Carrying lenses

[Charles Twist]

A while back, Emmanuel Bigler recommended we take a look at the bag design of Marcel Couturier who carried his lenses in a plyboard box with grooves routed in to it. I tried the method with my bag and found the slots introduced weak lines in the box. I didn't help by reducing the weight of the design by cutting out some of the plywood, but life on the road with me was too much for it. And it died.

Chris J suggested soft dividers and pouches which I could squeeze in to the same box shape. So I was interested in the recent thread suggesting fishing reel cases. Having looked in to it, I bought the 16291 Reel Case by Snowbee. A pair fits the space in my bag; comes with plenty of dividers; snug fit for larger barrel lenses and lenses on Linhof/Ebony boards. The big plus relative to bags & inserts made for lenses (eg Fossoux) is that the flap opens to reveal all the lenses, without having to take one lens out to reveal the one underneath. We'll see how long it lasts but it seems sturdy (if Made in China). The dividers are quite rigid rather than soft and plump, but that suits me because it takes less space. The whole bag is padded and holds things firmly.

This shot shows the bag with two big lenses: the Fujinon 125mm f/8 and the Nikkor 90mm f/4.5.

and same thing closed:


Regards,
Charles

[dennis]

Charles,
That looks like a good method, but I am a bit wary of Velcro, the hard bits tend to break off in time & I am dubious about what they might do to the interior of a LF lens? Dennis.

[Nigels]

I have one of these;
http://www.photobackpacker.com/mm5/merc ... Code=RPT02
I know they have been discussed here before but it suits me perfectly.

[dave_whatever]

Can someone humour me, if you guys are carrying your lenses in seperate cases then how are you carrying the rest of your clobber? Is this for a kind of "chuck your gear in a normal rucksac for backpacking/skitouring" sort of thing?

Am I comitting a faux-pas by just opening a divided camera bag and just fitting all the gear in?

[Nigels]

Is this for a kind of "chuck your gear in a normal rucksac for backpacking/skitouring" sort of thing?

Yes, Dave. Thats it exactly.
Going forward I really like the F-Stop Satori back pack but it does seem jolly expensive!
http://fstopgear.com/en/product/mountain/satori-exp

[Charles Twist]

The PhotoBackPacker bag looks very similar if a little more pricey - as per usual with camera gear.

@Dave: I have basically got a divided back-pack, but one of my own design. I pack a monorail like in the Couturier link I gave. That leaves a space between the standards, which is where I put the lenses and other oddments. The difficulty was in finding a way of holding the lenses in place. The advantage of the present approach is that it'll be a lot easier to carry lenses in hand luggage in the future. If I needed a pouch to hold other gear in a hiking rucksack, the Fossoux and other-branded dividers on Ebay looked interesting.

Regards,
Charles