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Hi All,

I've got a question regarding the best way of carrying around my rather large view camera. Some of you may already know I own a Linhof Kardan Super Color, which I love; however there's a very important issue: I like hiking mountains and therefore my B&W case is not what I want for this purpose. Could anyone with a monorail camera suggest a rucksack I can use for this purpose?

Cheers,

Valerio

Hi Valerio.

Assuming your Kardan is like mine: the rail unscrews into two, it should fit into a large LoPro rucksack. Whereabouts in London are you? It might save time and be easier if we met up. I'm north of london, but within easy drive/train.

Susie

Hello from France

One of our friends, Marcel Couturier from Dijon, has built some wooden racks to carry a Sinar Norma inside a backpack which is not a dedicated photo backpack, hence much cheaper.
The system works well. Marcel uses it for one day walks with some additional equipment (warm + rain clothes, food & beverages ..)
See the image here takena at our last friendly meeting in the Jura in May.

Marcel is just finishing an article to explain what he has built and how he uses it (in French, but the images will be self-explanatory) to be posted on http://www.galerie-photo.com soon.

Hi Susie and Emmanuel, thanks for your suggestions!

Additional information, free of adverstising, I'm not affiliated, etc ...
The rucksack used by my friend Marcel is sold in France by the chain of stores "Decathlon". The rucksack is named "Vuarde" and is meant for carrying climbing ropes on relatively short distances. Price is about 50 euros.
Not a very comfortable rucksack actually, but rock climbers of the XXI-st century, unlike the British Father Founders of Alpinism, do not walk that far from their cars (like those who consider that beyond 500 yards from the car park, nothing is photogenic) and do not carry that much on their shoulders
... but @50 euro, it is a very strong and versatile rucksack for the price, if you can re-configure it to suit your LF photo needs.

Marcel Couturier's article is here. In French ..
http://www.galerie-photo.com/sac-vuarde.html

Thanks again Emmanuel.

Hi Valerio
For what it's worth, I use an old Karrimor Sequoia 65L which I bought in a charity shop. You can pick them up cheap, eg
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KARRIMOR-RUCK ... _735wt_132
The sack opens like a suitcase and I can get my Horseman monorail frame in flat, wrapped in darkcloth with lenses, meter, bellows etc on top in a Lowepro slingshot 200 aw case. This means that I can easily lift out the delicate stuff then rig the camera with the gear easily hung from my shoulder. It also means that if the weather gets really wet, I can put the whole slingshot into a rolltop waterproof bag.
There is enough space left in the bottom compartment for ultralight backpacking gear. It is quite comfortable over some distance but my old manfrotto tripod is the real killer in terms of weight. Haven't quite figured the ideal way to carry that as I mostly shift it from shoulder to shoulder or lash it to either side or back of sack. I don't know how the Linhof compares but I think it does fold flatish and is a similar weight.
Regards
Adrian