One item that every photographer has plenty of in their closests, garages, offices, shelves, wherever is camera bags. IT stands for good reason. As we grow our skills and our equipment the need for bigger and better bags arise. Some bags are good for some jobs and not for others. The one issue that has been brought up that every photographer needs to take seriously is how much stress are we putting on our backs from carrying lots of equipment? When you’re young, like myself, it doesn’t matter as much. If i were to carry 40 pounds of gear, which is my normal Wildlife Bag load, for the next 50 years on my back, I might have a problem. The other catch with bags is travel. As we all know flying can be a hassle with camera gear and laptops. Safety is a big concern. So for this last trip to DC I used my Airport International Thinktank bag.
For those of you that know about Thinktank Bags then you know how good they are. For those that don’t I’ll give a brief explanation. First off this bag is pretty darn well padded without being extra bulky padding. That extra padding always adds to the weight and takes away from space inside. By having thin but strong padding I can easily get my 200-400 and the rest of my gear in. Next the bag can fit in the over head of most plans. Now since I live in Bozeman the biggest planes we get out of here are SRJ700’s. Needless to say even this don’t fit in the overhead but thanks to the next feature I don’t about that. The bag comes with a built lock for the zippers. It’s perfect if you have to stow it below. For those of you concerned about leaving your bag in a hotel room it comes with a carbon fiber cord to attach to something. Now the one piece it doesn’t come with and I find that this helps, are the “Pleas handle with care, Thank You” stickers for the side. You be surprised what that “Thank You” at the end can do. Best part is for you B&H buyers, they now sell ThinKTank bags. Check them out at the link above.