BEST BAGS FOR THE BUCK

 AND TRAVEL TIPS

MY FAVORITES:
DOMKE - Simple photojournalist preferred.

LOWEPRO and TAMRAC - Largest selection of quality products on a par with each other.

PELICAN - Hard side , hard working professional cases for tough on the go.

BLACKHAWK, and MAXPEDITION - Mil Spec quality products able to survive the worst.

WHAT TO WEAR?

This is not a lesson in selecting a mate, shopping for something to go with those blue pumps and we'll make it easier than selecting paper or plastic.  When you see the words BEST in the header, it is because I have used and abused these products.  I used to post everything relating to Camera Bags from all the firms but after twenty years of trade shows and basically looking, buying, and using everything imaginable, several companies stood out and outfoxed, out engineered, and out-designed the competition. This is designed to make you think.

REALITY CHECK

  •  What is your style and what do you really need? 
  •  How much can I carry, do I want that much to drag along and what do I really need.
  •  What type of bag, shoulder, backpack, fanny pack , belt pack, or belt SWAT gear type. 

Picking a bag is like picking a friend, if it's a good pick, it's a good friend, make a poor choice and you'll lose your shirt and your friend.  Unless you return it, the resale value on bags is horrible.  

But the biggest mistake a bag buyer makes is not what it holds, but how is it made and used.  I see bags that made the gear look pretty but slipped off shoulders, poor straps, cheap Velcro, and after they were loaded really couldn't carry the weight, distorted and so forth.

You have to list the real requirements, not just the gear. Big mistake, to buy a big bag as you will find yourself filling it. 

So lets go back for a second and talk about style. There are a ton of bags out there but you need the one that holds the gear and makes it easy to work from for the situation you are in. And please avoid the Bling bags that say steal me. The favorite hit bag was the Leica bag that had Leica spelled out on it.

BACKPACKS:
Backpacks are great from point A to point B, they are definitely not for working out of. That’s their unique downfall. You were not born with hands on your back. 

One of the biggest problems is the bigger the bag you buy, the more you have a need to stuff it. 

That’s a stupid idea and is easily explained by the Gremkin-Flugals laws of Physics which states “the more you pile on an ass to carry, increases in weight and when the ass dies, YOU are the next ass to haul it”. I totally agree with that hypothesis.

With a backpack you need a hand for the pack, one for the body of the camera and one for the lens, that’s three or you'll wind up using the sidewalk or forgetting the backpack. 

Some places I just don't lay the pack down to get something out. Situational awareness, as in a riot, downtown Bagdad or some parts of my city or at a concert. No time, no place. It's also makes a thief's job easier as his point of attack will be from the rear.  

Think about that. In a crowd I swing my bag to the front. Sometimes right above my GLOCK under my shooting jacket.  In the badlands, where the mission can change in an instant, I prefer Mil-Spec gear like the harness shown above.  My CAMEL MIL-SPEC water and my fanny pack both hook to this gear as well as lens cases.  It is modular.

Now if you do landscape and scenics, who cares. For a PJ guy suicide.  You see one bag doth not make a good approach. You might look at a variable approach. You need stuff that suits the needs and the occasion.  

I have backpacks and in this Florida heat sweated the labels off them, but for trekking and doing the OJ through airports a backpack is fine. BUT you might have to empty all that stuff on a table and miss the flight.  Black backpacks here turn white with sweat. The better packs by LowePro have a protective barrier to allow a little air through. 

ROAD WARRIOR TRIPS:   

THE TRAVELER  - IDIOTIC IDEA or COMMON SENSE:

How to pack for an airline road trip.  This is the kind of work that is either planned or you get one of those phone calls and you have to bolt. Like I had to yesterday. You’ll be spending time having to find either transportation or accommodations so you really want your gear close, up front and personal, portable and not out of sight. No checked baggage.

This is when I drag the LowePro Compu-Trekker BackPack. or my regular backpack by Blackhawk. I also have one of those mini-hand trucks that fold to nothing. Best $94.00 I ever spent ten years ago in a camera store. Now they are $23.00 at Sams. It has big rubber wheels that absorb bumps and vibration. I do not like the combo roll on backpack aka roller, aka luggage, aka bag. Like a multi-tool, they do something, but nothing great. 

Most of the roll-around combined backpack cases have the plastic wheels that are too small and vibrate too much. Especially on tile in most airports. That will kill your lenses.  It will kill your wallet when you replace them as they score and wear and are proprietary. Once again the great brains of luggage, meaning profit before common sense really miss the important things.

ROAD TREK KIT

My road kit is comprised of the D3 series, a D300 and a Canon G11. For lenses I carry my standard kit. The 17mm-55mm, the 35mm1.4, 12-24mm, and the 70-200mm VR with the 1.7 tele-converter.  That’s covering 12 - 420mm by one means or another. Now to that add flashes, e

xternal drives, cell phone and download stuff.  Also I added a small insulated bag that clips on with my "meds" and two sandwiches from SUBWAY with chips, Kasha bars and chewing gum.  It's called the Frickin Airline Survival Totem Bag In Transit Expeditions. (FAST BITE)

Money, passport, tickets, and a medical history are kept in a belly band worn around my waist sealed in a plastic envelope.  Wallets are kept in front pockets or a Blackhawk or MaxPedition ID badge holder inside my shirt. 

