Carry-On Modifications

[cooltouch]

I guess the subject of camera bags can be considered "other accessories," so I thought I'd put the thread here.

I've noticed since getting back into photography that the good old over-the-shoulder camera bags are no longer so popular. Seems like most folks are using either backpacks or gear that looks a bit like rolling carry-on luggage.

Well, after being to a few all-day events and having to drag my gear around on my shoulder -- me with a bad back and all -- I can see why backpacks and rolling camera cases would be popular. But geez, they are expensive!

So of course in order to save money I've decided to improvise. I did a similar thing years ago when my only camera bag had no compartments to speak of, so I got a hold of some closed cell foam -- I found a sheet of it at a sporting goods store. It's used to separate a sleeping bag from the ground and acts as an insulator. So I cut it up and made compartments out of it, gluing everything together with contact cement. That worked very well and that bag served me well for years.

So I thought I'd try this again. First thing I found was nobody locally had the closed cell foam sheets for putting under sleeping bags. There's this new high-tech stuff they use that's unsuitable for my purposes, and of course it costs way more than I'd want to spend anyway. I finally located the regular old closed-cell foam on line:

http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-Rest-Easy-Camp-Pad/dp/B00168ZJWY

But I didn't want to wait, and finally I found a couple of small pads that are meant to put atop an exercise device. They were kind of small, but cheap enough, so I bought them. I should have bought the mail order product and just waited. The stuff I have is not as stiff as the stuff I used before. But I went ahead and cobbled something together anyway.



It's nothing special, but it works. The "bag" is a piece of carry-on luggage that I use when I have to fly somewhere. It has the wheels and the extension handle and all, plus the sides, front and rear are padded. So I just laid a large piece down inside the carry-on, large enough where it came up the sides. It's just pushed down in there. Then I glued the separator pieces in place. The two lenses on top are just wrapped in the same material, and to make it so the camera won't move around too much, I shoved a few extra pieces behind it.

Call this version 1.0. It will work well enough for now, but I am less than satisfied with the overall fit and rigidity. However, I spent about $16 to convert my carry-on to a camera case, whereas if I would have bought a carry-on style camera case, I'd have had to pay over $200 for one. In a future version, I may glue some of the closed-cell material to some rigid pieces of wood or plastic for more reinforcement.

I'm gonna order some of that blue stuff that Amazon has and see if I can't do a bit better of a job with it. Plus I have a backpack that will work well for this type of conversion, and I ought to be able to configure it for two cameras, several lenses, a flash and a few other odds and ends.

I'll add to this threa as I improve on this.