Do you ride with a SLR camera?

Hi,

I’ve bought myself a lovely camera- Pentax K5 with a couple of lenses.

Couple of questions for you if you take an SLR out riding-

Where/ how do you carry it and what lense(s) do you take?

I’d prefer not to have it stuffed at the bottom of a rucsack where it takes 2 min to get it out, shoot, put it back and start riding again.

I have a 55mm f1.4 and an 18- 55mm kit lense that came with the camera. What do you use?

Cheers

Martin

I’ve got a Nikon D40 & D200.

Whilst I’d love to be able to take the quality of photos I can get with the D200 & 17-55 f2.8 whilst I’m out riding, it weighs about 2.5kg & is too bulky.

So I go with the D40 (plastic body) and 18-55 kit lens, which fits nicely in the top of my camelbak mule & doesn’t weigh too much. And I wouldn’t be too gutted if I smashed it in a crash, whereas I’d be quite upset if the same were to happen to the D200.

I’m trying to justify a Lowepro Photo Sport 200, particularly now they’re £100ish rather than the £200-odd they started out at…

I ride with a 7D + 17-55 lens in a Kata 14DL holster, nice snug fit – generally don’t do the top up and just shoved at the top of my camelbak. Normally i just ride ahead and then jump off at a suitable point to capture my mates ‘shredding the brown pow’. Generally takes about 15 seconds for me to be ready to shoot (camelbak uncliped, opended, pull camera out and wake from stanby, kneel down), but I am fairly practiced at it now!

No idea what it weighs. Probably 2kg or so? Just makes you fitter 😀 Not worried about crashing – I’ve ridden with an DSLR for six years now, loads of crashes, never a scratch and it’s insured anyway.

Aforementioned brown pow:
[/url]
IMG_7829.jpg[/url] by Ewan Panter[/url], on Flickr

Top tip – wear 661 Kyle Straits for comfortable knee based angles.

The Simon of Barnes (formerly of this parish) used to ride all the time with his SLR.

Think he used a chest mounted lowepro.

Ahhh… here you go:

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/carrying-dslrs-on-the-bike

I used to, I rode with it in the top of my Camelbak but then there was the problem of stopping, taking off the Camelbak, getting the camera out etc and i found that I was riding less and less with the camera and even when I was riding with it, wasn’t doing enough photography to justify carrying the extra 3kg around.

Fine for specific photoshoots where you stop, faff around, ride the same section loads but not so good for “just riding along”

Looking for a compact at the moment, I really like the look of the new Canon PowerShot G1X.

Similar to above ^^ I tend to just wrap my D300 and 17-55mm lens in a fleece / jacket and dump it at the top of my rucksack. Sometimes use a cheapy holster thing to give a bit of extra padding and leave it unzipped in my pack.

Occasionally I try just going out with a prime lens, but almost always end up frustrated at some point – I do like my zooms!

Nikon D80 and when I take it riding, I used the 18-135 kit lens it came with.

I bought a Think Tank Digital Holster 10 and chest harness. It’s great. Don’t really notice it when it’s on, and stays on when you take your pack off. Comes with a rain cover and the bottom of the pack is extendable and will fit my 70-300VR lens in, with the hood removed.

Here:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/categories/holster-camera-bags.aspx
and:
http://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/digital-holster-harness-v2.aspx

although the previous version of the chest harness that I have, is a bit more fiddly than that one.

I used to ride with a Nikon F100 film camera plus motordrive,lens & sometimes SB28 flash. It gave me backache,especially when riding a hardtail so I got a little Nikon D40 & use that with the kit zoom & pop-up flash,much less weight,but I’ve since got a Lumix LX5 compact & just use that now,even less weight, much more portable but,for me no-where near as good a camera.
I use a Camelbak Hawg,although when I take remotes & a couple of flashes with the F100 I use a LowePro backpack

Canon 400d with the 50mm F1.8 lens attatched. Compact and cheap enough so that if I do crash it’s not £1000 broken.

Just fits in the top of my Camelback.

Occasionally have my D80 with a 50mm f1.8 in my Camelbak (Mayhem), usually just packed in buffs our a deore thermal and in a small drybag, just in case. The body is wrapped in silicon Camera Armor anyway, so saves a few knocks.

More often than not, though, I just have my little Coolpix in a Crumpler case on the shoulder strap of my pack.

I pretty much always ride with a D7000 and compact lens (either 17-50 F2.8 or 18-200 F3.5 VR-II) in my camelbak. I don’t use any padding, it’s always right at the top to make it quick to get out and snap away. I’d have to flip over the bars and land on my back for it to take a serious knock and I’ve only done that once so far….

