manbagaholic

Chrome droolage

2011-08-31T16:26:00.005+12:00

It's been a while.... but when I saw that Chrome have just released some limited edition Fall bags (that's Autumn for those of us in the rest of the world), I fell in love... I really can't justify spending it up on yet another messenger bag right now, but someone's gonna have to hold me back. Please buy them all before I crumble at my own weak attempts not to....

They're available from HERE.

a break from the norm - the Kriega US20

2010-01-26T09:42:00.006+13:00

Well, as you can see it's been far too long since my last update. But here's a break from the norm, in a move away from photo-oriented bags. I had some new AV equipment to test for my my main line of work, and thought there'd be no better way than to shoot a quick video review on the Kriega US20 sportsbike tailpack. With a bit of a mention of the surpisingly shabby Givi saddlebags. So without further ado, the video says it all:

ThinkTank Shapeshifter Review Coming soon....

2009-05-13T09:01:00.004+12:00

It's been so long that I thought I'd whet your appetite.. I'll be posting my overdue review of the incredible ThinkTank Shapeshifter here soon.

I'm distracted

2009-02-06T22:24:00.004+13:00

I made a slightly cryptical mention to my 'other project' in a previous post... from the new ads on the blog you'll probably guess that I've been rather busy launching a photography product that I've been developing. I hope you don't mind the ads, this is an excellent place to test that they work.

I'll be back on the bag topic soon as I'm now the proud owner of a ThinkTank Shapeshifter (it's AMAZING!) and got to hang out with the ThinkTank team at Photokina recently, so I've got plenty to be writing about here.

I'm off the USA next week so will be dropping into the Timbuk2 and Chromebags stores in SF, which should provide some great content. All I have to do is find the time to get it onto the blog....

HPRC 2550 vs Pelican 1510

2008-10-23T21:26:00.010+13:00

Those of you who have read this blog before will know that I'm a big fan of the carry-on sized Pelican 1510. HPRC are an Italian competitor of Pelican who over the last few years have been making inroads into other markets. I'd noticed that their carry-on sized case, very similar to the Pelican 1510, seemed inexplicably to be larger on the inside and smaller on the outside than the Peli, albeit by a small margin.

You can see the difference above with both cases lined up along their back edges (off photo). It's not much, but every little counts when you're hauling something across airports, into and out of overhead storage on airliners. But here's where it gets really interesting....

So it turns out that HPRC have done the seemingly impossible; making a case smaller on the outside and bigger inside, than the equivalent Pelican 1510. They've done it simply by designing specifically for purpose. The Pelican 1510 is a minor adaptation of a carry-case with a handle-and-wheel component bolted onto the back of the case. So you lose around an inch of the depth of the case to the handle-and-wheel parts. The HPRC case is full depth and the handle tunnel intrudes slightly into the case interior, as you can see above. In practice, although the difference in interior dimensions is minor, it makes a big and immediately noticeable difference:

Putting the same equipment I usually carry in the Pelican 1510 into the HPRC 2550 and you can see above how much spare space there is, denoted by the grey squares. I'm sure a more thoughtful repack would have released the spare spaces into one area had I wanted to, but I didn't have time. Easily more than enough room for chargers and other paraphenalia that you may want to include on longer trips.

The HPRC's handle is a different design to the Pelican's too:

It normally lies flat but pressing the red button releases it into a vertical position:

where it can be extended:

And here's the cool part... it is taller by about an inch than the Pelican handle. If you're six foot ++ like me, that's an important difference. Another notch in the HPRC bedpost, so to speak.

The HPRC case that I had a chance to check out also had an interesting removable insert, seen here open without any dividers in place:

and seen below out of the case and closed. Quite cool if you need the removable functionality, but not much use to me as I like to maximise my carrying space inside. Although I haven't seen it, I'm fairly sure you can also get a standard padded divider kit for the HPRC that doesn't convert to a bag, which would give you a bit more space inside and still a good amount of protection.

So to summarise ? If I was doing it again, I'd buy the HPRC, as they come in at a very similar price to the Pelican case. On the other hand, the HPRC's advantages aren't enough to make me sell my Pelican 1510. Even though it is tempting, with the flashy Italian red highlights on the HPRC....

Here's a closing photo, which thanks to the wonders of distortion of the 28mm lens I used makes the HPRC look enormous. Side by side they look and feel very similar in size and weight, but as I've explained, the HPRC definitely has the edge thanks to its better design.

Successor to LowePro Stealth Backpack announced !

2008-10-23T19:57:00.004+13:00

I didn't know when I wrote the last post so many months ago that the good folks at ThinkTank photo were busy putting the finishing touches on a successor to the Stealth backpack that I was writing about. Turns out the designers that they took with them when they left Lowepro way back in the day actually were the same guys and girls who designed the Stealth backpack.

