The Problem With Camera Bags No One Talks About.

Not all camera bags are created equal and that’s a problem we must face. While there are premium options out there, many of us fall into the trap that any camera bag is better than a good ‘normal’ bag. Street photographers, filmmakers and other creatives with cameras have more choices than they might think. But what is the problem and solution for today’s camera bags?

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#streetphotography #camera #bag

When you become a photographer, you realise you picked up one of the most expensive hobbies imaginable. And whether you turn this into a profession or not, the cost does not stop with your camera. With every camera there comes lenses, with every lens there comes filters. Even your batteries, memory cards,

Tripods and cleaning kits will set you back a lot of money. And most importantly, you need somewhere to keep all this amazing kit. We start shopping for camera bags like same people looking at the budget options. But soon we remember, wait, I have a nice camera, I want a nice camera bag.

So we start looking at the best bags from the best brands, following all the best advice on YouTube. And then we see the price. How much? That’s right mate, 400 quid for a bag. The world of camera bags is littered with overpriced and poorly made camera bags. As well as premium, but extremely

Expensive, premium brands. And I should know, I’ve owned a few. When you compare these bags with bags that aren’t camera bags, of a similar capacity, the features you get for a lot less money and the build quality you get for a lot less money starts to make the whole world of camera

Bags make zero sense. Camera bags actually divide people quite hard, I feel. There’s some of us who like to like meticulously organize things. We like to have dividers where we can put lots of different bits of kit. But then there’s others who just want to have a big sack to chuck everything in

And you can grab it out as and when you need it. And the companies designing specific camera bags like this are kind of the former. They’re the people who like to like meticulously organize things. So things are made with like really premium materials, which is obviously nice. But at the same time,

Like, it’s only a camera. I know they’re expensive, but do we need all this extra fancy stuff that then costs like a significant premium? But whatever happens to just using a bag like a proper standard bag with some cute cameras like this, you can just chuck it in a bin bag.

It’s everything you need. I want to take a minute to share with you one of my favorite videos on the internet. This is from Paulie B’s walkie talkie series, and it is his interview in Melissa O’Shaughnessy. I always say that when I’m feeling shy, I shoot with the 35.

And when I’m feeling less shy, I shoot with the 28. Once you start and you start to feel comfortable and you start to see things, and you get those first good picture, I think people get really, really hooked. That certainly happened to me. And believe me, I carry

Around a big bag of self-doubt. Some days it’s heavier than others. It’s many a hot day or cold day or unproductive day, but I think to myself, why am I doing this? This is so hard. It’s so inefficient. You know, you can be out for eight hours and come back with nothing.

I think most street photographers are driven by really a profound sense of optimism. And I think that’s why we all like each other so much. Wait a second. There’s something we missed here. And that big bag of self-doubt also has another meaning here. If you’re carrying around just a camera

And a lens, that’s a lot easier for you and for your body than carrying around a whole bag. Sometimes with a laptop in there, sometimes with another lens in there, and any other kit. It just makes your day harder. It makes you maybe want to go out for less time.

What if you need to take your Zoom with you or maybe your ultra wide Zoom, and maybe you might do a video. So maybe you need to bring a microphone kit with you. What if you want to stop at a cafe for a croissant and sit down with

Your laptop to do some work? What if you’re just making excuses? Excuses that just get in the way of you actually taking photos. If you head out with one camera, one lens, be it a Zoom or a Prime and nothing else on you, the only thing you’re going to do with

What you have attached to your body or in your hand is take photos. And that’s the most important thing. Apart from my big camera bag that I use for all my freelance work, this is my go-to camera bag. I’ve had this Berghaus TrailBite 30 litre for four years now, and there’s absolutely

Nothing wrong with it. From using this bag, I’ve realized something. When you buy a bag from a camera bag manufacturer, typically that is the only bag that that camera bag manufacturer will ever make. Yes, there are some brands out there who only make camera bags. Some of them are quite good.

However, if you go towards a brand like Berghaus, or you could go to North Face, Patagonia, Mountain Warehouse, the Outdoors brands, they’ve been making other bags and equipment that are suitable for all kinds of outdoors activities and they have to compete with lots of other companies in that space.

And for me, the build quality of a bag like this from a brand like Berghaus, I’m not promoting Berghaus or North Face or anyone, but the build quality of these bags is far superior, even on a cheaper bag than most camera bag manufacturers. A problem that I think every photographer

Comes to at some point is whether or not you choose to have like an obvious photography bag, a bit like a low pro or another well-known brand, or you go with something a bit more anonymous. The benefit here is having a photography well-known brand, if you’re somewhere where you’re unsure

Of how safe it is to have lots of kit with you, people might know that this is like a high value bag potentially to steal. Whereas when you have like an anonymous bag like from any outdoors brand, you kind of keep all of your kit nice and incognito until you actually

Pull it out and start using it. Similar to how everything surrounding a wedding costs significantly more, everything associated with photography costs significantly more. This Berghaus bag for example, I think cost me 50 to 60 pounds four years ago. It’s got a laptop sleeve, multiple big compartments, elastic cup holders for water bottles,

Front zips and separate compartments with high quality zips and materials. Everything you expect from a premium camera bag, but often they fall short. For a short time, I had a 20 pound soft camera insert from Amazon stuffed in the bottom. This was my setup to arrive at freelance gigs for nearly a year,

But after a year or so of liking the setup, I actually invested in a Pete Design insert, yes, from a premium camera bag company, but not the full bag at this point. And this setup when carrying in this bag only allows me to fit a small amount in this insert.

It can comfortably fit like an APS-C sized camera or full frame camera with one prime lens and a zoom lens, or maybe two zoom lenses. But often I’m carrying a second camera because I have problems and I review micro four thirds cameras. And this little unit can just

Sit at the bottom of my bag, leaving me with most of the capacity of that bag, free to be able to stuff in other things and even go to the shop on my way home from a shoot. And besides this non camera bag, camera bag setup,

The only other thing I’m using these days to carry around kit is this Uniqlo bag. This is just like a sling bag, super minimal. There’s like one pocket in here you can put a camera battery in, but it quite comfortably carries a Sony a6700 with a pancake lens.

And you can even get another prime lens in there or just take the camera with one zoom lens and it fits quite nicely. And this is a nice halfway between just carrying a camera on a sling and taking a smaller non camera bag, especially when I’m not going out for a

Long time and I don’t need to carry water and things like that with me. Just taking this camera and this Uniqlo bag has actually been a dream for the last few months. I think this turning point of going from carrying as much as possible to finding ways to carry as little as

Possible is a point we all come to as photographers. If no of these ideas work for you and you don’t fancy getting yourself an under 100 pound premium bag from a brand like Patagonia or the North Face, you can always pick up premium camera bags on eBay.

If you go to eBay, you can find brands like Pete Design, Low Pro and even some Peter McKinnon bags for less than that RRP. But you’re never going to save as much as if you just make your own camera bag with another brand like Patagonia, North Face or many other brands.

All jokes aside, I love all things photography, including camera bags, but there’s nothing I love more in photography than tiny lenses in the shape of delicious pancakes. And if you want to see a whole video appreciating those lenses, check out this one here.