Tips on buying your First Camera Bag

Kata Ergo-Tech Camera bag - one of the nicest camera bags I've seen

If you’re a serious photography hobbyist who lugs around a couple of lenses and perhaps a spare body when you travel with your camera, then a camera bag should be one of the must have accessories on top of your list. While you can use almost any bag to store your expensive gear in, it would be better if you would invest on a camera bag.

Camera bags are better in terms of protecting your gear compared to a school backpack or one of your spare shoulder bags. While camera bags can be more expensive than some any other bag that you’re looking at, the investment would be worth it. After all, you don’t want to find the body of your 50D dripping wet after sloshing around on that beautiful stretch of stream you’re planning to traverse on your vacation trip.

Bag Style

Choosing the right bag can sometimes be a real brain-tickling proposition: should I choose a photo backpack or would I be more comfortable using a photo shoulder bag? Well, it would depend really on where or how you use your camera.If you’re the outdoorsy kind of person or you shoot out on the field most of the time, then you might want to consider a photo backpack. These are backpacks that are quite similar in outer appearance to the backpack you used in school. However, photo backpacks have more padding and are generally sturdier-built than your schoolbag so as to protect your gear. Photo backpacks also have more compartments where you can stuff in extra lenses and a spare camera body. In most popular photo backpacks, the compartments are not fixed – they are held in place by those ever-reliable Velcro strips. By not permanently fixing the compartment dividers, you can adjust the compartments to the dimensions of the gear you’re placing inside the compartment to ensure a snug fit.

Photo backpacks do provide a sort of….hassle to some professional photographers – the equipment can’t be accessed that easily. Thus, a great photo op might just blow by while the photographer is frantically removing his/her equipment. This is why a lot professional photographers prefer photo shoulder bags. Even if you’re not a professional photographer, you might very well like this style of bag because it offers easy access to your equipment. Photo shoulder bags usually have zip-around tops that flip up to reveal the contents of the bag. This bag style offers you easy access to your equipment while the bag is still slung on your shoulder. Because you can reach out and assemble your equipment while your walking or moving round, you can take pictures on-the-fly.

If you’re really a stickler for ultimate protection, then nothing beats hard-case camera bags. Hard-case camera bags almost often looks like a small suitcase. Often times, it’s constructed with heavy-duty plastic or similar material. There are even some hard-case bags where the compartments inside the bag are molded or shaped to fit a particular type of camera body and/or lens. While arguably offering the best protection, this style of bag is often heavy. It becomes heavier when you put your gear inside. Therefore, hard-case camera bags are difficult to lug around. These can also become a target for thieves. However, if you’re the sort of photo buff that collects vintage or rare cameras and like to bring them around where you travel, then this would be a good investment for you.

Choosing the Bag

There’s no specific kind or style of bag that is right for everybody who’s into photography. You might find yourself needing a photo backpack and a photo shoulder bag. Whatever style of camera bag you would choose it, it would be
wise to do some reading before you make a purchase. Here are some tips on how to possibly get the right bag for you and for your camera:

Do your homework – It would be best if you do some research on the kinds of camera bags that are out there it the market. In this day and age where the Internet is practically (nearly) everywhere, doing research would be easy. Go read up on the most popular brands of camera bags. Get information and “facts” that can help you make your decision. There are lots of web sites that give quite a good detail of information about the product. There are a number of sites where the product reviews have been posted. Consumer reviews can provide you with important information that can make or break your decision on which camera bag to buy.

Perform a “Test Drive “– If the product that you’re looking at is being sold at a shop that you can easily travel to, it would be a good idea to get up of that chair and do some legwork. Go to that store and check out the bag for yourself. It would be best of you can bring some of your stuff along so that you can “test drive” the bag. When you “test drive”, check out the dividers – it should offer enough compartments for all the gear you usually bring along. You would also need to inspect the construction of the bag: is the stitching tight and even? Do all the zippers “fly” smoothly? Do the latches snap tightly but can easily be unlatched? Is the bag easy enough for me to carry around? Would the shoulder straps hurt my shoulders during long hauls? Lots of your questions can only be answered when you do test the bag yourself.

Bag construction – Unless you’re bent on hard-case bags, you would probably go for a bag that is made of soft and light material. “Soft bags” are made from different material, but most of these kinds of bags have one thing in common: they are made up of nylon or nylon composites. Nylon bags are the lighter ones and are the easiest to clean. However, these are not waterproof. Nylon bags also tend to become brittle over time and might succumb to tears, especially if exposed to different types of environments and temperature over the years. Nylon composites are more durable and are now commonly used to construct camera bags. Ballistic nylon is one such composite. Ballistic nylon bags offer good waterproof protection. However, ballistic nylon can be quite tough on your clothing. This is most true for photo backpacks made from this material. If you’re planning to get a bag made from ballistic nylon, check to see if the bag has a material protector on the insides of the shoulder straps and on the back of the bag itself to protect your clothing.You also might want to check if the bag comes in a variety that has a sort of a water-proof, pull-out cover that you can pull out then cover the bag with when it starts to rain

Bag Composition – This would mean how the bag is made up e.g. dividers, straps, etc. If you’re looking to buy a photo shoulder bag, make sure that the strap is not less than an inch wide. Bags that have straps which have an inch or more in width do well in distributing the weight of the camera gear on your shoulder. It would be best if the strap would have a rubber shoulder pad since this would lessen the chances of your gear slipping from your shoulders. For backpacks, the width is the same: an inch or more in width would be better. It would also be best if the straps have either foam or soft material inserts so as not to hurt your shoulders during a long haul. If the bag you’re going to buy has pockets, make sure that you have enough pockets to stuff in some of the accessories you bring e.g. filters, cleaning materials, film, etc. You also need to see if the pockets are positioned so that the contents would be easily accessible to you – even if you are not looking. If you carry around tripods everywhere you bring your gear, it would be best if your bag has an external pocket where you can slip in your tripod or external tie-straps or d-rings where you can hook/attach your tripod.

Your photo bag can be an indispensable item for you. It can be of the simplest kind or the most expensive kind made by some French design company. Whatever your preference would be, keep in mind that your bag should be comfortable to use and can give you easy access to your stuff. It would also be best if you don’t overdo the bag wherein you stuff in all of your photo equipment and bring it to every trip/shoot you go to. What happens when you loose it or it gets stolen? You would loose your expensive equipment. You might consider having a smaller bag wherein you can store only the necessary stuff that you would need for the trip -leave the big bag at home that contains all of your gear/equipment.

Finally, try to go for a bag that is small enough for you to lug around but large enough to pack the equipment you want to carry for the trip or shoot. Leave the stuff that you don’t need to carry at home. If you must or absolutely have that bag with a hundred-and-one compartments,, by all means do so: you can store all of your equipment on that bag and leave it at home – and you can bring the smaller bag with you that contains all the equipment you need.

Happy hunting.