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.

My Manfrotto trolley is quite nice for air travel.
But it's noisy (and bumpy) when rolling on pavements, and the 90 degree handle strains my wrist after a short while.

When travelling with car/train/bike I much prefer a rather mundane shopping trolley.
www.andersen-shopper.de/en/136-082-tura-shopper-ortlieb?c=84
Big ball-bearing pneumatic wheels, particularly smooth-running and very quiet even on uneven surfaces. Cobblestones or kerbs can be crossed without any problems and even forest paths are no problem.
The handle can be adjusted +-90 degrees, so the trolley can be pulled or pushed without twisting the hand and thus supports a natural walking posture without straining.

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.