Since I do a lot of shooting outdoors, I recently ordered the Think Tank Hydrophobia Flash 70-200 raincover for my camera. In fact, I actually bought two of them. One for my 5D mkII and one for my 7D.
I had the chance to actually use it under “combat conditions” this past weekend when it started pouring rain at a sunset wedding I was shooting on the beach.
We had just finished the ceremony and family photos when the sky just opened up and dumped on us. Everyone quickly ran under the nearest tree while we waited for it to [hopefully] pass.
There was another wedding couple that was shooting at the same time we were and their group decided to pack it up since the rain did not seem to want to let up.
In the meantime I got to my car, wiped down the cameras as best as I could and put the Hydrophobia raincovers on both my 5DmkII and 7D. Within a few minutes I was ready to start shooting again in the rain.
The Hydrophobia has an internal strap that fits snugly around your lens and a strap on the outside that cinches around the lens hood. Once you strap your camera in, you can carry the whole thing with the camera strap built in to the exterior of the raincover. Since the existing camera strap on the camera itself does not have to be strung through the cover, it eliminates having to have 2 openings where rain can get into. The camera is COMPLETELY covered except for the openings for the lens and for your hands to reach the controls. You also don’t need to take off your camera strap when using this raincover – there is an elastic loop on the inside of the Hydrophobia that you use to fold up and store your camera strap in.
When you order the Hydrophobia from Think Tank Photo, you also need to order an eyepiece specific to your camera. [Check out the bottom of this post for a special limited offer that ThinkTank is offering] This replaces the regular eyepiece of your camera (and to keep you from losing that eyepiece, Think Tank thoughtfully designed an eyepiece storage pocket into the raincover). The rubber gasket around the viewfinder portion of the Hydrophobia fits over this custom eyepiece and seals it from rain. This way you are looking directly through an unobstructed viewfinder when you are shooting.
It’s really well-constructed, with seam sealed zippers and heavy duty material. Once I got this on the camera, I was like “Rain? What rain? Let’s go shoot!”
Couple of minor issues that I have:
1. The velcro strips around the eyepiece area could be smaller. I also think they could get by with just two velcro strips instead of the 4 strips that it currently has. If they could redesign it so that you didn’t need the strips on either side of the viewfinder, it would make it a little easier to read the LCD display on top of the camera.
2. The Hydrophobias are really designed for longer lenses like the 70-200. I wish they would make a shorter version for like the 24-70 or 24-105. While you can use the Hydrophobia raincovers with these shorter lenses, the extra material bunches up around the lens, making it somewhat difficult to adjust the zoom.
3. The plastic fogs up easily if you leave it in the car too long. I kept mine in the car because I like to keep it handy as I never know when I’ll need it, but found out that if I did so, the clear plastic portion of the raincover would fog up. A lot. Luckily, there is a very easy fix to that:
I emailed Think Tank Photo customer service about the fogging issue and they were very quick in getting back to me with a solution:
Hi Todd,
“It sounds like you have encountered an issue with the Polyurethane that is a bit unsightly but can be easily remedied. We have decided to use PU as the clear material in our Hydrophobia rain covers because it has some superior characteristics over PVC (polyvinyl chloride). PVC is the single most environmentally damaging of all plastics so we use PU partly because it is one of the most environmentally friendly plastics available at the moment. In very cold weather PU will not crack or get stiff whereas PVC alternatives can crack or have other issues. That all being said, sometimes the material can fog when stored wet or exposed to extended UV light. To remedy the issue simply apply some gentle plastic polish such as “Flitz” or our preferred polish “Meguiar’s PlastX.” Using a microfiber cloth so as not to scratch the material, apply a small amount of the polish and wipe away the fogging to restore the plastic to its original condition.
When not in use, keep the rain cover dry and not exposed to the sun. To minimize fogging of the plastic windows, loosely store the rain cover, possibly hanging in a closet as the fogging generally occurs when it is folded snugly and packed away- especially after use in the rain.”
That’s one of the reasons I really like Think Tank Photo. Not only do they make great gear, but their customer service is first rate.
I’m really glad I had the Hydrophobia rain covers with me that day. They allowed me to keep shooting until the rain finally passed and we were able to catch some of the last of that sunset.
