Camera Labs

Hi Folks,

I've been backpacking (the camping in the woods for a week kind, not just day hikes, which I also do) for several years now and have been taking my trusty Canon S500 pocket camera. It's been great, but I've recently purchased a 50D and now it's time to take the bigger camera with me.

For my first overnight backpacking trip with this gear (hopefully in about a month), my plan is to take a 10-22mm wide, a 28-135mm telephoto, a 50mm f/1.4 (maybe), a gorillapod, and a spare battery along with the camera body. The lenses will be housed in Mountainsmith lens cases. I am still not sure what to put the body in. That's my dilemma. The pack I plan to put everything in is a Gregory Whitney. It holds around 5000 cu (~81 liters) of gear and is rated for up to 65 lbs. I am always way under that weight, but I like the organization of the pack and it's plenty big enough to hold the extra gear, so no worries there. The top of the pack also converts to a day pack and I think I can connect the lens cases to the strap easily to make a makeshift camera bag.

So, what would you all put the camera body in? I'd really like it if there existed (maybe there does) a case similar to the Mountainsmith and Lowepro lens cases that was just the size of the camera body. I also have plenty of room in the pack for a holster or camera vest, both of which I've heard of people recommending. The main disadvantage to these ideas is that I want to keep my weight down as much as possible and I'm not excited about a big bag inside of a really big bag.

Let me know what you think. I am open to all suggestions.

Thanks,
BPWC

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Canon EOS 50D | Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM • Canon EF-S 10-22mm • Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM • Manfrotto 055XPROB Pro Tripod Legs • Manfrotto 322RC2 Ball Head
Flickr

I plan to hike in the mountains for a week in July. I will have my camera in a Soligor holster case. It is really light weight in my opinion. I think you'll have a hard time to find a dedicated camera case that weighs much less. An option could of course be to make something home made with bubble wrap


http://www.cyberphoto.se/soligor/zooml.jpg

I'm going to be buying the Lowepro fastpack 250 here pretty soon for hiking too. I'm not sure how well it will work in practice but it looks good to me. It's also one of the cheaper bags out there, if that's your thing.

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Have you ever heard of a pelican case? its a plastic case thats very durable (water proof, dust proof, and it provides great anti-shock resistance)
Check them out at http://www.pelican.com they have a lot of great videos at their website




if you want something for just the body i would recommend a case this size (1200, but there are smaller and larger cases available) , it would also accommodate a lens attached to the body. I do quite a bit of backpacking myself and i plan to purchase one of these to throw in my pack. hope this helps...

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Canon 40D + 70-200mm f/2.8L IS + 50mm f/1.8
Manfrotto 055CX3 + 496RC2
www.thomaslowe.com

the lowepro flipside 200 is ncie it might be a tad small for you, the flipside 300 AW might do though.

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Check out: http://www.eagle1337.deviantart.com/
Camera: Canon Rebel T1i
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8, Sigma 17-70mm OS DC HSM f/2.8-4, ef-s 18-55mm IS, ef-s 55-250mm IS. EF 50mm F/1.8
Tripod: Giottos MTL9351B with a MH 5001 head.
Bag: lowepro Slingshot 202 AW. Cards: Sandisk Ultra 2, Lexar MicroSDHC.