what I carry and why

by m. werneburg, 2007.09

These are my notes on the camera equipment I carry for various types of photography.

For a day in the city

For me, these are non-photography days. Days spent on errands or entertainment. Or going to work. I still carry a camera, though, in case I come across something interesting. And given that I'm into photographing even simple stuff like walls, tree trunks, sidewalks and graffiti, I usually find something.

On these days I shoot either film or digital, and find a lens in the 35mm to 40mm range to be ideal. These wide normal lenses are versatile in that depending on the setting you can make portrait shots and interesting wide angle views.

So my typical gear on a "non-photo" day might be:

small rangefinder film camera (fixed 40mm lens)
digital SLR camera with 42mm equivalent lens
film SLR camera with 35mm lens

Additionally, I carry:

one extra roll of film or extra memory cards
lens cleaning papers
any of the following filters:

Y2 yellow
W4 warm up
ND4 neutral density
PL polarizer

I usually only carry one or two filters, depending on the time of day, the time of year, the media I'm shooting, and the weather conditions.

All of this fits in a small "holster" style camera bag, a cheap (¥2000) soft-sided no-name thing pictured here. I find 'real camera bags' to be overpriced, over-padded, and too bulky for this purpose. If I'm carrying enough filters, I sometimes keep them in a separate pouch that goes in my backpack.

I find that now that I'm a father, this set-up is seeing more and more practice. The last thing you want, when running errands with a child, is more weight.

For a photo-minded day

For those days when (my wife and) I go out for jaunt around the city with cameras in hand, I typically take an SLR and a 'proper' camera bag. Naturally, it's another soft-sided el-cheapo affair. Finding a useful camera bag that you'll end up actually using can be a tiresome chore. In the end I've found that to make a bag really useful, it has to have a good combination of:

utility
comfort
small size and light weight

So I prefer a soft-sided bag with minimal padding. Something I can carry while walking or cycling, and something that doesn't dig into my ribs with sharp corners. Additionally, it must have compartments for things like map books and film or memory cards. With most bags on the market these days, these compartments come in the form of tiny pockets wedged between walls of thick padding.

Rather than struggling with excessive padding and small pockets, I went the other route and got something with wide zippered compartments and little padding. It's from the Hakuba "Salios" line.

In the bag, I carry:

either the DSLR or film SLR
wide angle lens
"normal" lens
telephoto lens
spare media (film or memory cards)
all of my filters

I've recently settled on the following as my standard lens trinity when shooting film:

20mm, for truly wide angles
50mm, the old standard
100mm for telephoto

When shooting digital, I use a similar set-up (numbers are 35mm effective):

20mm
42mm
75mm

For a weekend trip

These are typically three-day jaunts out of town, such as the ones we've taken to Taipei, Hiroshima and Miyazaki.

tripod
flash unit (primarily for fill flash)
wide angle lens
"normal" lens
telephoto lens

..and one selection of..

digital SLR body
three spare digital cards
a portable hard-drive with an SD card reader.

..or..

film SLR camera
several rolls of colour & black+white film

Again, I find myself foregoing the heavy items like the tripod, now that I'm a father.