What do you keep in your bag?

[Franglais]

What little 'tools' and 'helpers' do you all keep in your camera bag for those in-the-field emergencies?
John

But I have so many bags. Each one is adapted to the mission in hand. But generally:

- the camera & lenses & filters (whatever is appropriate)
- storage medium (film or spare CF card + ARCHOS portable drive)
- personal stuff (wallet, papers, keys, money, credit cards, telephone..)
- notebook and pen
- camera instruction manual (often)
- guide books & maps if necessary
- extra clothing (often - a lightweight waterproof anorak, for example)

I try to just carry one bag with me that I can live with and have with me all the time.

Charles

[walterick]

edit.........

[walterick]

A couple things I keep in my truck that I haven't seen mentioned yet is some bags of rice. I have a 5 pound bag, and another 2 or 2.5 pound bag. They work great for steadying my 500mm lens on the window of my truck. I put the smaller bag on the window, and rest the lens on that. Then I put the 5 pound bag on top of the lens. Works like a charm. I had my girlfriend sew some cloth bags around them, and she added a button hole to them where I clip a small carabiner. I use the carabiner to clip the bags to my tripod for some extra support on a windy day.

Now that's brilliant!

[dmm96452]

I liked this post so much I created a PDF of it!

[swmdrayfan]

I liked this post so much I created a PDF of it!

Hey---good idea. This is gonna get buried pretty soon so might as well do it now. I'll do the same so I'll have something to refer to.

[Lionheart]

What little 'tools' and 'helpers' do you all keep in your camera bag for those in-the-field emergencies?
John

Dust removing stick, lens cloths/paper, cleaning solution, 2 small screwdrivers, spare batteries, spare memory cards.

[Loupey]

When traveling abroad, I put my wallet, passport, and airline tickets in my camera bag. Then guard the bag with my life.

I once was pick-pocketed by a band of gypsies in Milan, Italy. They didn't get anything as they were searching my pockets and not my camera bag.

I figure, if I lose everything else but the camera bag, I can still get home.

[spacey]

Camera, flash bracket attatched.
4 sets of spare batteries.
3 large capacity memory cards, 6 small capacity
Spare UV filter, Laminated card, with serial numbers.
Air blower, mini pressurized air can,
Microfiber cloth, chamois, lenscloth, 6 packs of Zeiss wet lens cloths.
Polarizer, R,B,G,Y filters.
Motorola Talkabout units (2)
Domke PhoTAGS vest (doubles asa bag too)
Tarp
Mini-tripod
Wescott mini-reflector, removeable gold and silver, white underneath gold.

In the car
Laptop, 4 Flash drives (1G, 1G, 1G, 512MB)
4 spare batteries (laptop) and one external
S-Video to composite video adaptor
Stack of blank CDs
Tripod


Work-- Sony PDW530 XDCam, Standard Definition video

Microphone (EV RE50), wireless system(Lectrosonics).
WIreless lavalier system.(Lectrosonics)
On camera light (AntonBauer Ultralight2)
Tripod (Sachtler HotPod ENGCF)
Spare batteries (4)
Spare bulbs for light kit and on camera light
Spare set of clothes, with station logo
Spare UV filter
Rain-cover for camera

...and reporter.

[anew]

Canon 10D
28-80 canon lens
15-30 sigma lens
24mm canon tilt and shift
spare battery/ card usual stuff...cloths etc.
remote switch
flash

Nikon F70
28-70 lens
70-300
numerous filters - cokin.

Holga with tripod mount (nut glued on to the bottom!!)
Agfa Billy with tripod mount (ditto!!)
lensbaby
polaroid
pinhole box or boxes with paper
tripod
umbrella
torch
lighter
note book and pencils (pens run out!)

......oh, and a snickers !!

[Ronnoco]

When traveling abroad, I put my wallet, passport, and airline tickets in my camera bag. Then guard the bag with my life.

I once was pick-pocketed by a band of gypsies in Milan, Italy. They didn't get anything as they were searching my pockets and not my camera bag.

I figure, if I lose everything else but the camera bag, I can still get home.

The answer to pick-pockets and travelling is to drive them crazy by wearing Tilley travel clothes. The shorts have 11 pockets: all with security features. Even a dressy jacket has 8 secured pockets. The vest, although looking very ordinary has 12 pockets some velcroed and all pickpocket unfriendly.

The result is that if I doing journalistic style or travel shooting on the move then I plan the shoot and travel as light as possible in terms of camera bag. The non-professional look is sometimes the way to go, depending on the situation and safety and "security" issues. Leaving a camera case in a car can be a problem, by the way, since rented cars or cars without out of country or out-of-state licenses are targetted by thieves in some areas too.

Ronnoco

[Loupey]

The answer to pick-pockets and travelling is to drive them crazy by wearing Tilley travel clothes. The shorts have 11 pockets: all with security features. Even a dressy jacket has 8 secured pockets. The vest, although looking very ordinary has 12 pockets some velcroed and all pickpocket unfriendly.

Ronnoco

11 pockets! 12 pockets! Since the troupe that accosted me was a mother and her 3 professional children, I guess that would have left me with odds of having something taken 8 out of 31. And I already have problems remembering which pants pocket I have my keys (was it the left one or the right one?)

My standard operating procedures when traveling abroad is by looking and acting like a Local with a camera. And I too normally travel as light as possible. Just this time, a saw this family during rush hour looking quite sad. I thought a saw a great picture but I happened to make eye contact (if only for a moment) with the mother. They all lept to action: The mother was in my face pleading something (in Italian I presume) while two of the older children where on each side of me each holding/pulling one of my arms. This left the little one with both hands free and the two on both sides with one arm free each. I could feel what they were doing, and after about 3 seconds I had to forcibly push myself free. Mind you, this all occurring in broad daylight in the middle of a courtyard next to one of Milan's most visited sites. Passersby just simply walking around this spectacle.

Once free, I looked down to see all my pockets turned inside out. Looking back up, the family had melted into the crowds.

But I stood triumphant for I had all my goodies in my bag - HAHAHA