BAILEY THE TRAVELER - A SIMPLE GUIDE TO TRAVEL

Now several of you know of or are familiar with a TV travel show, "Traveling in Europe with Rick Steves", and I have a friend and associate of thirty five years who I go to the trade shows with. Tom is a devout 

orthodox Rick Steves Fan and follows the guru to the letter. In his own words from a blog he wrote, here is how this is done…

Dear Friends,
You see I own one piece of luggage, a 22 year old Rick Steves Rucksack.  If it doesn't fit in there, it doesn't go.  I have done 30 days in Europe with just that bag. 

Travel is more fun the less you take.  There are some tricks to the trade however.

I do not need extra shoes, now I know this is a touchy point with some of the ladies.  My question is if you are traveling how will the waitress at Denny's know you wore those shoes yesterday and will she care?  So for me no shoes in the bag, I wear the one pair. Comfortable, broken in shoes. I will be doing a lot of walking at trade shows. 

For shirts, I pack some that are reasonably wrinkle resistant, then I put them on hangers; place them in the bathroom in the shower.  Turn on the shower to hot, let the bath room fill with steam, turn off the water, leave the room closing the door and go exploring the hotel, town or whatever. When I return the shirts are wrinkle free.  

Dress Attire:  When I go to Europe I need a suit / sport coat for business meetings and Rotary Club make ups.  So I take an old sport coat, maybe even one purchased at Goodwill and have a dry cleaner treat it with water repellant.  I wear this on to the plane so it is not taking up space in the bag.  This gives me my business attire, a light jacket for cool evenings and a rain coat for light showers.  A good friend who travels to Europe every year always takes his old clothes and throws them away before coming home. Good idea and you "look" less prone to thieves and pickpockets. Less headaches at Customs when you get back.

Med's and Bathroom: Guess what anything you can buy here, you can buy in some form there.  I recall visiting an Apothecary in Germany once looking for Vicks NyQuil, and I found it.  Of course the label said it was Vicks Medinight, but it is the same stuff. 

In the rucksack goes a Promaster camera bag containing a Nikon DSLR, Tamron 18-270mm, 2x, 10-24mm, and a 10.5mm Nikkor since most of Europe is wide angle.  Just for a backup, I also carry a good compact digital camera as well. You may not believe it but I still have room for socks. 

One last important item, 2 large drum size trash bags.  

ROAD WARRIOR TRIPS - (GEAR BY CAR)

If it’s PJ extended interview, Wedding or Event work and we are driving, I include several of the the battery packs I make, extended cables, two six volt batteries, cables that can combine to twelve if I must run the laptop in an emergency, SB-800-900's, Metz's and backups.

Bag two, the usual pens, reporter notepad, interview recorders (3), CREE or Sure-fire flashlights, all purpose Gerber tools. I have one with with the sharp blades ground down to screwdrivers, all sharp blades removed for airline, and one domestic, no fly normal model. I take small 7 gal garbage bags for the car, for garbage hanging from the glove box, bad weather protection for the gear and laundry. I use the larger garbage bags for raincoats, even though the Lowe has a rain cover. I don't. Water kills cameras and I don't need a cold or chills.

In states applicable to Concealed Carry Permits, a Glock .40 and a .380 Kel-Tec.  brings new meaning to the word "shooter".  

If I’m driving to the assignment with a partner and we are within, say within 500 miles, or Tampa to New Orleans, Louisiana, we add a huge cooler with drinks, dried fruits, nuts, snack and fruit energy bars, breakfast cereal assortment and a few airline size mood changers for social reasons and the end of day in the motel room or tent. 

MEDICATIONS:

Medications for the trip are in sealed pouches marked for each day by the vacuum freezer machine which produces small airtight, waterproof, and clearly marked packs. The peel off prescription labels they give you extras of on the bag from the pharmacy are pasted to one sheet of paper and another in my ID case, another in the personal bag with shave gear and my wallet. 

That’s so the TSA guys at the airline terminals don’t think you are the local ecstasy dealer on holiday.  I learned how to make seals both directions so I cut out each day as needed. I also take some currency in small denominations and seal a small bag of it.  

Another thing I carry with my meds is a sealed printed condensed version of my meds, medical history, blood types, ALLERGIES, operations etc. and so forth marked “for medical emergency use only”.  It just might save your life one day ina foreign country like Georgia. (PS...it's near southern Russia)

SCENARIO ONE – HEAVY TRANSPORT - PELICAN TIPS -

I have Pelican cases that I use for travel, can ship to a site or location working from the car. Nothing protects like a Pelican case. In fact if I’m not on the job, the bigger one has become my standard car travel carrier in the trunk, just remove the photo insert and use those plastic HD clothing bags. 