Leave SLR at home… and take the compact 🙂

I occasionally take my D90 out on the bike with a Sigma f2.8 18-50mm lens on.

I run a Lowepro toploader set-up: http://products.lowepro.com/product/Toploader-Zoom%2050%20AW,2204.htm

It’s got an all-weather cover and sits in the external part of my Wingnut 2.5. I then carabiner the strap attachment points onto the Wingnut’s compression strap. It’s all dead snug, but not quick to get to.

For on-the-go shots I carry a Canon S90 in a chest-mounted pouch -the Wingnut has shoulder strap hydration loops that work with Lowepro’s Sliplock system.

I always ride with an SLR. Usually a 30d. Which ain’t the lightest, but what can you do?

Generally pack one lens, but I may go kitted out with a few + tripod if I’m in the mood.

Camera and lenses get tucked into backpack. Then when I’m using it, depending on terrain and weather, camera gets strapped over my shoulder – which often turns out to be for most of the ride. I like it that way as you often find yourself with opportunities that don’t present themselves long enough for you to faff around with bags of any kind. It’s handy to always have the camera at the ready.

I have thought about one of those small bags like on the photo above though, for better weather protection and some middle ground effort required to deal with it.

butcher – Member

Then when I’m using it, depending on terrain and weather, camera gets strapped over my shoulder – which often turns out to be for most of the ride. I like it that way as you often find yourself with opportunities that don’t present themselves long enough for you to faff around with bags of any kind. It’s handy to always have the camera at the ready.

I have thought about one of those small bags like on the photo above though, for better weather protection and some middle ground effort required to deal with it.

This is why I got the Digital Holster 10…..I was fed up with having to keep taking my pack off to get the camera out.
It takes about 10 seconds to get the camera out & ready…..

The holster looks interesting. As I say, I was thinking about something similar, but have never seen them that ‘secure’.

Do you notice the weight/bulk much?

I’ve become so used to riding with just the camera strapped over my shoulder that I don’t want something too cumbersome. But these look ideal for harder riding.

if i take my DSLR (nikon d700 and 24-70mm f2.8) i use a Lowepro Photo Sport 200 and it is by far the best solution i have tried. tried the talktank holsters, wrapping it in fleeces in back packs etc. I always found that the rest of the ways of carrying too slow to access it and that stopped me from bothering, the Lowepro allows me really fast access and this has increased the amount i use it on a bike. well worth the investment

butcher – Member
The holster looks interesting. As I say, I was thinking about something similar, but have never seen them that ‘secure’.

Do you notice the weight/bulk much?

You can cinch up the straps really tightly for the bumpier/more techy sections and then release them off if need be on long climbs, although I don’t generally bother as it tends to bounce around a bit….
You can also orient it as high or as low as you want on your chest.

The only time I’ve taken it off was on a long climb in Spain, when the temp was pushing 35 deg. C and we had about 40 mins of road climbing ahead of us….
Apart from that, it’s fine.

marionheck – how is that Lowepro faster than a chest mounted bag? Presumably you have to take at least one strap off your shoulder to access it? The digital holster thing literally sits in front of you – stop, undo the zip and pull the camera out. You can make it a bit quicker too by removing the soft flap that sits under the lid to protect the back of the camera as it gets in the way a teeny bit. It just velcros off though…

If anyone wants, I can take some shots of it this weekend and post them up to give people a better idea of how it fits…..?

Cheers for the replies.

I was thinking about a chest mounted holder- the think tank one looks like a good solution.

Marionheck- I like the look of the lowepro photo sport. Can you get the camera out without taking the straps off? The videos look a bit unclear, as in undo the chest straps, zip the camera out and after photos do it all again in reverse.

Euan- thats a super shot, it takes me longer to get my g9 out of a bag on the chest strap and get ready to go than 15 seconds. Sounds like (and looks like from that shot) you are pretty practiced:). I’ve got the knee pads too:)

Lenses looks like no peer pressure to get a different lense then 🙁

17-50
18-50
18-55
17-55,
18-135
18-200
24-70
50, 2x

Stumpy,

I’d like to see how it sits when you are sitting on the bike, cheers

Martin

tall_martin – Member
Stumpy,

I’d like to see how it sits when you are sitting on the bike, cheers

Martin

Cool. I’ll get to it at some point over the weekend…..

“shredding the brown pow”

that has to be a euphemism for something unholy

I’ve spent a lot of money on my D300 and nice lenses. I want to use them and the nice places I travel to riding are the best places to photograph. Alps Utah morocco. Slows me down a bit uphill but I don’t worry about the stuff when going down.

Either in a small camera bag in a rucksac or wrapped in a roughly cut out shoulder section of old wetsuit in a rucksac. Either way not super convenient but I hate not having the camera with me on epics!