While at Photokina a few weeks ago on other business I dropped by the TT stand. I'm on their customer email list and they invited anyone to pop in. When I mentioned that I had originally been an early adopter of their Modulus kit (or in TT lingo, a "Test Driver") and was based in New Zealand, their head honcho Doug Murdoch remembered my name in a flash. Quite amazing recall given that he's not exactly been sitting on his hands for the last three years.

Anyway, knowing I've got a wierd thing for camera bags and muttering something about a secret project, he ushered me into their tiny office and showed me a pre release version of the forthcoming Shape Shifter backpack. Swearing me to secrecy, he told me that Rob Galbraith was due to run the official exclusive launch note.

photo courtesy thinktankphoto.com

Now, picture the scene. You run an international company that makes camera bags and a guy you know to be obsessed with camera bags walks outta nowhere onto your stand, so you show him your latest, greatest secret bag and you ASK him not to tell ?!?! You don't sit him down and make him sign a Non Disclosure Deed promising fire and brimstone if he so much as thinks about it in public ? Well, I wouldn't have trusted me. Not because I look shifty or anything (I don't), but c'mon, the guy knows I blog about camera bags !

Anyway, read all about it here. Thanks for the heads up Doug.

On the back of my meeting with them, I've hooked up with the local distributors so watch this space for a full review when they're available.

Photo Backpacks and the Lowepro Stealth AWII

2008-06-28T01:26:00.012+12:00

About time for another full bag write up. Only problem is, one of my favourite bags, the Lowepro Stealth AW II (yeah, crazy name) is no longer in production. Read on though, as it's still relevant and there are excellent alternatives. A quick trawl around shows they're still available second hand too; here and here. They were costly when new, so these are bargains.

A while back I had a wedding to shoot. I was travelling by boat to the island (yes, very glamorous and lots of fun) so my kit needed to be easily carryable. I was heading there and back in a day so didn't need my laptop with me. As I take you through my thoughts on what I used to carry my kit, bear in mind that this would work just as well for any number of portrait assignments or similar. Here's what I took, my beloved Stealth AWII:

Now they no longer make these but your options for an alternative to a Stealth AWII are the Thinktank Airport Addicted, TT Airport Acceleration or a Lightware Digital Backpack. The TT Airport Addicted looks a little larger than the AWII but is actually a similar size to the fully loaded AWII pack. The Lightware Digital Backpacks are very similar to the AWII, just with a different internal layout. The Lightware looks a lot less like a photo pack than the Thinktank gear.

Another big difference you should consider is that the TT Airport Addicted isn't crushable while the Lightware 'pack is. Now that might not sound like a good thing, but I don't mean crushable as in "it'll-break-your-gear" crushable, but more "take-stuff-out-and-it-looks-smaller" crushable. This sort of thing can be very useful when trying to check your bag in as carry-on. It's fairly well known that the TT Addicted rarely gets through as international carry-on, despite the dimensions actually being within the rules. That's why ThinkTank developed the Airport Acceleration, which is a viable option although a tad smaller than the AWII and Lightware pack.

I've not handled a Lightware, but all you need to know about them is here (just click on "Everything Else near the bottom of the screen, then "Lightware Backpack" for an incredibly comprehensive write-up).

Anyway, here's the bag open:

So from left to right, I've got my bits'n'bobs, or odds'n'sods as they could also be called; namely my filters, cleaning cloths, self-timer cord, etc. Then come two camera bodies, in this case a trusty old Canon 20D and a Mark II N. Next, after the fold, is a Thinktank Cable Management 50 with my Strobist-style portable lighting kit. Lieing on that is my TT Modulus belt. On the far right are three TT components with a 28-70 f2.8, a 70-200 f2.8 and a 16-35 f2.8, - the trusty photojournalist 'triumvirate'. This way with a very quick unpack, I can have lights set up and a belt kit on my waist, ready to be a mobile wedding shooter.

Of course there's another set of pockets on the Lowepro into which went a mini Chimera softbox (an ENORMOUSLY useful piece of kit, complete with egg-crate grid), a mini Sony tripod which makes a great cheap, lightweight lightstand that folds down to nothing, and last but not least, an EWA Marine UAX-P bag. I'd figured before I left that I might have an opportunity to get the newlyweds frolicking in the surf, but it didn't happen. Had I had the opportunity but not the kit, well that would have really annoyed me. I always think it's best to over-pack than under; I'm sure there's a Sod's Law clause that states "the photographer will most need the piece of equipment they left behind."

The lack of laptop meant, of course, a lack of the enormous amount of cables that they incur. And a job lasting an afternoon meant I could leave behind all the chargers. This freed up the usual job of the Thinktank Cable Management 50 to be used to house my lighting kit. I'm a big fan of modular anything; modular tools like the Chimera and modular bags like the CM50 and Waterfield bags. There's nothing worse than having to pull a load of small kit out of a bag to get to what you need. It's a recipe to lose stuff, if you need another reason. So this is what it looked like:

As you can see below, it fitted a great little location setup of two flashes (or strobes for those of you Stateside), a set of Pocket Wizards, my gel envelope, two snoots (Honl snoots here I come...), my battery pack booster and assorted add-ons like double sided velcro tape that's great for getting flashes into tight spots and keeping them there.