The Think Tank Hydrophobia rain covers are hands down the best way to protect your camera in the rain. When I got home and took the cameras out of the rain covers, they were BONE dry.
I, on the other hand, was completely soaked from head to toe.
Here’s a special limited time offer from Think Tank Photo:
The studios in Japan that I’ve used in the past usually already have lighting equipment available for use. However, they tend to be constant lighting sources – tungsten or fluorescent lights. These are fine for general portrait lighting, but aren’t very flexible if you want to do things like stopping motion or overpowering daylight.
When I travel, I normally take a bunch of Nikon SB26 flashes with me along with a couple of Westcott double fold shoot thru umbrellas and occasionally the Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe Softbox. For this past trip however, I had several shoots where I needed light modifiers that could give me more control than the umbrellas. That’s why I picked up the Westcott 43″ Apollo Orb and two Westcott Apollo Strip 16″x30″ Softboxes just before I flew up to Japan this past December.
I really liked the Apollo Orb. Setup was really quick – it opens up and mounts on the lightstand just like an umbrella. The diffusion panel can be recessed a little from the edge of the softbox, which gives you a little more control over the light. Not as much control as a grid, but good enough for what I was doing.
It turned that small SB26 into a huge 43″ octagonal light source that looked great on the model.
The Striplights were really helpful in controlling the light in situations where I really needed to keep the light off of the background. In the following image, the two Striplights are positioned just out of the frame on either side of the model. If I had only brought the shoot thru umbrellas with me, it would have been extremely difficult to get a shot like this.
Although the Westcott Apollo Orb and the Striplights fold up like umbrellas, they don’t fold up as short as the double-fold shoot thru umbrellas do. For my trip to Japan, it was challenging to find luggage that these softboxes would fit into. I did manage to find a rolling duffle bag at Macy’s that worked though – a High Sierra Rolling Drop Bottom Duffle 34″ Evolution for about $150.
This bag was perfect – in the bottom section I was able to fit the Apollo Orb, 2 Apollo Striplights, a California Sunbounce Micro Mini reflector + Grip Head, 2 Justin Clamps, an empty sandbag, a Speedlight Prokit Beauty Dish and 3 Manfrotto Nano Lightstands and still had room left over.
The bottom part of the upper section unzips if you need to pack larger items.
I used this rolling duffle to get the lighting gear to Japan. Then when I went on location, the compactness of the Westcott softboxes made it easy to put them into the front exterior pocket of my Thinktank Airport Security 2.0 rolling camera bag along with a couple of lightstands. When you are a photographer traveling on trains and buses in Tokyo, it really helps if you don’t have to carry a lot of bags with you.
The only real downside to using the Westcotts is that because they mount onto lightstands like an umbrella, the flash ends up inside the softbox rather than on the back.
(in case you are wondering, the red coloring inside of the Orb in this shot is just the silver interior reflecting the backdrop we used)
To make adjustments to the flash power, you need to open up and reach into the softbox to do it, which is pretty easy to do, just don’t attach the velcro on the bottom of the diffuser panel so that you can flip it up out of the way quickly. Alternatively you can use something like the Pocket Wizard Flex TT1/TT5 and AC3 Zone Controller to adjust the flash power remotely.
Overall though, the ease of setup and control of light the Westcott Apollo series of softboxes along with the fact that I can now carry essentially an entire studio on my rolling camera bag make me really glad that I added these to my travel lighting toolkit.
One of the problems when shooting wedding videos out on the beach is trying to carry all of your gear and keep it out of the sand. I used to use a large camera bag to hold all my stuff, but constantly worried about having to leave it unattended on the beach during a wedding. I wanted to find something that would let me carry the vital necessities with me, yet not get in the way when filming.
I also ordered the Multimedia Wireless Mic Kit to go along with it. It attaches to the built in belt of the the Wired Up 20.
One of the great things about the Multimedia Wired Up series is that they designed them with small openings that allow you to run cables between the various bags.
I have two wireless mic receivers in the Wireless Mic Kit and run the output from that bag into the Zoom H4N stored in the audio compartment of the Wired Up 20 .
Since the cables run through the bottoms of the bags, I can zip the top closed and throw on the included rain cover when needed.
The audio compartment of the Wired Up 20 is designed to open away from the body, so that you can see and adjust the levels on the screen of the audio recorder.
