She asked me to overcome my embarrassment and shame by posting about it, so, today, you get to share two bags from the "small canvas" section of my bag collection.
First up is this utterly delightful small camera bag by, of course, Billingham. It's from what I think used to be called their "Alice" range but is now rather more prosaically known as the L2.
Billingham was, for decades, the bag of choice for professional photographers, forced to lug around what must have seemed like several hundredweight of heavy camera equipment and multiple lenses, but the L2 is ideal for the digital world.
Billingham invented the inverted "Y" delta sling, a way of fastening the strap to the bag that prevents it from tipping out your expensive camera equipment -- ideal for photojournalists (and those of us who pretend to be as glamorous) in a War Zone:
That feature is reserved for the bigger Billinghams (of which I may own one or two, perhaps, but that's for another time).
I use my very well-worn and battered L2 as an all-purpose bag, for digital camera, book, notebook, pen and, where necessary, passport and tickets, delighting in the feel of the canvas and leather, of those solid brass studs, and of the lapping leather tongues which fasten there:
The L2 is now, alas, discontinued (at least, I think it is: Billingham's website is a little tricky to fathom).
My second small canvas is a relatively new addition to my stud, the STM Scout XS bag, here in olive:
The Scout XS is designed especially for netbook computers and iPads (indeed, it has now been renamed "Scout for iPad shoulder bag", but I think that sounds a bit poofy).
It's the bag of choice for my lovely Toshiba Netbook, and has enough capacious pocketry to also take a DVD drive, a bulky pair of noise-cancelling headphones (essential for trains and planes), charger and cables, plus the assorted nick-nacks and bric-a-brac necessary for a long journey.
STM is an Australian bag (as you may have guessed from their URL), and is as modern as the Billingham is traditional.
I adore them both.
4 comments:
Great post thanks. Can you tell me which camera you use and lens (if one of those fancy dslr types, thanks) much appreciated.
I gave up on SLR cameras a long time ago: since most of my photography is outdoors, it's way, way too much heavy kit to lug around. At the end of each day on holiday I would have sore shoulders and a horrible back-ache: where's the fun in that?
Which got me into digital bridge cameras, and I now completely recommend the Panasonic Lumix super-zooms (the current models have a staggering x24 optical zoom) -- the FZ45 or, if you also do a lot of video, the FZ100.
But, light though it is, even the FZ45 can be too heavy for all-day holiday use so I now use for "everyday" shooting a Lumix TZ10 with x12 optical zoom.
Most of the Lumix cameras have glorious Leica lenses, something you'd otherwise have to pay around ten times more to get.
And don't forget your Billingham bag to put it in...
Thanks. Got me a TZ6 - x 12 optical zoom with indoor shots.. But will check the others out.
The TZ6 is excellent, and was my first "micro" camera. I hope you enjoy it.
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