So there you have it. I'm a big fan of the theory that there's not one uber-bag for all occasions. The only solution is to have a range of bags for each type of assignment.

Rolling laptop bag suggestion

2008-06-21T00:33:00.003+12:00

Some really insightful comments have begun to flow into this blog (along with a few welcome compliments) but one has inspired me to create a post to answer. A lady with a back problem asked for my advice on a rolling laptop bag, as she couldn't practically use a shoulder bag or backpack.

My first stop would be the ThinkTank Airstream. Although I haven't used it, I have had a close look at the ThinkTank rollers and they are of stupendous quality (I plan to get one). Their quality of course may count against them as they are priced to match their top-notch build quality. If you're an occasional user on a budget, I recently noticed plenty of generic laptop-sized rollers in a luggage shop. But I would hope that as a reader of this blog, you'd appreciate the value of spending top dollar on a bag that will last for years, if not decades. The ThinkTank kit definitely falls in that category as it's built solidly to last and protect your gear. If you're not carrying camera gear you could of course leave the dividers at home and roll through your flights safe in the knowledge that the rest of your stuff is well protected.

The only other reason I can think of that might lead you to choose another is a question of orientation; the Airstream fits a laptop vertically and other rollers are available that fit them horizontally. Not really much difference as far as I can tell, but you may feel differently.

Tokyo bag-mania and two ThinkTank links

2008-06-19T19:46:00.008+12:00

So it's been a while, but this time I have a good excuse. I've been away for three of the last four weeks travelling. Where, I hear you ask. Hong Kong and Japan, both on business. What sort of business, I hear you ask (since so few photographers these days get to enjoy such a multi-national career). Well that will be revealed in due course.

But since you don't come here to read about photography or my travels, I'll get onto talking about bags. My cabin luggage of choice was my Peli 1510 for my HK trip and my Timbuk2 Laptop messenger for Japan. As expected, the check-in girl took one look at the Peli 1510 and insisted I weigh it. I've never understood those in the blogosphere that insist this has never happened to them, so here's some practical advice for you, since carry-on luggage allowance is 7kgs and a Peli 1510 weighs nearly 6kgs when empty. Remove all the heaviest items from the case; batteries, laptop and big lenses before weighing. The batteries and biggest lens or two can go in your pockets and the laptop can either go loose or in whichever sleeve you're using. You'll notice that even the stingiest airlines let you take one piece of cabin baggage and a personal item. This personal item is crucial to bending the rules; it's a handbag or laptop or coat but if you read closely can be all three. So with my pockets bulging with two Canon Mark II N batteries and my laptop left out, the Peli 1510 weighed just over 8kgs, near enough that it was allowed through. Had that not been good enough, I'd have taken my camera out, slung it over my shoulder and worn it as another valid personal item. It certainly was a great piece of luggage to have in an airport; easy to roll around and unobtrusive in black.

Japan was the mother of luggage trips though, had my credit card had anything left after I was recently forced to replace my old iBook. My Timbuk2 LM was superb; comfy around the airports and importantly, looking slimline and innocent enough to never get weighed. I fitted a fair bit into it too; my shiny new MacBook, Waterfield case of cables, chargers and whatnot, my Animal passport wallet, my new Sigma DP1, iPod video, and all the other things I like to have when I fly (ear plugs and an eyemask to name two of the cheapest). And thankfully, given the ridiculous security theatre we now have to put up with, the Timbuk2 makes getting my laptop out for the XRays easy.

But the biggest thing I'll remember on the 'manbag' topic while in Japan was both how many guys carry bags there (yes, I felt right at home) but that the manbag sections of shops in Tokyo were larger than entire luggage shops in other countries. Don't believe me ? This is one aisle of photo bags in Yodabashi Camera and there were at least four more this big. As I said before, I distracted myself by taking photos as my credit card screamed to be let out of my pocket.

Every conceivable bag I'd ever heard of and quite a few I hadn't. If you're in Tokyo, the easiest way to find it if you don't speak Japanese is to head to Akihabara then say "Yodabashi" clearly while shrugging your shoulders; everyone knows where it is and if you smile they'll point you in the right direction.

This is the non-photographic bag section in Loft, which is near the Shibuya crossing in the same building as Muji (apologies for the un-corrected white balance).

I came across two fascinating articles last week, both raving about Thinktank belt systems. Check out these links; here and here. The second is extremely useful for travelling working photographers but the first more fits with the kind of work I do, where I don't need my kit as immediately, but still need it easily accessible. Happy reading !

