Hi and welcome to Episode 98 of the Photography Explained podcast.
I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English in less than 10 minutes (ish) without the irrelevant details. What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
Before I go on if you have a question you would like me to answer just go to photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start
Here is the answery bit
The camera bag that you buy will depend on
- The types of photography that you do
- How much gear you have
- How realistic you are about how much gear you really need to carry!
- How much money you are prepared to invest
- How many bags are acceptable to you
There are two more but I will get on to them later.
That is my answer
You can listen to the episode here
Or keep on reading. Or do both. Entirely up to you!
Let’s look at each of these in a bit more detail.
1 The types of photography that you do
This is a major influence. If you are a landscape photographer you will have different needs to someone working in a studio.
And if you do more than one type of photography don’t worry, I have the answer for you in a bit.
A landscape photographer needs a bag that is lightweight, waterproof, and probably a backpack. A bag that you can carry as you walk for miles and miles.
And if you are a landscape photographer you will need space for non-photography stuff like food and drinks.
If you are a studio photographer you will have completely different needs. Maybe a roller bag or a hard case that keeps all your gear together in one place that you are not going to lug too far.
A wedding photographer will need a small lightweight bag with just the essentials as they are on their feet for a long time in the day. Poor things – I really do not envy you at all.
And if you are photographing construction sites you will need a lightweight bag that leaves your hands free for climbing up and down ladders.
There are many more scenarios, but I am not going to go into them all here.
All I want is for you to think about the photography that you are going to do and have a good old think about the right bag for you.
I will come onto the different types of bags, but this is going to be a massive influence on the bag that you buy.
So decide what you need your camera bag for, and then start looking.
2 How much gear do you have?
How much gear you have will determine the size of the bag that you need. You need a bag that is big enough to take all your gear.
Or do you?
And the type of gear will dictate the size of the bag – my micro four-thirds gear fills only half my small backpack.
And where are you going to put your tripod?
3 How realistic you are about how much gear you really need to carry?
This is important.
You might have loads of camera gear. Do you need to have it all with you every time you go anywhere? If you think so then you will need a big bag.
And a strong back and the patience of I don’t know what to lug all that stuff around.
How do I know this? Because this is what I used to do. I used to pack everything that I could into a massive bag that I could barely get on my back, and struggle around everywhere lugging all this weight.
The only positive thing that came out of this was the health benefits, it was a form of badly designed exercise.
Do you really need all your gear in one bag?
Well, do you? Really think about this.
I will tell you what I do later.
4 How much money you are prepared to invest
Now it is easy for me to sit here and say that you should buy the best bag that you can but these are not cheap. But I will counter that by saying that if you spend say £2,000 on a camera and lens they deserve some decent protection – you are after all protecting your investment.
When you are budgeting for a new camera you should factor in the cost of the right bag to protect that precious gear.
5 How many bags are acceptable to you
This was my lightbulb moment after many years of trying to find the perfect camera bag. In my opinion, the perfect camera bag does not exist. There I have said it.
The perfect camera bag, which will be perfect for every different scenario and situation, does not exist.
Don’t agree? Then tell me.
Once I realised this the problem of finding the perfect camera bag just went away.
Many photographers, like myself, have more than one camera bag and switch from bag to bag depending on the need. I have a bag for the gear that I need and a bag for everything else.
No one camera bag works for every situation, so budget permitting, the long-term solution to which camera bag to buy is probably which camera bags to buy.
6 The purpose of a camera bag
The purpose of a camera bag is to protect your precious camera gear and help you to take photos. That is the purpose.
Not to make you look good. Oh no. To protect your camera gear – let’s not forget that.
7 Types of bags
There are many different types of bags
- Shoulder bag – I have one of these
- Messenger bag – I used to have one of these
- Rolling cases – I have never had one of these
- Hard cases – I used to have one of these
- Backpack – I have about five of these, one I use every day
- Sling bags – I used to have one of these
- Pouches – I have two of these
- Holster cases – I used to have one of these
- Normal bags – these are camera bags that do not look like camera bags
- Inserts for a normal bag – sounds interesting…
What do I do?
I use a backpack for everyday use, with spare gear in a shoulder bag that sits in the boot of my car. I have several other bags that I use when the situation demands.
I use the same backpack for travel, and it doubles as my hand luggage.
The talky bit
By the way, I am not going into specific camera bag makes and models that I use, or it will sound too much like an advert.
Which camera bag should you buy?
No idea.
What is the perfect bag?
No idea.
Have I found the perfect bag for me?
No.
I use 2 bags, with another few which are called into use for specific things. And I have bought and sold lots of other bags over the years.
This is really my point. In my opinion, there is no one perfect camera bag. So don’t go looking for it, and if you do find it let me know!
Get the best bag for your needs now, and use it to the full. And if it is not big enough, not good enough, or there are things that you do not like about it, which you will only find out by using it, then either live with it or get something else.
And that is the problem. You only learn if you really like a camera bag after you have used it for some time.
Protect your gear
A quick reminder – the purpose of your camera bag is to protect your camera and help you with your photography ok?
Help you with your photography
I mean help you to take photos, be comfortable, easy to use, easy to get to stuff.
OK – that is bags done nice and quickly.
Related episodes
Well, there aren’t any, to be honest – this is the first time I have talked about camera bags.
Next episode
Photography Explained Podcast Episode 99 – to be honest I do not know. Episode 100 is looming, so follow my podcast if you aren’t already, and let’s all treat the next episode as a surprise, which it will be to me at the moment!
After recording the episode I came up with a title – Why Photography Gear Is Important – But Not That Important?
Shout out
Shout out to me and my new course – find out more at rickmcevoyphotography.com/courses. Well if I can’t promote myself here where can I?
OK – I’m done
Thanks for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast. To find out more about my podcast and do stuff to help me check out Photographyexplainedpodcast.com/start.
Brought to you by
This episode was brought to you again with some lovely water. Too early for a beer…..
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to me and for giving me less than 12 ½ (ish) minutes of your valuable time, and I will see you on the next episode.
Cheers from me Rick
OK – that was the podcast episode.
Want to know more?
Head over to the Start page on the Photography Explained Podcast website to find out more.
And here is the list of episodes published to date – you can listen to any episode straight from this page which is nice.
Let me know if there is a photography thing that you want me to explain and I will add it to my list. Just head over to the This is my list of things to explain page of this website to see what is on there already.
Let me send you stuff
I send out a weekly email to my subscribers. It is my take on one photography thing, plus what I have been writing and talking about. Just fill in the box and you can get my weekly photographic musings straight to your inbox. Which is nice.
And finally a little bit about me
Finally, yes this paragraph is all about me – check out my Rick McEvoy Photography website to find out more about me and my architectural, construction, real estate and travel photography work. I also write about general photography stuff, all in plain English without the irrelevant detail.
Thank you
Thanks for listening to my podcast (if you did) and reading this blog post (which I assume you have done as you are reading this).
Cheers from me Rick