Had some custom right angle XLR connectors made to reduce the stress on the cables that are plugged into the bottom of the H4N.
The cord for the headphones runs through an opening on the other side of the bag.
The Wired Up 20 also comes with a hook to hang your headphones on. Very handy to have.
The main compartment is nice and roomy. I can fit a 5D mkII with a battery grip and a 70-200L lens (hood reversed) in the center section with room for another lens on the side (maybe the 50mm 1.2L when I buy it later this year).
When I shoot a ceremony with my regular video cameras, a Canon XF100 and an XA10 as a second/backup camera, the Wired Up 20 is roomy enough that I can quickly store the XA10 in the bag after the ceremony and continue shooting with the XF100.
The Wired Up 20 also has large side pockets that can stretch out to hold water bottles or LCD lights, or whatever else you can think of.
It also comes with a Cable Management bag and mini bungie cords useful for storing microphone cables and things.
As I make the transition to shooting more and more video with my HDSLRs instead of my video cameras, I’ll be using this setup more often since it makes recording dual system audio much easier.
Right now Think Tank Photo is offering up 11 camera pouches and memory card holders worth almost $300 that you can have added for free to your purchases when you visit their website via one of the links on this blog. Every time you place an order with Think Tank, when you check out you will be asked which one of the items listed below you wish you receive for free. There is no limit on the number of orders you can place. You receive free gear with every order.
To get this “free gear with every order” offer, click on this link or on any of the Think Tank links on this blog:
The Mini Lithium battery was a real powerhouse, lasting almost the entire day doing full power shots on a WL1600. It’s much more compact and lighter than the older Vagabond II that I had been using before, and lasts a lot longer.
Because it’s so much lighter, you can’t rely on using it as a weight to hold down your lightstand like you can with the older Vagabond II.
The spare battery packs are easily swapped out and are not too expensive.
One thing I didn’t like about the VML is the design of the clip that is supposed to attach the battery to the lightstand. Not the greatest design – in actual use when you clamp it onto a lightstand, it tends to slide down until it hits one of the joints of the stand. Hopefully they will improve this in later versions.
Paul Buff also sells a carrying bag for the Vagabond Mini, which can also hold a spare battery.
Putting both the Vagabond mini and a spare battery pack in the bag gives it a little more weight to help hold down a lightstand, but it’s a good idea to supplement that with one or two sandbags, especially if you will be using any softboxes or other light modifiers on your strobes.
One future application that I’m planning for this is using it to power LED light panels when shooting video. In testing it with four HDV-Z96 LED panels, it seemed to hold up pretty well. Will need to do a stress test with it to see how long it can last without anything blowing up.
Overall I’m really happy with the Vagabond Mini Lithium – it’s lightweight and lasts long. It’s also very affordable, to the point where I’m seriously considering getting a few more of these – one for each lightstand.
Recently a reader from the UK emailed me about what lighting gear to buy to get the kinds of images I post on the blog. After recovering from the shock (you mean, people actually READ this blog?!?!?), I started writing my reply and thought it might be a good subject for a blog post as well. Here’s my response:
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Thank you for the compliment. To be honest, I’m still learning a lot of these things myself – I’m not even close to being able to do any workshops of my own yet.
The Canon 5D mk II is an excellent camera to work with, and I’ve heard good things about the 50mm 1.2L as well (that’s probably the next lens I’ll buy the next time I visit Tokyo).
It’s difficult to answer your question about what to get for lighting equipment because each photo session I do is different. Sometimes I’ll use just natural light. Sometimes I’ll use a reflector. Sometimes it’s one strobe and an umbrella.
Sometimes I get crazy and try 6 strobes with Octodomes, softboxes, gels, fans, etc.
I seriously need to have my head examined. 😉
My best advice for you is something I learned from one of my instructors when I was first starting out:
DON’T go out and buy a whole bunch of lights and accessories at first.
Start small. Start with just one light. Just one. Only one. ONE LIGHT.
I started out with a single Canon 550EX on a light stand and an ST-E2 transmitter so that I could fire the flash off-camera.
Use that light every chance you get. Learn what you can and cannot do with that one light in different situations.
Zack Arias has a whole workshop devoted to using just one light. You would be surprised at what you can actually do with just one light.