I'll leave you with a non bag-related tangent for the photo-geeks amongst you; the amazing camera displays in Yodabashi Camera in Tokyo. The screens you can see are hooked up to the cameras so you can pick them up, fire away on a million bazillion frames a second and see the results of your handiwork immediately on the screen. Very very cool and a great persuader if you're looking to buy. Fortunately for my credit card bill, I am all stocked up with cameras at the moment.

Domke - Bags for photographers on the move

2008-04-25T23:37:00.012+12:00

A few years ago I was in a photography shop in London when I spied an old bag in the corner onsale for a tenner. I couldn't resist, even though I had no idea what I'd use it for. A few years later I found myself living on the other side of the planet and having to cover a demonstration - a rare thing where I live. I needed a small bag to carry a spare lens, a notebook and not much more. The Domke bag that I had, which I since discovered is an F3X, was perfect. Not so good that it prevented me getting hassled by the police, but that seems to be de rigeur the times we live in.

Fast forward a couple of years and I began to work regularly for newspapers as a press photographer. I noticed that most of my wiser colleagues, with very few exceptions, were toting Domkes. Quite happy with the ThinkTank belt setup I've been using for a while now, I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. The Domkes don't seem to protect your cameras very well, don't seem very waterproof and look, well, small.

Then I began to have a few jobs where I really needed an understated camera bag. Just last week I had to get an impromptu portrait of the son of an injured man in a hospital. Although the hospital wouldn't have had a problem with a photographer during visiting hours, it was hardly going to help our case to convince the son to talk to us, if I walked up with a full-on black belt kit and big SLR hanging off my shoulder. Luckily, the day before I had borrowed a Domke F3 from a colleague to trial for this article, and it was ideal; understated, compact and looking very little like a camera bag.

Here's a friend of mine's olive green ballistic nylon F3 in action at a celebrity wedding that we'd been sent to cover in a paparazzo style. They're available in several colours (blue, black, tan and green) and two fabrics; the original retro denim and more modern ballistic nylon like the Lowepro series.

Domke bags are the brainchild of Jim Domke, a photographer who in the 60s and 70s wanted to find an alternative to the big, bulky and often hard sided camera case/bags that were used. He came up with the idea of minimal padding to save size and weight. After all, if my bag's padded I'm still going to treat it carefully. And the smaller the bag the safer it is in many ways; less likely to draw attention, less likely to get snagged, less likely to get in the way in crowds. So he made his own camera bag with soft sides and minimal padding. Before he knew it, everyone wanted one.

Here's a selection of older bags that a venerable friend of mine had kicking around in his studio when I was last there for a coffee that were early adopters of the Domke design ethic.. two old Billingham bags and a Tenba. Although the padding and insides are a bit worn, they're still as solid as the day they were built (about twenty years ago) and look really cool. On a practical side, no one would give you a second glance with one over your shoulder, which is handy a lot of the time whether you're a pro or amateur.

A good tip if you've got an old modern bag lying around but have any affinity for older bags is to pick one up on ebay and slide in the insert from your modern bag. For example, the inserts from the Lowepro Stealth Reporter 400 and 550 fit the old Billinghams perfectly.

So anyway, what makes the Domke F2 so good ? Read on.. with the proviso that the one I borrowed from my friend is rather worn out. And that's the cool thing I've found about them; they very quickly get a little worn like your favourite old pair of jeans. This example has had a particularly tough life so is about to be retired, but not before I had a good go with it. Despite not being in ideal condition for a review, it's worth noting that apart from the hole in the slim rear pocket, it's still as bomb-proof as the day it was born. The strap is worn to half its width but still is totally solid.

Rear view showing the slim book/CD/magazine pocket.

A close up showing the burly shoulder strap point, carrying strap point and D ring (one of two at each end) that allows you to clip your keys to the bag or use Domke's back carrying system (which I think looks really silly.)

So now we go inside... a new F2 comes with a padded four compartment lens insert but I'm using the two inserts I had in my F3. Without the inserts you only have the padded bottom as shock protection but the whole point of these bags is their compact size and ability to hold a lot of gear. You don't want to throw your camera bag around however padded it is, so it's not really a problem. That's what makes Domkes so good... you really don't need the padding of a lot of other camera bags because when push comes to shove, a big knock or drop is going to damage the equipment inside anyway.

And below you can see the bag with all the stuff I carry. Bear in mind too that if this was my bag I'd have a bit more stuff tucked inside, like a lens cleaning cloth and business card wallet. The top flap of the bag has a waterproof finish and a zipped pocket under the lid for incidental sundries like that. My 70-200 tripod collar, off camera cord and 1.4 converter live in the end pocket and the notepad and mini Maglite in the opposite end pocket. My camera with a 28-70 f2.8 lens that I commonly use for news jobs also fits, but I was using it to take these photos. It fits into the spare spaces in the inserts.

