached. Whenever I move the camera in or out of my camera bag (a Tamrac Pro 12), the front e-dial is audibly moved. Should I be concerned about this possibly causing excessive wear and tear to the e-dial assembly on the grip? (I can't adjust the camera bag much farther.)

Asked by DragonLord

Answer

If your bag moves the dial more often then you do, then give the camera to someone who uses it more :)

Seriously, while there will be measurably more use, it should be comparatively marginal. Perhaps it will die a day sooner than otherwise but I wouldn't be concerned about this.

Answered by Itai

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How to protect fragile equipment?

Question

A bit of background information:

The obvious answer is 'Just buy a camera bag!', but that's where things get a little bit more complicated. Lately I started looking around for my first prime lens and while reading reviews for Canon's 50mm f1.4 I stumbled across comments like 'The autofocus stopped working, after I took it out of my camera bag'*. There seems to be some construction weakness that can make the autofocus rails break, when pressure is applied to the tube. There might be more examples, I'm not trying to bash this lens.

Equipment getting broken due high usage or clumsiness is a risk I can live with, but the thought of gear 'committing suicide' in a camera bag makes me cringe.

To cut a long story short:

How do you protect 'raw eggs' in your collection, when the padding of your camera bag just isn't enough?

---

* This is not a word by word translation.

Asked by Ria

Answer

Most of the time, all of my gear is in a camera bag. There's always going to be the strange accident, but I'm confident that my bags are giving some (enough) protection to keep my gear safe from the odd bump. For the more severe environment and use, I have a Pelican 1550 hard case with foam that will help keep the gear safe.

But once out of the camera bag or hard case, it's in the most dangerous environment of all! Walking around with the camera slung over my shoulder or balanced in my hand, it's far more likely to be damaged if I bump something, if somebody bumps me, if it falls to the floor, or even if it bangs against my pocket with keys and phone inside. The out-of-bag use is where I'm more concerned with my gear. While I don't doubt that occasionally something just breaks for no apparent reason, I must wonder what dings the 50 1.4 you read of took before it stopped working, and what damage was done prior.

Answered by Dan Wolfgang

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Will my Canon 500D with 18-55mm lens kit fit in a Crumpler Jimmy Bo 300 case?

Question

Someone recommended Crumpler camera bags to me, I've just bought a Canon 500D with the standard (18-55mm) lens kit.

I want to the bag to be as small as possible. Crumpler says this one is for a SLR and short lens:

http://www.crumpler.co.uk/?product=Jimmy_Bo_300&page=details&product_line=843

I'm not sure if my lens qualifies as "short". Is anyone using this bag with a similar Canon? Does it fit and still protect the camera?

Answer

One of the product shots actually uses a Canon body:

the kit lens is also one of the shortest in the current product line (the only one that is physically smaller that I can think of is the 50/1.8; so I would expect it to fit. Of course, it is always worth visiting your local friendly retailer if you're unsure about ordering online.

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Will I damage my camera carrying it everywhere?

Question

I used to carry my point and shoot with me almost everywhere, and now that I've "upgraded" to a Canon 60D, I've been carrying it around. What I'm wondering is whether I'm likely to damage it or if there are any special precautions I should take.

A few more details:

• The camera and accessories live in a MEC Gadabout Camera Bag, which I've adjusted so that it fits the camera quite closely
• The camera bag stays inside my backpack, which is a laptop bag, so it's well padded. The camera ends up with the lens pointing at the bottom of the backpack.
• I don't do anything too active with the backpack on (it's pretty heavy with the camera, a few files, wallet, notepad, etc.), but I sometimes ride my bike with it on.
• The camera bag has a "quick-draw" opening at one end that I usually leave unzipped but with the flap in the closed position so that it covers the LCD and controls.

One thing I'm particularly wondering about is dust - I use just one lens, and it stays on the camera, but I do notice some dust collecting on the eyepiece and wonder if that's going to work it's way into the camera. Would it make any difference if I made a point of zipping the quick-draw flap closed?

Are there any special precautions I should take to minimize the chances of damaging my camera?

Answer

My advice would be to take your camera everywhere you might potentially take pictures. Take reasonable precautions to avoid shocks. If it gets damaged have it fixed.

You could keep the camera in its box for ten years and at the end of that period you'd have a pristine camera that would still be worth nothing. So you might as well use it as much as possible before it becomes obsolete.

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What camera bag will carry a couple telephoto lenses for wildlife while still remaining relatively compact?

Question

I had a look through some previous post about bags, but I did not find anything related to bags/backpacks for telephoto lenses with wildlife photography in mind (please correct me if I'm wrong).

At the moment I have Canon EF 100-400mm with Canon 500D, Tamron AF 28-300mm + hoods and sometimes a monopod or tripod.

What I'm looking for is something compact (I do not wish to carry whole "lens store"), comfortable, with easy access to the camera with attached lens, good protection, and ideally some extra space for lunch or other items.

In sling-style bags, the Kata 3N1-30 seems to be very compact or new version of 3N1-35 PL that seems to be more comfortable. Then there are backpacks such as Bug-203 PL (I like the easy access to camera) BumbleBee-222-B UL, Lowepro DryZone 200, Lens Trekker 600 AW II or Nature Trekker AW II

So what are you people using?

EDIT:

I took in consideration David proposal and while bag-hunting in the shops I tried different harnesses with cases attached. David approach would work for me in case that I would be carrying backpack to counterbalance the weight on the front.

However at the end I closed up on my original path for bag. I found that Kata 3N1-30 and 3N1-35 PL are rather robust and almost in the size of BumbleBee-222-B UL. Their smaller sibling Kata 3N1-20 is actually big-enough to fit in camera body attached to 100-400mm lens plus 2 other lenses, with some space on top of the bag in separate compartment. Only downside is no direct way to attach tripod.