Once you are comfortable with and know everything about that one light, and if you feel like you want to get a modifier for it, then get one modifier. Just one. Only one. The first thing I bought was a single white shoot thru umbrella.
Just get one modifier, then do the same thing – learn everything you can do with that one flash and one light modifier. For a lot of people, that may be enough. Also, remember that when you are using that light outdoors, you actually have 2 lights at your disposal. The sun is a light source, and you can use it as a main light, fill light, hair light, whatever, depending on how you use it in conjunction with your strobe.
If you choose to go ahead and buy more gear in the future, it doesn’t matter if it’s a new light or light modifier or lens or camera body or whatever, always follow the same rule – get just 1 thing at a time, use the heck out of it and get comfortable using it.
Truly understand everything you can do with that one piece of gear before you even THINK of purchasing the next thing.
Having a lot of lighting gear is nice but the more you have, the more there is to lug around to location, and the more tired you will be from setting it all up. Lately I’ve been trying to reduce the amount of stuff I have to lug around.
For example, when I travel to Japan and want to do a model shoot, I’ll take just 2 speedlights, 2 lightstands, 2 shoot thru umbrellas, and radio triggers for the speedlights. That will usually get me through about 80-90% of what I want to shoot.
Sure it’s nice to look at other people’s work and say “I wish I could do that, but I don’t have all that lighting gear”, but my advice to you is to find your own style, your own “look”. Learn what you can do with what you already have, or what is around you. You may find that you don’t need a lot of gear to achieve “Your Look”.
There are many photographers that can do a lot without having to rely on a whole bunch of gear. Some of the best ones don’t even use any strobes at all, they just utilize the natural light around them.
Hope that this helps in some small way. Whenever I blog about a photoshoot, I always try to post what setup we used for lighting, but sometimes I forget to do that.
If you ever want to know how we did a particular shot, please don’t hesitate to use the comment section on the blog to ask questions. I may not be able to respond right away, but I will always try to answer when I can.
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To all of you that take the time to read this blog, thank you very very VERY much. I’m flattered that you would do so. I don’t pretend to be an expert in photography or lighting by any means – I make a lot of mistakes and I’ll freely admit that I still have a LOT to learn and continue to try to improve at this craft every day.
I do remember what it was like when I first started out – once in a while I would come across an image that I really liked and when I contacted the photographer to ask questions, I got some real snotty replies. it was like a big secret – “go figure it out yourself”. I realize that many photographers are busy, but come on. We should all help each other out because we can all learn from each other.
Thankfully, not all photographers are like that. I’ve learned a lot from and have been inspired a lot by the masters like Rolando Gomez, David Hobby, Zack Arias, Chase Jarvis, Joe McNally and many more. When I started this blog I decided that though I may never be as successful or as skillful as they are, I am more than happy to share what little I do know. Hopefully something I post might inspire you or you can learn from my mistakes ( I make a lot of those).
As always if anyone ever has questions, please feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email. Let me know what subjects you’d like me to cover in the blog.
I just heard from the folks over at Think Tank Photo that they’re having a sale on their belt systems so I figured this would be a good time to share thoughts on some of their gear that I use in the field.
The Speedbelt is padded, so it’s pretty comfortable to wear when running around.
When you attach a modular component bag to the belt, you can choose whether or not to lock it in place by inserting the plastic tab on the back of the component bag into a loop on the belt.
Since I use the Spider Holster rigs to attach my cameras to the belt, I usually prefer not to lock the bags in place, so that I can slide them forward when I need them then slide them back when I want them out of the way.
There’s several reasons why I like the Skin Component Bags. One is that when you take a lens out, the bag can fold almost flat against your body. Below you can see it compared to the heavily padded and bulkier Lowepro lens case that I used to use. Don’t get me wrong, the Lowepro bags are great too, and they really protect your gear, but having several Lowepro lens cases on my belt just made me feel a little too wide and I’d be bumping into things when trying to maneuver around a crowded room.
Another thing I like about the Think Tank bags is that the zipper pulls are non-metal. I’ve broken off more metal zipper pulls than I can count (probably because of all the salt air they are exposed to at the beach). I like the Think Tank design better because not only do they not eventually wear out and snap off, but they don’t make a lot of noise that metal zipper pulls do when you are moving around during a church ceremony.