So I've been using it for a couple of weeks now and will be buying one on an impending trip to Hong Kong. Drawbacks ? The only one I've found is that as any shoulder bag will, when it's fully loaded it quickly becomes a dead weight on your shoulder... which is a one-way ticket to back problems in later life. For jobs where I know I'll be on my feet for a long time and it won't matter how much I stand out, I'll stick with my ThinkTank Modulus kit. But for assigments when I don't know where I'm going, for how long and it's likely that I may need to look like Joe Nobody, I'll be using my Domke. I've even got an idea to get the best of both worlds, but I'll report on that if it works.

Take this evening, for example, when I had to turn up unannounced to interview the family of a recently killed pilot (known grimly as a 'death knock' in the trade). Not the sort of thing you want to do with a camera on one shoulder and a belt kit of lens pouch/holsters on the other. The understated Domke was just what I needed. The family weren't at home.....

HPRC... A great Pelican alternative ?

2008-04-03T20:08:00.007+13:00

Wow.. it's been a month since I last posted. Bad. Won't happen again. I'll get to work on another feature review.

But in the meantime, I came across HPRC. They're a new company to me but seem to be fairly well established. From what I can tell they're Italian, but have recently signed a US distributor (if a good look around the web for their news is reliable).

So why am I interested in HPRC when Pelican cases are so good ? Two things. First of all the HPRC 3500, a waterproof, crushproof and, by all appearances, pretty much bombproof backpack. A BACKPACK! I'm trying hard to imagine just how useful it would be, to not have to worry about security or protection and be able to carry my gear easily. A superb idea. If I had a watery assignment, I'd certainly take one of these over a Lowepro setup.

The other thing that caught my eye about HPRC was their 2550W, that competes directly with my much loved Pelican 1510. What's interesting about that I hear you cry, why would I buy an Italian case over a good ol' American one ? Check out the dimensions.. the HPRC 2550W is smaller on the outside than a Pelican 1510 and bigger, yes BIGGER, on the inside.

Now until I get my hands on one to check it's built as strongly, it certainly looks like a convincing alternative.

Next feature review... DOMKE !

Bag Security - The chair folly

2008-03-01T23:03:00.005+13:00

I read the other day that a pro photographer blogger had his camera gear stolen. Safely stashed under his chair, it was swiped from beneath him while he ate.

This happened to me many years ago, although my bag wasn't even under my chair, it was on the floor under my legs in my line of sight!

NEVER EVER leave a bag on the floor without lifting a chair leg over the strap or hooking it onto your leg. A practised thief can get a bag from under a chair or table, even as in my case, when you've got about ten friends sitting around you (although the thief wasn't caught, we did know who it was; not one of my friends).

I wouldn't be surprised if really technical thieves could cut straps from under chairs, which is why I always hook the strap over my leg so that I'd very probably feel it go.

The other solution? One of these. Like hooking it around your chairleg, Pacsafe don't make your stuff un-stealable, they just make it a no-brainer for the thief to go and steal something easier.

Like the old adage: If a bear chases us I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you. A basic premise of security.

Thinktank News - Skin, Airstream and new range

2008-03-01T22:39:00.004+13:00

ThinkTank Photo have just added and amended their range of photo-related bags.

They've added an interesting line in belt pouches with the SKIN™ range which are all collapsible. Very handy for travelling photographers as it makes it easier to keep your kit in a normal bag (camera or otherwise) and stuff pouches in so that when you get to your destination you've got the best of both worlds; a camera bag and a belt kit. I particularly like the look of the new Skin Belt™. As you know I carry my TT kit in a Peli1510 and the belt takes up an annoying amount of space. The Skin Belt™ looks perfect as I doubt there's any difference in comfort. Also the usual nice design touches, like silence-able velcro.

They've also launched the Airport AirStream™, a tiny rolling bag. It looks too small to be much use to me but they are a switched-on company so I imagine they would only design a new bag if they knew people would buy them.

What I find more interesting is that they no longer sell the Modulus and Pro Modulus belt kit. Instead, we have the Modular Set. Though still a great system, I think it's a shame that they don't still sell the Modulus and Pro Modulus. You can of course build them up yourself, but certainly the Modulus was a much better basis for a system in my opinion as the Whip-it-Out was the natural choice to buy as an add-on to carry your 70-200. The new kit comes with a Pop Down™ pouch which is nowhere near as good as the Whip-It-Out design. Still, all companies evolve and I'm fairly sure your friendly local photo retailer can sort you out a deal if you buy your own bespoke system.

Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger

2008-02-14T19:38:00.009+13:00

First, an apology for the wait for this post. I set my own bar a little high when I decided that every post has to have a 'hero' image as well as detail shots. I had something planned and put off this post until I had my photo in the bag, so to speak. Needless to say, it hasn't happened yet. So I put off posting until I had it. Then I realised the other day that it was getting silly, so here you go. 'Hero' photo to follow when I get it done and a new rule for myself that I won't delay a post for wont of a leading pic.

I'm a big BIG fan of messenger bags. I think they are the archetypal manbag... if they're slung bandolier-style over your shoulder with the strap across your chest they almost always look cool. I very rarely hang a messenger bag off one shoulder as you run the risk of looking like a bag man (baaad) rather than a man with a bag (goooood). A small difference, but an important one in my mind.

