Camera cases for the elderly and inflexible

[David Edge]

Almost every camera case I see assumes that you are a strong and healthy person who can lift the case into the air and put it down on a table in the jungle / urban jungle. A plethora of equipment is revealed to you like an all you can eat buffet.  Problems:
- I can tow, I can't easily lift
- I can't lay it on the floor and scrabble about
- Urban jungles in the UK don't have seats for the elderly to discourage mendicants - tropical jungles are apparently full of sacrificial altars

I need to transport (by bus and train) although never by air
- a walkstool
- a Manfrotto 190 tripod with a Rogeti geared head
- occasionally a 180-600
all of which being long would logically be carried vertically and lift-outable and don't want to be outside the envelope of the case.

For shooting, a bag with say a Z8 with a 15-mm shift mounted and a D750 with a 24-mm shift mounted and some general purpose lenses.

All the cases - photographic or not - seem to zip along a long side. I'd like one where the zip went a third of the way up the sides and across the bottom allowing it to pull forward like a tongue in a shoe.
Alternatively I can imagine a custom cart with the three deep tubes rigid and a ThinkTank Shapeshifter strapped to the front.

Any bright ideas? And yes, one day it will need to be micro four thirds.

David Edge

[degrub]

An assistant ? possible armed ?

[Jonathan Cross]

An assistant ? possible armed ?

or an apprentice?

I don’t know what you do but your kit adds up to quite a bit of weight. Do you really need it all?  If you do architectural and want verticals vertical,  can you not do that in post processing and use an ordinary lens. If you want a huge depth of field maybe you do need one tilt shift, but it is amazing what you can do with small apertures. Also if you carry several primes would not a zoom do?  The quality of zooms these days is very good. Most of my photography can be done with a 16-50 and 70-300. A 50mm f2 or 75mm f1.8 is occasionally used for portraits,  but then I  carry no other lenses for the job. If you can give up the tilt/shifts, do you really need a tripod? 

I am probably hinting at the dreaded word, ‘compromise’!

Jonathan

[David Edge]

Well the obvious compromise is to use a 10-mm and crop. If you start with 48Mp and chuck away the bottom half that's a very respectable 24MP. The stool is essential and I can't compose seriously hand-held. I am something of a formalist. And no you can't photography a ten storey building across an 8-m wide street and just correct the verticals. look at the Historic England for some painful examples of people who think you can! The 180-600 doesn't come out that often, but given the volume required for the tripod and the stool it adds little more than a bit of low weight for stability. TBH the D750+24 shift and the Z 8+15 shift are really the town and city versions of the same thing. If I knew where I was going when I left the house one or t'other would do. An 85 shift is nice to have but a 24-200 will achieve the same with cropping. A fast 24/35/50/85 is just nice to have to play with in low light, only one of those at a time. And I don't need multiple bodies, it's just with no easy way to change lenses (ie a stable, vertical camera case) it's easier to have two mounted. A Z 7 would save weight and space over a Z 8, leave that for the studio. Just in case it wasn't clear, all of the weight will be on wheels!

I have considered putting wheels on a Benbo 2 and hanging the Shapeshifter from it. Probably ok on the bus, maybe at a pinch on the train.

The key requirement is a bag that will accommodate the three vertical objects - the stool, tripod and on occasion 180-600. There seems to be nothing sympathetic to the notion that humans stand upright.

d.

[Chris Kern]

The stool is essential and I can't compose seriously hand-held. I am something of a formalist. And no you can't photography a ten storey building across an 8-m wide street and just correct the verticals.

My approach: light camera with a small sensor, medium-wide lens (e.g., 24mm full-frame equivalent), image stabilization for handheld shooting, stitching to get it all in.  I shot this one with a Micro Four Thirds Camera.  Enough resolution for a moderate-size print as is—and there's always Lightroom's 2X "Super Resolution" as well as various standalone options.  Doesn't work perfectly for tall buildings at close range, but you can stitch vertically as well as horizontally and often get a plausible result with perspective correction in post.

[Jonathan Cross]

My approach: light camera with a small sensor, medium-wide lens (e.g., 24mm full-frame equivalent), image stabilization for handheld shooting, stitching to get it all in.  I shot this one with a Micro Four Thirds Camera.  Enough resolution for a moderate-size print as is—and there's always Lightroom's 2X "Super Resolution" as well as various standalone options.  Doesn't work perfectly for tall buildings at close range, but you can stitch vertically as well as horizontally and often get a plausible result with perspective correction in post.

Yes, me too. I was asked to photograph a large picture in our local museum. I only had about 5ft in front so did 9 images in a 3x3 array. Ptgui did an excellent job of stitching.

I have a Fuji  X-E5, 40MP and image stabilisation. With the 16-50 and 70-300 lenses, polarising filters and 2 spare batteries in a think tank bag it is about 2 1/2 lbs. With 40MP I now shoot handheld and crop if necessary. I only print up to 19x13 so have plenty of pixels, but can always use LR super resolution. Times have changed to a much more mobile set up.
Jonathan

[Jonathan Cross]

Here is an example of a recent image taken handheld with my X-E5 and 16-50 lens at 50mm, 1/180s, f11, iso160.  It is a piece of 'brutalist' architecture at the Barbican in London.  Now it has matured, there is lots to photograph. All I did was convert to B&W, adjust to get the verticals right, and darken the sky a bit and brighten the vapour trail with masks in the latest version of LR Classic.

Jonathan

[David Edge]

I should probably have pointed out that I'm not a photographer; I'd describe myself as a plain man looking at buildings with a camera to produce a record of what I eventually see.

Suggestions seem to centre on changing my philosophy and not make thoughtful, slow, composed compositions, oh and getting a pair of bionic knees. Not sure any of the suggestions so far have much advantage over the 10-mm as suggested at the start, plus say 24-200.

I'm not sure that any of the suggestions quite address the 180-600 and the stool (knees, remember). And indeed on a 180-600 days, the tripod. I'm too old and feeble to use that handheld. Can borrow the monopod though.

PTGui - now I think I tried that and if memory serves, it's not so much Mac software, more hackware that runs on Mac. Delighted to be proved wrong. Is it nowadays software that somebody used to the look and feel of a Mac would take to, or is it another learning curve that somebody within ten years of death doesn't need?

I think we can agree that the answer to the question is "there is no commercially available rolling case that allows a stool (essential), tripod (essential) and a 180-600 (all but essential) to be withdrawn vertically".

Much of the rest of it seems to be "stop swimming, football is more fun". But that's my fault for not pointing out from the start that I'm not a photographer.

thanks all, d.

[degrub]

My father in law used to ride a three wheel bicycle with baskets front and rear. That would not work for bus, tram , or train however.
i'm afraid stool and tripod would have to be strapped to any rolling case you found for the camera gear. Try some of the m4/3 gear - the body stabilization is remarkable even with adapted lenses. LensRentals lets you rent for a week or more and you can even buy the gear for a predetermined price if you like it.
Again, a voluntary  assistant is likely the best option for what is described. or change the focus of your passion to something within reach ? i have several friends that moved to macro photography and "things in the neighborhood" when their mobility became restricted.

[Jonathan Cross]

Ptgui is certainly not hackware. Some call it the gold standard of stitching software. All I can suggest is a lightweight open frame 2 wheel trolley (loads on the web) for your stool and tripod, and a camera bag for your kit, but only take the minimum. Elastic hook ended bungees will fix stool and tripod to the trolley. Re a monopod which I use with a 100-400 lens will take the weight but not provide the stability of a tripod.

Good luck with your hunt.
Jonathan