But weight will kill you with the big Pelicans on the airline. Limits are fifty pounds, and a 26 pound empty Pelican kills the deal.

No Gorilla, even Norwood (see Picture) ever damaged my Pelicans. They (two of his human friends) did however destroy two of my wife’s brand new American Tourister Classic Fancy Paisley GUCCI matching bags at Denver Airports brand new computer driven state of the art baggage system. 

What a thrill, after the system went dead for thirty minutes and came back like a volcano. Nice to watch your entire wardrobe come flying out like an unscheduled release of flatulence, spilling out all over Denver's automated carousel, on their second day of operation.  So much for the design of that great baggage handling improvement. So much for my wife's great packing job. So much for her temper. The only time in thirty years I saw her mad. 

I got a $400 hundred dollar credit for luggage in swap for that film not seeing daylight. Two free tickets as long as the Airline was not mentioned, it was really the Denver Authorities blame.  This is called "Journalistic Extortion" and I replaced the luggage.  We duck-taped and duffle bagged the rest of the trip and shipped 50% of it that was salvageable back via UPS. The ruined clothes we threw out.

First stop was a nice discount mall outside the airport and we refurbished with smarter luggage this time. Since then when raveling alone I am a duffle bag, mil-spec fanatic.

PELICANS:
So it's obvious I like Pelicans for the protection they afford and even ship the seminar projectors in them with spare bulbs. I remove the bulbs into blister or bubble wrap. They are very useful and I only buy them with adjustable dividers, that foam is for the birds. I have a spare insert for both. But I caution you, the larger cases weigh half the allowance in weight for the airlines.

BLACKHAWK

Now I rethought my travel after the Denver issue. As to clothing, now I find I use my load out gear, also called deployment bags and I have some from BLACKHAWK and they are tough. And they get checked and the camera gear stays with me. Nothing like cameras or personal gear goes in them, only clothes. I also have a slew of Blackhawk accessories , holsters and backpacks.

BLACKHAWK like the Pelicans are a lifetime investment. For the airline I also have some HD soft bags from BlackHawk for travel. If someone wants to steal my underwear, have at it. Nothing but clothes go in it. I close the zippers with zip ties so I know if it got opened. Usually not since the X-ray just shows clothes. Many times I just buy my throw away toiletries at a CVS or Wal-Greens like a razor and use the stuff the better hotel provides. In the better ones they have toothbrushes and combs, just ask the concierge. Nothing valuable goes in the checked baggage. Thus the load out bags work great and they don't say steal me..

BlackHawk Industries harness gear, pictured way above, puts gear weight on my waist and partially on my back but has mesh on the water carrier for circulation. I have used Blackhawk merchandise  for years with the work I did with the Rangers. It helps to know the difference between a 50 Millimeter and 50 Caliber. They also make soft travel bags which are great for overnighters.

On harness gear, LowePro makes the civilian versions, so does Tamrac. Less intimidating than the BLACKHAWK as shown.  That’s the best for those doing zoo-spec work at the local Zoo.  War zones are different.

MAXPEDITIONS:   

Shoulder bags, single shoulder, waist bags are easier to work from. But get good quality and you sleep better if you know the straps and padding are sufficient. Also the attachment points. Plastic or Metal...more choices.  Metal is strong and plastic is quiet. 

But shoulder bags are easy to work from and some create a panel you can balance a few small things on. (Tamrac) good shoulder bags have bumpers on the bottom so you don't wear the fabric. Lowepro and Tamrac lead the pack when it comes to assortment, quality and pricing. There must be a hundred to choose from. The one shoulder sling convertible models are the most popular.

BEN FRANKLIN:
You have to do a Ben Franklin. He was a smart man he wrote down the pros and cons and then looked again and again at them before making a tough choice.  The difference is one bag is not enough and you will need an assortment if you travel to location, use the airlines, go by canoe, or camels. Thats why there are a lot of different bags and you need to go to the manufacturers site because I have no clue as to what your gear looks like or the scope of it.

These are good reliable companies. You got LowePro, Tamron, Domke, BlackHawk and Maxpedition, and others. Stay away from decorator bags by luggage makers with branding. They are made for looks not usage, they are made to be robbed s they advertise. There is really overpriced stuff by the so-called brain trust, designers out there because of limited production, high CEO costs and expense accounts combined with great story telling commonly called  "a sales pitch". They are still imports. These brands I mentioned have been around, have good reputations and are made of good materials like YYK zippers etc.

Yet, they’ll all be out of China, VietNam, Malaysia, India and prices will come down slightly, LowePro always was a US company but they are off-shore now....just because the competition drives the market share to stay competitive.

What have we learned;  One bag, one style, one method, one brand does not cover all the bases. You need a selection, just like a baseball team of runners, hitters , designated hitters, and fielders are diversified.