For many years while living in London I regularly took myself all over the city carrying a book, a camera, a Minidisc player (this was a few years ago) and assorted stuff. I always used an Eastpak messenger bag (more on those in a forthcoming post) and became a fan of that style. Not to mention the fact that bike messengers use them and always, no matter how grimey they are, look cool.

So fast forward several years to zero-seven, when I found myself regularly going to and from my office with a laptop and assorted paraphenalia; wires, chargers, mobile modem, mouse, etc. I needed a bag in a hurry and bought a Crumpler Luncheon. Bad move. As it turns out, they're really not very well thought out. My two main gripes are that they only have three big pockets, with nowhere to put pens, wallet, mobile, etc without having to root around all the other stuff. Next gripe is that they have so much padding that even when nearly empty are really broad. So that got sold and I put a not insubstantial amount of money down on a Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger. Boy, what a good move I made.

I've wanted a Timbuk2 bag for a while now. They have quite a following and a really cool website. Despite their incredible quality and niche almost cult status, not many people have written about them, further enhancing their cachet in my mind.

The bag arrived at my door in New Zealand (ie. the end of the world) less than a week later, in a really cool Timbuk2 branded plastic envelope. Shame it didn't seem recyclable or even re-usable once opened. Inside, my new bag. Ah the joy.

What is amazing about it in particular, before I go into the detail, is that generally as with any addiction, I generally find fault after a few weeks with any new bag. But apart from the one big (actually quite small) fault I've got with the Timbuk2, five months later I still think it's not only the coolest, but most functional laptop bag you can buy. Before I go on, I should say that there is only one reason you might not want one, and that is that you may prefer a rucsack/backpack design. That's fine, you're not alone, but I'm sorry I just don't think they look anywhere near as good as messenger bags. Even if your shoulder does occasionally ache after a long walk. Oh I guess you might prefer a 'business' style laptop bag, but if you do you're probably not a bagaholic as they're all horrible.

Anyway, onto the bag itself. Although it looks like a fairly standard courier bag, the moment you pull it out of its envelope it feels totally different, thanks to the bombproof heavy fabric they use to make them.

Mine came with a funny yellow tag on the side, which I'm guessing could be to hang it on a Point of Display stand. But it looks kinda cool, particularly since it's the Timbuk2 brand yellow. So mine stayed on. You can also see the buckle which enables you to really easily lengthen and shorten the strap. Some messenger bags allow you to do this one handed, but the T2 version is still pretty slick, even if the plastic does feel a little cheap. (Sorry, my blog camera over-exposed the yellow tag, but believe me, it's a cool shade of yellow)

So in we go... Inside it's what you'd expect with a twist. A laptop sleeve with funky soft corduroy to protect your pride and joy (lingerie for laptops?), a big compartment for your papers and an incredible array of pockets. Brilliantly, the waterproof inner lining is light grey, making finding bits 'n'bobs in the bottom of the bag easy.

The organiser is awesome and a real strong point. Pens, business cards, mobile phone, keys on a very cool red lanyard and loads of other odds and sods that you'd usually have cluttering up your pockets. You could stuff your computer bits in here at a push, but they'd be a bit cluttered if you're like me and carry a LOT of stuff for your laptop. I use a Waterfield pouch for my accessories which I'll write about in another post. A really cool feature is that the whole organiser section is only sewn into the bag along the top and bottom, enabling you to slide stuff behind it into a sort of secret stash pocket. I keep a LaCie Rugged 80gb hard drive back there, out of sight.

And there are more pockets on the front under the flap. Two actually, one a kind of back pocket where I normally keep my wallet as it's easy to slip in and out, and a zipped pocket that I don't use much. You know how when you fly somewhere you always end up short of pockets for stuff? Like receipts or other clutter? The T2 is more than up to the task of providing a pocket for every need. Superb.

Although not a design feature in itself, I find it very useful that the flap is so expansive. When I'm working at a client's office (in the case of these photos, a newspaper picture desk) I open the bag and put everything not plugged into my laptop on the lid. If I have to leave in a hurry I don't need to take ages finding everything.

And it really looks cool when you're wearing it, but for that you'll have to wait for a photo I've not taken yet...

To round up, I suppose I should mention the useful features it has... but they're obvious from the T2 website. A grab handle is great and it comes with a stability strap too, useful if you're running for the bus or riding your bike. And that drawback I mentioned earlier ? I was really hoping, even presuming, that the shoulder strap would be seat-belt material. It's not, it's made of some cheaper-looking webbing. Although there seems nothing wrong with it and I can't tell if I only noticed because I assumed it would be seat-belt strap, but for some reason it seems to be the weak link in the bag - everything else is so incredibly high quality bombproof thick fabric, solid zips and heavy key clips.

