January 26, 2007, It’s in the bag!, By Robert de Gast

“Bag and baggage.” Shakespeare invented the phrase and used it in As You Like It. And from time to time, photographers have to deal with one or the other, since photography often involves dealing with more than just the camera. Taking pictures is a hands-on enterprise: you need both hands to be free to hold the camera and manipulate the controls.

Few things are more frustrating than wanting to take a picture and then wondering what to do with the stuff you’re carrying. As a matter of fact, I won’t carry my camera if I have to carry anything else in my hands. My wallet, notebook and glasses go into a small fanny pack.

In a perfect world, one camera would suffice. Sometimes, though, we need to carry additional lenses, or a tripod or a flash. That’s where camera bags come in, and I’ve owned my share of them. There are shoulder bags, backpacks, fanny packs—the variety of available designs is astounding. Many are less than ideal: there are not enough or too many compartments, gear is difficult to access, the bag is heavy or uncomfortable to carry or prone to slide off your shoulder. But recently, I found (and bought) a remarkable backpack called the SlingShot 200 AW. It is made by Lowepro, a company that has been making camera bags for decades. It is designed specifically for a digital SLR camera with attached lens and a couple of additional lenses, and it has two separate compartments for assorted accessories. A compartment at the bottom of the bag contains a plastic all-weather cover that can be pulled out to protect the entire bag from rain or dust. It set me back about ninety bucks.

The bag is only 8.7 inches long, 5.9 inches wide and 11.8 inches high. I weighed mine, fully loaded, and it came in at a little less than eight pounds. Here’s what it contained:

-Nikon D-70 SLR camera with 27–105mm zoom lens attached

-Nikon 105–450mm zoom lens

-Tokina 18–36mm

zoom lens

-Ultrapod travel tripod

-Spare memory cards

-Spare battery

-Battery charger

-Lens cleaner and tissue

-D-70 manual

-Wallet and agenda

-Notebook and pen

-Reading glasses

-Sunglasses

-Cell phone

-Electronic dictionary

-Sunscreen

What makes this bag so comfortable to carry and so easy to get to the gear is an ergonomic sling strap that helps distribute weight evenly. This unique design enables the bag to rotate from your back to your front to access camera and lenses without removing the bag from your shoulder. As an added (but unadvertised) benefit, when the bag is in front of your body it provides additional support for your arms and camera to help steady the shot.

Some years ago, my eight-pound bag would have been twice as heavy and twice as big: going from 18 to 450 mm in the focal lengths of lenses would have required at least two or three camera bodies and the same number of lenses, since zoom lenses then were either not available or of inferior quality. My memory cards are the equivalent of dozens of rolls of 36-exposure film.

On the other hand, in those days I would not have had a cell phone or a dictionary. I would not have carried a 156-page manual. Or a battery charger. And I wouldn’t have needed reading glasses….

Robert de Gast has been a professional magazine photographer for nearly 50 years. He has published nine books and offers short photography tutorials. He can be reached at 152-7396 or by email at robertdegast@hotmail.com .His website is www.robertdegast.com