When the novelty of carrying your nifty camera around your neck wears off and you even start adding photography equipment such as a tripod, etc. to your trade tools, you’d then naturally have quite a few camera bags to choose from. It’s not as easy as going with the first camera bag you come across however and the headache you might find yourself faced with is further compounded by the fact that camera bags are growing rather rapidly in the range they come in. In fact, you can just about find a selection of many different camera bags for every camera that exists these days.
Essential Camera Bag Features
To break it down into the general feature categories you’d be weighing up when selecting your camera bag, these include the size, design and functionality.
Size
So the size consideration is straight-forward enough in that you need to fit your camera and all the equipment cameras are enhanced by, like extra lenses which you use for specific shots, a tripod perhaps, etc. I mean you just need a camera bag which can fit all of these things in, but then when it comes right down to it the size consideration turns out not to be so straight-forward after all. A camera bag that’s too big (picked out perhaps with the view that it’ll fit any equipment you further add to your arsenal in future) never really fits the equipment in safely. A more specialised bag is a better option, such as perhaps one which is purpose-built to fit something like a mirrorless camera – something like the rather aptly named Think Tank Mirrorless Mover 30i.
So this might mean you could invest in more than one camera bag if you’re a more versatile photographer and don’t solely identify as a street photographer (editorial / documentary type photographer) or as a landscape photographer. So the fit is perhaps as important as the size, if not more important because you want to carry your equipment safely and perhaps not just throw everything in where the tripod leg could scratch or break one of your precious lenses, for instance.
Design
I’m not talking about design from the point of view of aesthetics, although you don’t want to be carrying around something that looks hideous. In referring to design I mean what type of camera bag you’d go with, like a shoulder bag, a backpack or a sling bag. Generally you’d go for a sling bag if you wanted to have quick and easy access to your camera and gear on the fly and you’d go for a backpack if you don’t mind taking longer to access your gear due to perhaps shooting inanimate objects and / or landscapes. A sling camera bag is somewhat of a hybrid of both the backpack and shoulder bag.
Functionality
Well the main function of a camera bag is to house your equipment, but specific functionality would refer to exactly how the equipment is stored. Like can you perhaps attach the tripod without having to put it all the way into the bag or are there perhaps some sectioned-off compartments to safely house lenses away from other potentially damaging equipment?
