Photography tank bag

[BigCol]

Hi all,

I hope to take my camera gear (35mm Nikon F5 and lenses; various) on my bike trip in October. Can anyone recommend a good tank bag to carry this stuff in?

I think TT do one, but any other recommendatiions would be appeciated. If it goes well with the Baglux tank cover, it'd be a help.

I obviously want to take the bag easily off of the bike to carry the gear in, as well as get quick access for those 'quick shots' that will come my way along the highway

Well I can only thank you all in advance. This site is fab....

Regards

Colin

 

[Vendome 41]

Photography

Lined a Heros tanl bag with foam and had some more cut out to shape does the trick for next to nothing

 

[prul]

Always used a billingham 335 camerabag in a normal tank bag. worked fine.

Nowadays i only have a canon s 30 with me. And a lot of times i wish a had a wideangle lens for this

prul

 

[Fanum]

take a small cheap digi camera and attach it by a ski-lift yoyo thread thingy...then you can whip it out, shoot away and drop it if you need to whilst riding along and it doesn't matter if it gets dropped too much.

Worked for me

 

[(RIP) Sugar Ray]

I also prefer the option of putting my Billingham bag inside another container, but I think the F5 plus lenses is a bit heavy for a tank bag. That's one of the reasons I bought the Ali top box for my GSA - half of it is taken up with camera gear I'm hoping to cut down on what I cart about by buying the new Olympus 8080 (28-140 lens - 8MP sensor) - it should arrive tomorrow.

Regards,

Charles

 

[Spanish Bob]

the only tank bag I have heard of that fits the bill is TTech. Try a search on advrider - maybe something there.

bob

 

[BigCol]

Thanks for the replies chaps. I'll try putting my camera bag inside the tank bag. As for being too heavy for the tank - I was hoping that buying a Baglux cover and associated bag might alleviate this problem.

Thanks again

Colin

 

[Droopy Dick]

In the past I've always managed with my Billingham 445 (455?) bag with two camera bodies, flash gun, four lenses, films filters and odds 'n sods put inside the tank bag that fits onto my Baglux tank cover.

I'm not sure how much it weighs, but it ain't exactly like a bag of feathers.

Of course, the advantage of putting the camera and associated toys in a rigid case is that they are far less likely to be damaged if you have a spill.

If you use one of those fancy aluminium camera cases, I expect you could construct some sort of 'cradle' or attachment that can clip on to the laggage carrier.

 

[Trevor S]

Hi all,

I hope to take my camera gear (35mm Nikon F5 and lenses; various) on my bike trip in October. Can anyone recommend a good tank bag to carry this stuff in?

I think TT do one,
Colin

I have the TT photo tankbag, its going to be a bit of an ask to put much in it in terms of lens. I think a better solution would be modify a smaller top box and get HD foam cut to size if you do want to stick with your current gear.

I opted for a different solution. I went with the TT tank bag and a Minolta A2 digital camera, for the following reasons:
1. I can get it out and fire it up quickly ( impotence jokes aside)
2. Image stabilisation works a treat for handheld from a bike
3. 95% (most) of my framing is done with the LCD screen (helmet on) so SLR was not as important
4. I am the worst photographer on the planet (eg a recent ride report with pics) so make sure you take that into account when weighing the value of my advice

 

[BigCol]

Thanks for replying Trevor, but i've bought the tank bag already. I already have the camera gear and want to stow some of it in the tank bag for quick access

Cheers

Colin

 

[Mick Fagan]

I run a brace of Nikon F3 bodies and upwards of 20 lenses to choose from. In size the F3 is reasonably close to the F5 but with a drive added, it's bigger than the F5

I too wished to take the F3 and at least one lens and finally came up with this solution.

One of my other cameras is a Russian Horizon 202 panoramic. This little beauty came with a rectangular carry bag. One day whilst pondering the how will I get the F3 into the tankbag safely problem, I was spying the Horizon camera and it's bag on the desk and had an inspiration.

I run the TT standard tank bag, it's relatively small, but big enough to carry quite a respectable amount of gear. The first thing is to think laterally. I pulled the lens off and put a body cap on, instantly the camera body becomes quite packable. I then inserted the body sideways at one end of the rectangular bag, it fitted with a bit of room to spare (F4's also fit).

Things were looking up so I used a rag to put between the body and around three lenses, 18mm 24mm and 105mm. I was able to also include 3 rolls of film, with another in the camera body making 4 in total.

Other configurations have been the body with 55 micro Nikkor and 180 2.8 ED and 6 rolls of film. This should give you some food for thought.

The reality is that for compactness, an SLR body with lens attached is a real pain to pack safely on a motorbike. I've been running SLR cameras on bikes since the Olympus OM1 came out and later with the OM1 motordrive model.

I've carried cameras all over the bike and I eventually came to the understanding that a tankbag mounted camera is the safest place on the bike. It's amidships therefore gets the least amount of bumps. As it's not tied tightly to the frame like panniers or a topbox, the tankbag doesn't transmit screw loosening vibrations that well.

If you are travelling with an F5 and wish to use it for a glorified travelogue situation then really it's a bit of a waste, but I do agree that an SLR is a very good way to go. However quick shots aren't really where a largish SLR shines. I myself run the F3 in the tankbag and run a little Canon A40 digital job in the accessory pouch which attaches at the back of the TT bag for the quick grab shots.

Mick.

 

[BigCol]

Thanks for a great reply Mick,

I hope to visit lots of historical sites as well as take my time and photograph people, landscapes etc. I'll also be taking my Canon G3 digital for 'snaps'. As much of a pain carrying big cameras is, every time I've done it I've got fantastic shots.

As an aside, I'll be writing a story (with photos) for a UK bike mag, so I don't really have a choice

Cheers again

Colin