Camera Bags

You might think that there couldnit be a lot to talk about when discussing camera bags, they are just?bags after all.

Iim reminded of a scene in the movie, Love Actually, where Alan Rickmanis character, Harry, is secretly shopping for a gift for a woman other than his wife. He spies a necklace and asks the salesperson, none other than Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean fame, to wrap it up.

With typical and hilarious Atkinson flare, the salesman wraps the package and pulls out a clear plastic bag. Frustrated and in a hurry, Harry says, “I donit need a bag, Iill just put it in my pocket.”

“Oh, this isnit a bag, sir,” the salesman says, “it is so much more than
a bag.” And he proceeds to fill the plastic bag with confetti, dried flowers and a bunch of other flourishes, much to the consternation of Harry.

That pretty much says it all about a good camera bag; it is so much more than a bag, as youill soon see. So, letis get to it.

Back when I was shooting film I had almost all of my equipment tucked into a nice black leather camera bag. At least, I thought it was nice; it had two large compartments in which I stuffed my camera, lenses, filters, extra rolls of film, flash, and other photo-phernalia I thought I needed. Everything kinda clunked around in that bag, but I didnit mind because back then everything came with its own case: The camera body was wrapped in a tight fitting leather case that included a cover for the mounted lens, extra lenses had their own cases, even the individual film rolls had their own watertight cases. My camera bag must have weighed a good 20 to 25 pounds when it was fully loaded. Needless to say I took it with me only when I thought I needed to and, consequently, I miss many photo opportunities.

Today things are a bit different: Most entry level DSLRs donit come with form-fitting cases, and while extra lenses do come with cases, itis more likely that youill opt not to bother with them.

The object of being a photographer is to shoot photos, and you canit shoot that UFO landing, Aunt Pearlis handstand, or Brad Pitt kissing your girlfriend if your camera is swaddled in protective casings and buried in an inconvenient bag. And nobody wants to lug around 20 or more pounds worth of stuff if they donit have to.

What you need is a good camera bag. But what makes a camera bag good?

Excellent question.

One way to answer this to look at what makes a bad camera bag.