Necessity is the mother of all invention…not to mention perserverence!

When is a camera bag not a camera bag?? When it’s a camera bag disguised as a nappy bag of course!

Despite the astounding variety of camera bags for DSLRs on the market, there is a complete lack of one that successfully accommodated my needs. I needed one which:

• did not look like a camera bag;
• had cushioning but didn’t look too bulky;
• could fit a foldup rain jacket in it;
• had enough pockets and room in it to contain all my other day to day necessities (phone, wallet, PDA, keys, water bottle, sunnies and prescription specs);
• was not a backpack;
• didn’t have to come overseas or be custom made;
• was not hideously ugly or expensive;
• was one I could physically touch and handle prior to purchasing;
• was fairly dark in colour to hide stains; and,
• was reasonably waterproof.

I’m not the only person who has been searching for a bag that meets these kind of requirements. In my Google searches, I came across many bloggers, forum threads and articles that expressed similar frustrations. In the long run, the commercial range of camera bags are only great for people who like carrying backpacks all the time or only want to carry their camera bag and associated equipment and don’t take any other personal possessions with them (like wallet, phone, PDA etc).

Someone in my travels suggested getting a nappy bag to put it in but I was concerned about the lack of cushioning for the camera. This was particularly relevant because I generally wouldn’t have anything in the bag to protect the camera from knocks. I searched online and in the shops and finally decided that there was not a nappy bag out there that was kitted out with enough padding for my liking.

So what do you do when life gives you lemons? You make lemonade of course! So I decided that I would get the cheapest nappy bag that more or less fit my requirements and make my own padding. I’ll just add in here that I’m not really that crafty. I did poorly in sewing in high school and if not for my cooking prowess (well in comparison to the sewing!), I would have probably failed home economics. Consequently, I didn’t even own a proper sewing machine! I did however have a baby battery operated one that I got for hemming stuff up so I decided it could probably do the job reasonably well.

To cut a long story short, well it didn’t do much of a job at it and it stopped functioning after my first attempt at stitching a basic pocket. Since it’s my birthday, my other half asked me what I wanted and half jokingly, I suggested a proper sewing machine. Nothing too hardcore but one that could do a zig zag stitch and had a power cord would be grand. The fact that Spotlight had a 20% off sale yesterday helped the idea along and last night, I came home with a brand new Brother 2600. I could almost feel my nanna turning in her grave from the shock!

Some 12hrs, lots of swearing and fiddling later, I have fashioned a padded interior for my incognito DSLR camera bag. And because Leigh won’t believe me without photographic evidence, I’ve uploaded the photos into my Flickr Photo stream. But for those who don’t want to see the step by step, here’s the start and the finish. Dodgy sewing for sure but it does the job and I for one am very happy with my efforts.