Tokyo bag-mania and two ThinkTank links

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.

The Pelican 1510

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.