Camera / Tank Bag

Hello Friends and neighbors (well, kinda)...

In packing up for the TAR, I found myself basically filling my little tank bag with my camera gear, including a couple lenses, tiny little flash, gorillapod, wireless trigger, extra battery and mem card. I padded the sides a tad with standard camera bag dividers, but otherwise just piled everything in there. Not ideal. I'll likely stuff a few more dividers in there to help with shifting things, and will probably put at least some of that stuff (gorillapod, battery, etc) in the side cases instead of the tank bag.

So: questions.
1) Do ya'll photographer/biker folks do something similar? Just put the camera and one attached lens in the tank bag, or a couple other lenses?

2) Did ya'll make your own internal dividers, use standard camera bag dividers, or forgo them altogether?

And, lastly..
3) Has anyone who's done this had a bike that suffered from narcolepsy? In a low speed get-off, how did the equipment fair?


Thinking a bit more about this, it seems that the only thing I'll actually need during a ride would be the camera itself, maybe - but probably not- an additional lens. For things like low-water crossings, I'll stick the whole bag in the back (waterproof) case, lest we go swimming. Other than that, I'd like to leave it up there and not worry about rattling it to pieces, and banging bits together.

Thoughts??

Cheers, Jeff

I criss-crossed the country with a D40 and D90 DSLR just stuck in the tankbag and never had any issues. My sensors didn't shake loose, I didn't lose any screws in a lens and nothing adverse happened. I did however have a little padding on the bottom of the tank bag for decreasing some vibration with a small towel, but I didn't worry about side dividers near as much as bottom padding.


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Yeah, I think gear these days is tough enough for a little shake, rattle, and roll. But, not to push my luck, here's what I've just completed:



I had some 3 inch thick foam rubber around, and made that little holder in about 10 minutes. None of the cuts are all the way through; there's at least .5 inches of foam at the bottom. You can see a couple extra batteries stuffed along the right side, and a wireless remote trigger along the left. Teeny little flash, two lenses, plus body & lens. Not too pretty, but not too shabby either. And, a LOT more protection that just having that stuff loose in there.

I wouldn't think there to be an issue with what you've done. Short of a nasty nap or water crossing, that should be fine. If anything, maybe add a few squares under the large foam to get the majority of it off the tank an onto the 'feet' so to speak.

I recently dropped a tailbag with my DSLR, laptop and other electronics. minimal damage and all is still working.

I carry my Nikon all the time in a rather flimsy tank bag. If the bike goes down, I frankly have more to worry about than a camera. I do, though, have a nicely padded camera case that would probably protect the Nikon if the tank bag didn't absolutely take flight.

Saw that bag at Billy's, Jeff- nice job!!

Having just done 771 miles getting to, from and at the TAR, I've got some additional insight here:

1) the foam I used wasn't dense enough
2) the hole I cut for the camera was too big

These two conspired to allow the camera to bobble around more than it should. That caused a bit of visible wear on the camera in a couple spots. I have a pelican case that I've used for much heavier camera gear in just as rough terrain, and their pull-out foam stuff worked much better, especially when you really have to cram the camera in there.

3) I put more stuff in there than I needed, and that stuff was too lose. I should only put in there what I'd want to shoot with while seated (body, attached lens, and maybe one additional lens), Everything else goes in a rear rack box or bag. Or, at least it should all be held securely in place in the bag.

4) Don't trust magnetic bags on dirt roads/water crossings. I'm not too proud to admit that I had a low-speed off during a water crossing, and the tank bag popped right off. I was close enough to the other end that the bag actually did make it all the way across, so nothing inside got wet. But, it could have been worse.

This last one was the big one. I went over on the first water crossing on Friday morning, so the tank bag spent most of the rest of the weekend inside my rear pelican case. If there's no water, I would still use the tank bag, but any water at all and its just not worth the risk.

Cheers, Jeff

My D80 survived hail, rain and lots of dust inside a Lowe SLR bag, exposed to the elements, on the back of my DRZ400. I could see black paint that wore of the sigma lens inside on the light gray nylon, but no damage.