I love my camera and love taking cycling photos, but wouldn’t dream of taking a camera with me unless I was on a specific photo assignment, I’d be happy with either a compact or more likely the phone.

My top tips for getting a camera out quickly from a camel back:

– Make sure the camera holster that it’s sitting in is snug – this means you can not bother doing the top up.
– Get a hand grip strap (http://www.amazon.com/Camera-camcorders-digital-cameras-SterlingTek/dp/B000OMR00C) – lets you shove your hand in the bag and come out with the camera
– If you’re going to be taking a few pictures on the ride get it set up and ready to go (for me, lens cap off with lens hood on to protect front element, AV Mode, ISO whatever is appropiate)
– Default to having the zips of the camelbak at the top

With that lot on, all you need to do is unclip streunm and waist strap, pull bag round, undo the main zip a bit, shove hand in, and come out with the camera ready to go.

Like this:

Bag is a camelbak havoc, but if i’m taking a bunch of stuff i’ll put it in my dakine apex.

Lens wise I would just get a wide to short telezoom. I very rarely have enough open space to get a decent shot with a longer lens – I take most of my shots between 3 and 10m of the trail, so no point in having anything longer than 70mm max.

If you’re taking shots in the woods in the UK get a quick zoom (e.g. f2.8) or you’ll constantly be at ISO3200 / taking ‘arty’ motion blurs)

“shredding the brown pow”

that has to be a euphemism for something unholy

When I read it in MBR I was sick in my mouth.

Some pics of the Think Tank Digital Holster. Bear in mind that the harness is different to the latest one. The one I have is basically two straps that you cross over behind your back. They are adjustable top and bottom, so you can get the camera at the exact height you want it.
The new harness is more like a one piece vest, which is probably easier to get on and adjusted….

Please excuse the decorating clothes, the woodwork in the garden that needs a lot of help etc. etc. I couldn’t be bothered to stick wheels on either of my bikes, so I used my OH’s Spesh Myka….

Anyway….

Bag & camera: D80 with 18-135 lens:

^ There’s a pocket inside that normally has the rain cover in it. I generally take it out.

^ wearing it fairly low. It’s fairly easy to adjust the straps so the bag sits higher up your chest.

^^ Looking at how I’ve set it up, I haven’t really sorted the straps out before taking the pics. The thick band should have been a lot further back onto my shoulders….I rushed getting it on and haven’t used it for ages, so it was all a bit cock-eyed. It doesn’t look particularly comfortable like that, but it is!

Stumpy – i suppose i need to clarify – it is not quicker, but I found my talk tank uncomfortable to ride with on my chest due to the weight and it was hard to tighten it up and woudl flap all over the place. the sport 200 is far better for me. for comfort and the speed isn’t that different

I can get the camera out with out undoing straps and taking shoulder strap off, but have to take shoulder strap off to put it back in so takes a bit longer

^^ that’s interesting you found it uncomfortable. EDIT – that sentence sounds like I’m being condescending or taking the mick. I’m not, just can’t think of a way to word it, without it sounding like that…

I took a while before getting started with the Think Tank bag to get the straps set-up, so once I get it on I just need to pull the top straps in to get it where I need it to be.
Once it’s on & my pack is on top of the straps, I don’t really notice them. Obviously I still notice the bag & the weight of it, but I find it’s better balanced to have it on my chest, than in my bag.

Annoyingly, the new version of the harness looks like it would do a better job of keeping the bag in close to your body while cycling and it looks easier to get on & off too – but I don’t think you can use it with the original digital holster, as I think the holster has an extra set of connecting loops.

Cheers for that Stumpy. I think I might give Euans method a go first in the back pack.

I’m terrible for faffing about and one more set of straps that “must” be just so might run to having my mates explode with impaitence:)

marionheck- cheers for that, probably not worth the expense of another bag for me that lowpro. I’ll see how I go.

Cheers for the replies!

I’ve used an Ortlieb Aquazoom for my 40d with a 24-105. Other lenses in the rucsac if you need them.

This front mounted, waterproof, padded, simple to operate and secure. Front mounted is definitely the way forward if you want to enjoy the ride, and not annoy your mates whilst you faff around taking a rucsac on and off.

Guess it depends on what you’re taking photos of – generally I take photos of my mates riding downhill so they have to be behind me. Generally means they get a longer rest at the top of climbs whereas I don’t! Always going to be a bit of faff unless you’re just doing landscapes – thankfully I have very forgiving mates (and they get cool photos!).

I’ve used an Ortlieb Aquazoom for my 40d with a 24-105.

Looks nice. But why does it cost more than their panniers when it’s a fraction of the size?