Getting it off your shoulders!

I promised to deal with waist belt systems so here we go.

First a Disclaimer:  I have a personal policy of never recommending something unless I actually use it myself, and have bought the product with my own money.  This protects you from being convinced something is great just because some manufacturer gave me one!!!  If you are a fan of;  Tenba, Clik, Tamrac, Kata, or many of the other bags out there this is not meant as a shot at your bow!  I just have never used any of those except Tenba and that was years a ago.  So I only report on Domke, Lowepro, and Think Tank.  Those are the only brands I currently own or have owned for some time.  This would be an appropriate place to tell a quick story.  For many years I’ve been friends with George Lepp.  In the very early days of my interest in photography George was known as the “go-to-guy” about equipment reviews, and recommendations,  this was long, long before DP Review and other on line reviewers.  George not only gave excellent information he also was very unbiased.  He was a Canon shooter, and was supported by Canon, but that did not prevent him from praising the products from other camera companies.  Being a  Nikon shooter that always made me feel great, I knew what ever I read from George was fair and honest. Later when we met and ran some workshops together I found that was the kind of guy he was, he called it as he saw it.  I never thought that I would be doing reviews, but when I started I tried to follow the great example set by George.  Now that I am approaching retirement from Nikon, I very much want to be that kind of reviewer.  I will have the freedom to do just that when I am a free moral agent, and I hope I can be as fair and honest as George was!

One more important point, I’m not a pixel peeper, not that there’s anything wrong with that (ala Jerry Seinfeld!).  I want to do reviews that talk about how effective any product is at making better images in the field, not on a test bench!  Is the product made well, does it work the way it is supposed to work?  Is a camera capable of high quality imaging, are lenses sharp, and well made, does the camera bag hold the stuff you need, and is it user friendly!!??  I hope come July that I can conduct these kinds of reviews here and be helpful to all of you, as we all make our buying decisions together!  Just always remember that I have no agenda here except to be honest and open in these mini reviews!  Should be fun and I expect to learn a lot myself!!!

O.K. waist belts.  I only own one brand, Think Tank, and I am very satisfied with their products!  I’ve never worn out a Think tank product and I use them hard.  My Airport Security 2.0 has hundreds of thousands of air miles and airport terminal  miles and all I’ve ever done was replace the handle!!!  And they replaced that free of charge!  (In fairness I’ve never worn out a Lowepro or Domke product either!)    Think Tank stuff is very well made and designed, and extremely user friendly, the zippers work great,  the interiors are easy to customize for whatever lens, flash or accessory you want to have quick access to.

I own two belt systems, one for a smaller mirror-less camera system, and one for my DSLRs both for FX and DX.  Below is my heavy duty model for DSLRs and lenses.  The way I use this belt is a way to carry around three lenses in addition a camera and lens that is over my shoulder.  The pockets and cubbyholes  in the three pouches can hold extra batteries, cable release, cleaning supplies and other accessories.  The one below includes the think Tank Pro Speed Belt, a large Lens Drop In pouch, trim changer pouch, and speed changer pouch and a lens changer 75 (for 70-200 and similar size lenses) and a very handy Bum Bag, to hold all the little extras you need in the field.

If I am going lighter, which I’m doing a lot more today my smaller Think Tank belt system will hold a full system of smaller Mirror-less gear.  With This belt I can carry one camera with a lens over my shoulder and have 4 or 5 additional lenses and accessories in the pouches.  It weighs less than half the big belt with lenses, quite nice when you have a lot of walking to do!!  The two extra pouches are for carrying a  flash or Constant Source LED lights which I’ve been experimenting with, more on that in a future blog post!!  The extra pouches are usually stored in the vehicle and not worn on the belt!

The bag in the very first image at the top is the Speed Racer fanny pack type bag that is great worn on the front and secured with a  shoulder strap for sitting in the open door of a helicopter, it keeps all your lenses within easy reach when shooting on such a precarious platform!!!

So there you have it, some more thoughts on  how to distribute the weight, keep your gear close, at hand, and work faster and more effieciently!  Hope some of these ideas may work for you!!

Blessings,

the pilgrim