Alternative to camera backpacks for hiking
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
At the time of this posting, B&H Photo has 306 backpacks and daypacks dedicated to holding camera equipment. For many years I had and used a Lowepro MiniTrekker AW (pictured here) which is no longer made. Fully loaded with my gear the pack weighed upwards of 20 pounds or more and it was hell to carry around. Also, most packs like these have little provision for carrying the kinds of things one needs on a serious hike: extra clothing, food, water, first aid and more. In other words, they’re made to carry a lot of camera equipment over short distances. Some are better than others and following the B&H link above will no doubt turn up a lot of packs but few will be useful to hikers doing serious hikes in the wilderness.
My solution to this was to simply not carry my big gear, instead carrying a small Canon G11 in a small (Lowepro) pouch on the shoulder strap of my more comfortable hiking pack. I continue to do this and it’s working well for me.
Recently, however, I thought it would be fun to bring my bigger gear up to a beaver pond I’ve been hiking to and photographing. It would be great to get a picture of the beaver with a 5D and 300mm lens.
One idea I had was to simply place my Lowepro Stealth Reporter 200shoulder bag inside my hiking pack. This would leave room for extra clothing and food and rain gear and afford the camera gear protection. However, this is where a great feature of the particular shoulder bag I have is extremely useful. Note, any bag or foam insert can be used for this idea.
The idea
The idea is simple: take the foam insert out of the shoulder bag and place it in the bottom of a hiking pack, allowing safe carrying of camera gear and in addition, carrying all the necessary hiking gear.
1. Take a Lowepro Stealth Reporter 200 shoulder bag and fill it comfortably with the gear you’ll need on the hike.
2. Remove padded foam insert from bag. It’s held in by velcro which is easily ripped apart.
3. Take any comfortable hiking pack and empty it. Note, the pack needs to be big enough to hold the padded insert. This is an REI Trail 25, about the smallest, cheapest hiking pack that could be used for this.
4. Place foam insert in bottom of pack.
5. Load insert with camera gear. In this case I’m able to get a Canon 300mm f/4 lens in where I could not get it in the shoulder bag, this setup gives me more headroom for long lenses.
6. Add more hiking gear on top and close bag. Add small tripod to side, fitting a leg into the water bottle holder.
An additional plus to this idea is that this type of pack doesn’t advertise that you’re carrying a camera (if you leave the tripod off the outside).
An alternative to this idea is to use lens cases and a camera wrap and place the camera gear in the bag along with all the other hiking gear. That may be best in the long run and I’ll experiment with it as well. I do, however, like the idea of using a regular hiking pack rather than a dedicated camera pack for occasional carrying of larger gear on hikes.
If you have experience hiking with a DSLR I’d love to hear about it.
Resources
Lowepro Stealth Reporter 200 at B&H
REI Trail 25 pack at REI
[...] are some expert tips to lighten your load: Richard’s Notes. Check out what Richard has to say. He says it very [...]
I carry the Canon G9 and find it very adequate compared to the weight and space I can save by not carrying heavier camera equipment.
Thanks for the tips.
What a great idea. I have been considering buying a photo backpack to replace my old camera bag. I am going to convert one of my old back packs using the insert from the bag. Thanks.
HAHA..
so I do basically the same re-appropriated insert thing, with a Black Diamond bag [actually a backcountry ski & snowboard where I can use the pole or ski straps for attaching a tripod quite securely. And the insert is from a Crumpler bag [they may sell the inserts by themselves.]
How do you like the Stealth Reporter for shorter trips? I’m totally hooked on the LowePro Inverse 200AW lumbar pack myself – http://www.flickr.com/photos/placenamehere/3375962724/
I’ve had same kind of thoughts about using Stealth Reporter 200AW inserts as part of backpack, but I don’t like idea of piling 10kg (20 pounds) worth of food, stove, clothes, etc. on top of them without any protection against dirt etc. that might fall into inserts from above.
So instead of using Stealth Reporter, I am mostly using Toploader Zoom 2 with two short straps that I can attach to shoulder straps of my hiking pack. In addition to that, I’ve stored second lens into LC4S with shoulder strap.
This setup gives me quick access to my camera and attached lens (anything up to 200mm f/2.8L II USM). If you need something bigger, then Toploader AW75 might be solution, but you should keep in mind that Toploader Zoom 2 is only 285g, while 75AW is already 718g and whole stealth reporter (bag + inserts) is 986g.
As far as LowePro Lens Cases go, LC3 is 254g (70-200/4L) and LC4S is 244g (17-40/4L, 35L, … 200/2.8L)
Richard: Yes, the G9 or G10 or G11 are all great alternatives to carrying a big rig, however, at some point you might want to. This post is for those times.
Steve: Great! Let me know how it goes and maybe consider sending a picture of the process and finished product.
Chris: The Stealth Reporter is great for a New York Trip. I generally use the 300, not the 200 as it allows lens hoods to fit more easily inside. I would not, however, use it for hiking. I prefer something on my back and while I love the design of the LP fanny pack you link to, it would not be big enough to hold what I generally take on a half or full day hike. Great bag though, no doubt about it and your image of it is fantastic.
Juha: Fantastic ideas, thanks for sharing. I might go that way too and maybe will use a pouch or wrap for the camera body:
http://www.optechusa.com/product/detail/?PRODUCT_ID=31
and a neoprene pouch for various lenses.
I’m not quite sure how I’m going to handle this stuff but this post is one experiment on the road to figuring it out.
Richard, I’ll try the same with my Lowepro Stealth Reporter 200 and REI Trail 25 backpack. Both are excellent for the respective uses, carry cameras & lenses (the Lowepro), and the REI pack for hiking. I’m confident that placing the LP insert in the backpack will work very well for me too. Thanks for the superb ideas!
I think you’ll like the results Gary. Either of your packs will work well with this idea.
I get the idea of putting camera equipment in a regular backback, but I do not get the idea of putting it at the bottom. If you see something spectacular would you not want to pull it out as quickly and easily as possible? If you arrive on a site, would you not want to be able to pull out a photo bag with straps and all and use it while you walk around with your backpack on your back or put on the ground somewhere. You are saving some weight by not bringing the exterior of the photo bag, but you are also loosing a lot of flexibility…
True enough David. This idea was for hiking with full gear to a single place and unpacking. Of course, for stop and go shooting one needs better access to a camera and this is why I gave up carrying my big gear on hikes and instead carry a high end point and shoot in a pouch on my shoulder.
One could also put the camera and one mid-range zoom lens in a wrap and keep it on the top of the pack. Or, a smaller DSLR and lens could be put in a small lowepro top loading bag attached to the pack in some way.
The other plus to the technique described above is that it allows the use of a pack that won’t look like a camera bag on the outside; Gary and I are thinking of doing this on our summer New York photo outings so as to not draw attention to ourselves.
It’s all good, whatever gets the shot.