Travel camera bags
Now that I am getting to know my camera a little better I am also accumulating more equipment that I want to take with me on our trips and I really need a better solution that padded sleeves buried in my purse.
Like Mrs. Limestone of the blog Brooklyn Limestone I’m on the hunt for a camera bag. I share some of her criteria in that I want something for travel, protection of camera and maybe 1 extra lens and I want it to work as a bag for other things if I don’t want to carry my camera. However, I also want my husband to be able to use it, or schlep it, when I’m not. This limits my aesthetic options to the decidedly non-purse category.
I want to be able to carry the stuff I wouldn’t leave in my hotel room:
- Canon T2i DSLR w/50mm lens
- Extra 18-135mm kit lens
- extra battery
- iPad
- guidebook
- cell phone
- map
The iPad seems to be the limiting feature as a lot of bags have great dividers for padding cameras, but don’t necessarily have an extra slot, pouch, area the whole width of the bag that an iPad would fit in. I don’t want a behemoth of a bag the size of a carry-on, but my criteria seem to be pushing me into large messenger bags suitable for 3-4 lenses and beyond what I actually need. I’m not in love with any of these options, but they are the best I have found so far:
$89 from manfrotto, Italian maker of tripods, this one has top access and a spot for a tripod and laptop so I can use it for ipad or laptop for more flexibility
$69.95 from Tamrac, but appealing because it is smaller sized than the Manfrotto one, only holds iPad not laptop, but more pedestrian looking and decidedly laptop bag looking. Hubby would hold it, but really I may just get him his own bag before schlepping this around with me.
Also considering:
At $199 it seems like a lot to pay for a bag that isn’t real leather and hubby still thinks it looks purse like. I think its cute and checks all my boxes, but is a bit large for what I need.
Help?