I'm sort little disappointed with Lowepro offer only reasonable products been Sling 180 AW and Fastpack 200, but in my opinion they been lacking on equipment protection (thin padding) and comfortability.

At the end of the day I decided to go with Tamrac Evolution 8 (model 5788). This does provide comfort, protection for equipment, chance to attach tripod/monopod and has reasonable price (£80 + delivery in UK).

Answer

Here's what I've been doing. This is a little different direction, and you might not care for this at all, but it's worth listing here with the more traditional dedicated photo bag approaches.

I arrived at this solution largely because I do most of my photography while hiking, which menas that I've got other stuff to carry (besides photo gear) and I want fast access to my camera and lenses. I use a regular (non-photo) backpack on my back to carry general gear, plus photo items I use less often such as a strobe, cleaning kit, extra batteries, and so on. On my chest, I clip on a LowePro TLZ (available in several sizes) and LowePro Lens Case (I'm using the 2S, which I don't see listed on Amazon anymore). The LowePro lens cases use a sliplock attachment that hooks it securely to the TLZ.

Front view, showing TLZ and lens case:

In this photo, of course, I wasn't photographing wildlife, but I think you get the idea.

Advantages of this approach:

• I can use any backpack I want on my back. In this photo, I've got a small day-pack, but I can also use a large backpacking outfit in the same way. When choosing a backpack, it's helpful to get one with a sternum strap.
• I can use a backpack with a hydration bladder. For some reason, photo backpack manufacturers seem reluctant to include spots in their packs for hydration bladders. Go figure...
• I have immediate access to my camera and lenses (I can carry additional lenses in back if I wish). When hiking, it's helpful to have my camera handy if I do see any wildlife, and when I'm hiking with others, they usually don't want to wait for me to dismount my pack, unload my camera, take photos, and then put everything away again.
• The TLZ top open away from my chest, which helps with access to CF cards and permits lens change on the fly.
• Both the TLZ and lens case can be sized precisely for my gear.
• If I don't want to use a backpack at all, I can clip a shoulder strap onto the TLZ and carry that (with or without lens case) on my shoulder.

I haven't found this solution to be perfect, though. Disadvantages:

• It's little bit of a pain to put on and take off -- probably an extra minute or so, versus just mounting a pack.
• This solution by itself doesn't help with tripod access. There will obviously be plenty of places on your backpack to clip on a tripod, though, and if I'm hiking with someone, I usually just ask someone to grab it off my back if I need it.
• In the combination I'm using, the TLZ bag has an AW cover, but the lens case doesn't. You might be able to find a lens case with cover, though.
• I'm still experimenting with ways to clip the TLZ to my chest without the lens case causing it to sag to that side. You can see that tilt in the photo.

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Are Kata bags worth their price?

Question

I've outgrown my modest bag and now I'm going on vacation, I need a new one. I need a backpack which can double as a cabin luggage (will need to hold laptop, D90, lenses, strobes, and some other gadgets), carrying the camera plus some food and clothing on short hikes, and camera storage at home. Kata has some great offers, like the Owl 272 pl or the Bumblebee 220 pl, but all the models I liked cost 180 to 280 Euro, which is the price of a decent prime lens. Other producers offer models in similar sizes at half or two thirds Kata's prices, the Lowepro Vertex 100 AW makes a good impression.

I haven't seen any of the bags with my eyes and will order over the Internet. I have the right to send it back if I don't like it, but as they are not always in stock, buying a second model if the first disappoints me could take too long, in the worst case it won't arrive before I fly.

So if you have had any hands-on experience with Kata bags (in general, not only the models I linked): do they have any tangible benefits over comparable models from other manufacturers, or is the higher price just a premium paid for owning a famous brand? Or do you know of any reliable test reports (not Amazon reviews, but tests made by reliable pro magazines) which confirm or disprove the higher Kata quality?

Answer

In my opinion, yes they are. But "worth the price" is something that is highly subjective.

The sad fact is that specialty bags carry a higher price, just because.

You have to ask yourself, how often do you plan on making use of it?

Kata bags are more comfortable, and are more rigid than Lowepro. My first camera backpack was a lowepro and I didn't like it. The inserts felt cheap, and while there was room for my gear at the time, the bag was bulky and didn't do a good job of distributing the weight.

I also found that Kata had a much nicer construction quality compared to lowepro.

I travel a lot with my gear, so for me, buying a nicer bag was important. I moved to the Crumpler line, because I found their quality to be top notch (even if it's a higher price).

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How does a tripod attach to the (front of the) Lowepro Pro Roller x200?

Question

I just bought a Lowepro Pro Roller x200. (Love it so far!) This one: Lowepro Pro Roller x200

It has a strap that attaches to the top left side, and a little holster like thingy that attaches to the bottom left side for holding a tripod. This works well.

However, it also, apparently has some way of allowing you to mount the tripod on the front. But I cannot figure out how to make it work. You can see from this picture from the Lowepro website that it is possible. But the documentation does not help and the picture is too small to figure out what is really going on (the top is obvious):

Note in this picture there is a little "tripod icon" right below the pockets on the front.

This icon matches the icon on the little holster you can see holding the bottom of the tripod in the 2nd picture above. The question is how does this little holster attach to the front to the bag? There is a upside down pouch at the base of the front pocket with some velcro in it, but i can't see any way of getting the little holster to stick in place.

Anyone?

Answer

Never mind. Right after posting the question I poked around some more. I discovered that there is a nylon tab, with a loop for the holster strap to go through tucked in that little upside-down pocket!

I'd post a pic (i took one) but Stackexchange's photo upload appears to be broken right now.

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