Situation: I just walked in from work and dropped my IDNMkII wiht 24-70L attached on the couch. I saw the 70-200L IS on the couch next to it. Wife comes running in from the outdoor kitchen screaming that there was a piliated woodpecker on our oak tree close enough to shoot. I grabbed the 70-200 set it at 200 and looked through the viewfinder. Rats! I would need a 2XtcII to get the shot. My 300 f/2.8L IS was somewhere in the bedroom, in it's bulletproof box and cowling, so getting to it would be even more difficult.
So the question begs, do you keep a body or bodies lying around for easy access that can get you those grab shots? I could see keeping a 500 f4 or 600 f4 attached to workable bodies, perhaps with extenders, that you need only assess the distance to the bird and grab the outfit you need. I could have filled the frame with that bird with a 500 f4 and a 1.4 TC II, and cropped him with a 2.0 TC II.
If you leave them about for fast access, how do you protect them? Duffle bag for each? custom bag for the lense and a simple cover for the body?s I am a chef and I want all my tools at my disposal when I'm in my work area. I've thought about having something similar to a gun case built with compartments for bodies, lenses, flashes, tripods and monopods. Any thoughts on this?
I have kids so I don't have the option of leaving equipment out. I keep it all together in a Lowe Pro backpack so it is easily accessable. I can quickly grab what I need.
I keep the 28-300 zoom on the camera body and it's my workaday lens. The other two (300mm fixed length with a 1.4 teleconverter attached, and a 108mm macro) are stowed each in its own padded pouch in a daypack, along with an extra back-of-lens cover, extra memory cards, extra charged battery, the monopod, the ball head (which I don't need with the long lens, since it has its own fitting for monopod or tripod.).
If I ever get something as big as a 500 or 600mm lens (right now an impossible dream) that will have to change, probably. But for now that keeps stuff together, and protected, and I can grab the whole bag at once...and the camera's ready for grab shots (though, of course, the bird would be tiny and I'd have to crop and enlarge in the computer.)
I do like having each lens in its own case--that way when I'm out in the field and changing lenses, there's always a protected place to put the one that just came off the camera.
Discussion
2 repliesSo the question begs, do you keep a body or bodies lying around for easy access that can get you those grab shots? I could see keeping a 500 f4 or 600 f4 attached to workable bodies, perhaps with extenders, that you need only assess the distance to the bird and grab the outfit you need. I could have filled the frame with that bird with a 500 f4 and a 1.4 TC II, and cropped him with a 2.0 TC II.
If you leave them about for fast access, how do you protect them? Duffle bag for each? custom bag for the lense and a simple cover for the body?s I am a chef and I want all my tools at my disposal when I'm in my work area. I've thought about having something similar to a gun case built with compartments for bodies, lenses, flashes, tripods and monopods. Any thoughts on this?
Thanks!
If I ever get something as big as a 500 or 600mm lens (right now an impossible dream) that will have to change, probably. But for now that keeps stuff together, and protected, and I can grab the whole bag at once...and the camera's ready for grab shots (though, of course, the bird would be tiny and I'd have to crop and enlarge in the computer.)
I do like having each lens in its own case--that way when I'm out in the field and changing lenses, there's always a protected place to put the one that just came off the camera.
Elizabeth Moon
Texas