Oh, nearly forgot, and it's got a nifty little tab to fit a small bike light to. All in all, extremely well thought out and a bag that is going to get a lot of use. Until I can justify buying a Chrome messenger that is....

The Pelican 1510

2008-01-29T21:12:00.000+13:00

I spent the weekend photographing a police operation targetting illegal street racing, which involved being driven around in police cars and jumping out to shoot. The Thinktank kit is incredibly handy for this sort of work, as for the short hops I could leave it on. A seatbelt just fits over it and as speed was often of the essence I would have lost valuable time slinging a camera and bag over my shoulder as I leapt in and out of the back seat (yes, I let the reporter take the front seat).

I've only found one real drawback with the Thinktank kit, which I alluded to last week. It isn't really a bag, so you need something to put it in when you're storing it. Of course you could empty it and put all your kit into a normal camera bag and re-fill it as needs be. But if you're like me, you don't want the hassle. Not to mention that I sometimes need to grab my gear in a hurry and decanting it from a camera bag to the Modulus kit takes too long.

Then there's the other problem that all photographers face. That's the old question of security. As most of my work is press photography I like to have my basic kit in the car with me all the time. This is for those occasions when I set off into the city to some meetings and get a call from the news desk; "I know you're not shifted on today, but can you get over to the courts in twenty minutes?" And for those rare occasions when the news comes to you, as happened to me when I took this photo:

I'd just parked up to do a spot of shopping when lo and behold, I looked up and there it was, a page 3 photo in the following day's big daily newspaper. Which more than paid for my shopping that day. One way some photographers get around the always-carry-your-SLR-kit problem is by carrying a tiny P&S (point'n'shoot camera) but I'm not a fan of them as they're all limited by their sensor sizes. And with a P&S you'd still be out of luck when you're needed at the newspaper at short notice and can't get home to pick all your equipment up.

So after a spate of friends having their gear stolen, I bought a Pacsafe. This was way back when I was using a Lowepro Stealth 650 (more on that in a later post). I looped one end of the wire through a hole in the boot (US trans. - trunk) of my car and my kit was way more secure for a relatively small outlay. The only problem was that getting the bag in and out of the car was a nightmare, as it snagged on the Pacsafe mesh. There had to be a better way.

I noticed everyone seemed to be getting Peli cases, so I took the plunge. And I'm really pleased I did. After mistakenly buying the enormous Pelican 1560 and being laughed at by my fellow press shooter colleagues, I downsized to the perfect, legal carry-on sized Pelican 1510.

I can't work out how the folks at Pelican do it, but the thing is a veritable Tardis. My purchase was largely inspired by the esteemed travelling photo-blogger Steven Frischling but I didn't quite believe it would take as much as he claimed. It does.

I dispensed with the foam it came with and was about to order the dividers when I realised that I had the perfect dividers already; you guessed it, the Modulus kit. With the addition of a lid divider and I found I had the perfect solution. It's as a great way to get my equipment around and it can all be accessed quickly and easily. As you can see below, I do have to take the Whip-it-out (which I should remind you isn't part of the basic Modulus kit) off the Modulus belt, but that takes no time to put back on. The gap at the front left is where my camera goes, stored with the lens off in a Lowe Alpine mountaineering hat. I found that hats are perfect for storing cameras sans lens. Hats are often forgotten as you head out the door until you're either on the freezing cold stakeout or sitting in the boiling sun burning your ears and head. So I carry a winter hat and a summer hat around with me, keeping my cameras nice and cosy, ready for when they can be pressed into service keeping my head cosy. Or out of the sun. So anyway, I digress. Behind that is my backup camera then anti-clockwise is a 15mm Sigma fisheye, a Crumpler pouch with a CP-E2 battery pack, the Lightning Fast module, the Speed changer module, the Lens Changer 25, the Whip-it-out with my 550EX on top of it and finally the Lens Changer 50 with a 16-35 and lens hoods. The 550EX does fit the Lightning Fast when in the Peli case, but only just, so it's safer to lie it down.

I get home every night so don't carry chargers with me all the time, but there's enough spare room if you cram it to fit the Canon charger and a BC900. In the lid I keep sunscreen, electrician's tape, aspirin, a cable release, a WhiBal, spare 20d batteries, pens, a small LED light, a flash bracket for social photography and other small bits'n'bobs. Oh yeah, spare rechargeable AAs. If you're not using rechargeables, PLEASE wake up and stop being so wasteful.
So there you go.. it rolls with me to save my back and everything is easily accessible. When I go on press jobs most of it comes out and gets worn and my backup camera, lenses and stuff stay in the car. But what of the other problem ? The security one ? I've saved the best 'till last, 'cos it turns out that Pelican cases, being waterproof, are airtight, shut tight, lock stock and barrel. They're basically a plastic safe with handles, all you need to do is add a lock. So with the help of an engineering company, my Peli case travels with one or two steel cables. In a minute or so I can loop one end through the spare wheel or other hard point and suddenly your equipment is pretty much as safe as it can be without driving it around in a tank. It's certainly enough to deter all the thieves that have preyed on anyone I know. Of course, in the rare event your car is stolen, they'll probably get to your equipment, but protecting against that is the realm of a car security blog. Here's what it looks like in my car:

In engineering terms, you need to ask for 1.5m of 4mm galvanised steel cable with a 30mm soft eye on one end and a 50mm soft eye on the other. While you're there consider getting yourself those remote camera security cables you always make out of shoe laces.

