Camera Gear Weight Problems

For good reason I have to avoid carrying heavy camera gear around going forward. It is not just a question of getting old.

For my Architectural photography I use a couple of Z7 or D850 bodies and a set of four heavy shift lenses and a telephoto zoom for details. A rough estimate is that I have been carrying between 6 and 10 kilos over my shoulder, if I include a tripod and other stuff. (Less than I thought.) Thanks to the war on cars, I often have to park outside of the historic centre of the places I visit and the Billingham 550 was getting a bit heavy for an afternoons photography.

Looking around the web for improbable trolleys to put under my Billingham, I came across the Manfrotto Reloader Switch-55 PL Roller, it might be a solution. Basically it is a camera bag with wheels, like my aircraft carry on case. It can also be used as a rucksack, or just carried. It arrived from Holland today (€200 cheaper than Italy!). Hopefully I have kicked the camera weight problem can down the road for a good while.

Another camera bag joins the collection.

I too used to carry a 550 full of equipment but in my case because of age that had to stop. Now I carry an Ona Bowery or Hadley 2020 containing two cameras (M10 R, Q2, X-Pro 3, perm any two from 3). On the day, I leave one in the hotel or car and carry the other in a 72. Owing to illness and the pandemic, I haven’t travelled much since I made this change and I’m not sure how it will work out.

Paradoxically, size and weight seem more of a problem today than was the case a decade or so ago, well, if you travel by air that is. Airlines are getting much stricter re. carry on luggage and I don't trust my camera gear going into the hold. Bags down there are lost or delayed much too frequently. My answer has been the full frame Sony C series cameras and the smaller lenses Sony now makes for this range. On the plane, I use a carry on rucksack with a camera insert inside and in my stowed baggage is a sling camera bag for use when I have arrived. The camera insert from the rucksack transfers to the sling bag once we have arrived. As well, the small size/weight has its advantages once you are walking around of course.

HAND.

That is quite a nice solution, that I did not explore fully. I did not find this model but the stuff Amazon threw up did not look like it was up to the job.

The Manfrotto does have rubber wheels so I will se how it pans out in real world use.

The Manfrotto Reloader Switch-55 PL Roller got it first outing today with a full compliment of lenses and bodies for an Architectural set of pictures. It worked out quite well and is quite practice to use. Hauling my gear up a steep slope to an old castle site was much easier than carrying my old Billingham 550. You just need to avoid cobblestones. I just need to remember to close it each time I change something, unlike the Billingham that was always open.

I always like to test out new gear on something that does not really matter, and a test run in a small mountain village was better than diving straight into a city visit with the car left outside the limited traffic zones that infest our cities.

I have to avoid carrying heavy weights for health reasons, and this bag looks like it has solved the problem of those outings where I want a lot of gear. For those of you with problems carrying heavy camera gear, it might be a neat solution, if you do not want to limit what gear you are carrying.

I just need to sort out the best way of strapping my tripod to the side of the bag as my Manfrotto 055 tripod is quite large.