A fair time ago, I had just gotten my DSLR and was planning to take it with me to Tasmania only I wanted a camera bag that not only held my camera, but all the crap I’m forced to cart with me as well. Stuff like two pairs of glasses for my myopic vision, my wallet, a small compact camera for shooting video (smaller than a video camera and great for places where you aren’t allowed a DSLR) and my mobile phone. Most camera bags are great for carrying huge amounts of kit but if you want to carry other things apart from a netbook, there’s not much out on the market. Even on Etsy, the DSLR bags are still focused on carrying kit only.
I tried to make my own padding and convert a plain black nappy bag and this did a great job for the whole two weeks we were in Tasmania. The strap broke just as I was getting into my sister’s car for the ride home. At least it didn’t break earlier than that and admittedly that bag copped a lot of abuse. Not only did it have my camera in it and all the aforementioned crap, it also ended up carrying water bottles and food a lot of the time. No wonder the poor bag snuffed it.
I’ve since tried out a few bags and I have what I suspect a lot of enthusiasts have – a cupboard with a large variety of bags in there. It is getting pretty scary. While each of them are great in their own way, they weren’t what I wanted on a day to day basis. What I wanted was a sling bag/satchel that didn’t overtly scream camera bag while still providing a good amount of cushioning and had room for the aforementioned bits and pieces. So of course I have the standard “hello I am a camera bag” one that I came home with from the store when I initially bought the camera. Well thought of at first until I realised how little I could really fit in there. So next came the nappy bag invention which did not last the distance.
Then came the backpack which is great for hiking or when I’m carrying the camera for long walks because sling bags just don’t cut it for more than a couple of kilometres. Eventually even the most comfortable, padded shoulder strap is going to start making you wish that you’d left the camera at home. But it’s not exactly unobtrusive, nor is it easy to whip out the camera when time is of the essence. That made me want to go back to a sling bag and so came along the Domke bag which I ordered online. Only whoa! Far too big for what I need. It is however fantastic for storing ALL my stuff in when I’m not using it.
After a bit of Googling, it became obvious that I wasn’t alone and this was a need of a lot of amateur/enthusiast photographers – we want to carry our cameras but we don’t like having a dedicated camera bag. We want something which will provide protection for our goodies, not scream that it is a camera bag and can carry other stuff as well. For a long time, all I found were people wanting the same thing as I did but not really getting any satisfaction. Until I stumbled across a solution from Crumpler called the Haven (see below). There are others available on the market that fit this bill but they don’t seem as versatile as the Haven. The dividers are all able to be moved so that you can make the Haven what you need it to be, depending on what you want to take.
I got the large Haven in a ghastly orange and grey combination (would have preferred green but they were all out) but hey, it doesn’t need to look good on its own. Truth be known, I probably would have gotten it even if it were bright pink! It fits in my canvas messenger bag and still I have room for the jolly glasses, wallet, compact camera and phone at a minimum, probably a few more small items if I had to carry them. In the Haven, I have my 40D with 18-200mm lens attached, lens hood (detached), spare 50mm lens and an external flash. There’s even room for my Spudz lens cleaning cloth, remote shutter release and spare memory cards. It might not suit everyone’s needs but it’s certainly fit the bill for mine.