Then just when I thought I'd discovered all the amazing advantages of owning a Peli case, the other day I was doing some street furniture photography for a commercial client with my tripod at that awkward height; too low to stand behind but too high for kneeling. Bingo, the Pelican Seat. It sure beats stooping for half an hour, looking like a wierdo and giving yourself a backache.

I'll leave you with a parting shot I took for this post of my Peli case heading towards my office.

Intro and Thinktank Modulus kit

2008-01-23T18:49:00.001+13:00

So, welcome to the 'blog. I'm a photographer so many of the bags featured here will be photography related. Over the coming weeks I'm going to try to update once a week with articles on ThinkTank gear, Pelican cases, Lowepro gear, Timbuk2 laptop messenger bags, Waterfield pouches, Eastpak courier bags and other bits'n'bobs. If enough people read it then I'll keep writing it !

I'm going to start with not so much a bag, more a "carrying solution" as Lowepro would have you believe*.

It's the Thinktank Modulus belt kit. I've met too many photographers with bad backs, so when Doug Murdoch left Lowepro to set up Thinktank with a few other photo and bag luminaries a couple of years ago, I took up their "Test Drive" program. It basically was an innovative marketing strategy whereby they'd send you their kit and if you didn't like it you could send it back. Needless to say, I loved my first set of Thinktank kit; a Speed Demon beltpack and a "Whip-it-out" holster for the 70-200 (Canon or Nikon).

Here's a photo of me using it at the 2006 World Mountain Bike Championships.

Photo credit John Cowpland

It's worth mentioning here that this kit has a very narrow focus; that of photojournalists, hard news photographers and sports photographers. Trust me, you look really silly when you walk up to someone's house to take their portrait wearing these huge pouches on your waist. Similarly in some cases, you don't want to advertise you're a photographer and BINGO, huge pouches full of lenses kind of give the game away (I'll explain how I get around that later).

I use it for some hard news photography that I do; running around to hotspots in the city, be they fires or crime or car crashes. When speed is of the essence and it's obvious you're a photographer, Thinktank Modulus kit can't be beaten. As you can see above, I keep my CP-E2 AA battery pack in a Crumpler pouch. I don't really like Crumpler bags much, but their John Thursday 90 pouch is absolutely perfect for the Canon battery packs.

The Thinktank kit is supremely well thought out. Designed specifically for a 70-200 f2.8 the "Whip-it-out", doesn't have a lid but holds your lens in place with a rubbery section a bit like a softer version of skate board grip tape. When you zip it up, it tightens around the lens and holds it in place when you're running around. Unzip it and you can pull the lens out in a moment. Think of it like a quick-release pistol holster for your lens and you'll be close, although I hate military analogies for camera equipment. The only drawback? Canon users like me have to take off the 70-200's tripod ring although Nikon users don't. As you can see, I don't use a 70-200 lens shade. I've never had lens flare using it and leaving the lens shade off makes it the camera's 'footprint' a lot smaller when it's swinging from your neck or shoulder.

The other lens pouches simply rely on a toggle and elastic to hold the lenses in place. When I got mine they were a bit of a fiddle, requiring two hands to get the lenses in and out. I unpicked the plastic toggle and re-threaded them so that the toggle was then captive. Now I can tighten and loosen them with one hand and I've yet to have a lens fall out.

I wear the main Speed Changer component in front over my belt buckle. Inside I keep a spare battery for my Mark II N, a 1.4 converter, the tripod ring from my 70-200, an off-camera cord (note: one of the most under-mentioned but extremely useful things you can own), a little Olympus sound recorder, a notebook for caption information and notes, pens, lip balm, sun cream (I live in a VERY sunny country), ear plugs (never know when you're going to shoot motorsport or a loud concert), lens cloths and a AAA Maglite. I nearly forgot a Pixel Pocket Rocket, another great TT product for holding your memory cards.

The only drawback I've found with the Modulus system is that unlike a good camera bag, whenever you carry it, even slung over your shoulder, it's very VERY obvious what it is. Particularly since you can't put your camera into it. TT do make a pouch or two that will fit a camera, but I've got a 32" waist, so where that would go I have no idea. Perhaps I should eat more fast food. Or some fast food. Yeuch. I've found a way to solve it but that'll come later. I'll leave you with the setup that greets me when I go to work.. minus my camera of course.

*for an explanation of that you'll have to wait for the Lowepro article.