One of the main features that I like about the Skin Component System is the “Stealth Mode” velcro for the cover flaps.
This lets you cover up the velcro so that you can quickly open and close the bag without making that typical loud velcro ripping sound.
Each bag has a drawstring closure on the mouth of the bag as well as an integrated rain cover.
Some of their bags also have the additional drop down feature that lets you unzip the bottom of the bag and extend it. This lets you put in a lens with the hood extended so that you can whip it out, mount it to your camera, and start shooting without having to fiddle with reversing the lens hood.
Right now Think Tank is having a sale on their belt systems, so I hope you have the chance to take advantage of it. You can see the Skin Component System here. If you feel you need a belt system with more padded protection for your gear, they also have the Modular Belt System here.
When I shoot weddings and events, I usually use 2 camera bodies – a 5D mkII with a 24-105 f4 L and a 7D with a 70-200 f2.8 L IS. On one of my recent beach wedding shoots, I nearly dropped the 5D mkII into the sand when the camera strap came undone right in the middle of the bride’s processional. Luckily I was able to catch it before it hit the sand, but I didn’t have time during the ceremony to reattach the strap.
Thankfully, on that particular day, I was testing out my DIY BlackRapid sling on my 7D. I shoved the 5D camera strap into my pocket and quickly swapped the sling from the 7D to the 5D. Since I had my Think Tank Skin 75 lens bag on my hip, I used that as a temporary camera holster for the 7D/70-200 lens whenever I needed to use the 5D on the sling.
I had originally thought about going with a Digital Holster bag attached to my Think Tank belt, but to accommodate the 70-200 lens I would have had to get the large Digital Holster 50 which would have added a lot of unwanted bulk to my setup.
So instead I started looking around for a better way to carry 2 camera bodies around and have them readily accessible to shoot. Some of the things I looked at were the Cotton Carrier system and the Black Rapid strap system.
I didn’t really care for the Cotton Carrier system. Looked too much like a baby carrier and since I shoot a lot of outdoors weddings, I would be sweating all over the chest mounted camera.
The Black Rapid system looked promising and as I mentioned, I was testing a DIY version of it on the day my other camera strap decided to malfunction. I might use it from time to time, but I think I prefer a completely strapless setup.
While I was shooting video for a recent Japanese wedding, I noticed another photographer using 2 of these holsters, one on each hip. He was able to quickly switch between cameras and get a lot more shots done quickly. That is what really won me over to this system.
The Spider Holster system is great because it takes all the camera weight off of your shoulders and puts it on your waist.
The kit comes with a plate and pin assembly that attaches to the tripod socket of the camera body and a metal holster that attaches to your belt. You can also order the Spider Holster belt, which is specifically designed for the Spider Holster.
I chose to order it with the accessory that allows you to attach it to the Think Tank Pro Speedbelt.
The plate comes with an allen wrench that fits into a slot on the plate. This keeps it handy in case you need to retighten the screws in the field.
The top of the plate has two curved edges which help hold it in place against the edge of your camera body or grip when you attach it to the camera.
The included allen wrench is also used to tighten the spider pin into one of the holes on the bottom. You can do left or right, depending on which side you plan to wear the camera on.
I chose to go with two pins since I ordered 2 holsters for left and right sides. This allowed me to use either camera in either holster.
To use the system, you simply clip the spider pin into the holster and let the camera hang naturally with the lens pointing backward. The holster automatically locks it in place until you manually release it with the little lever on the side of the holster.
The release lever on the side has 2 positions. When set to the middle position, the holster will lock the Spider pin in place so you can run, jump, spin around, whatever and your camera will stay locked on your belt. To release the camera, simply pull the lever up a little and pull out your camera from the holster.
The lever can also be pushed all the way up. This locks it in the open position. This is good for if you need to quick draw your camera to get a shot and don’t want to mess with unlocking it. The groove the pin slides into is deep enough that gravity will make the camera will stay in place on the holster. You can walk around and not have to worry about your camera falling out of the holster. As long as you don’t plan on doing any jumping jacks, you should be fine.
I used this system on a few beach weddings and I found that once I got accustomed to sliding the Spider pin into the holster, it made switching between cameras much easier. The holsters don’t weigh very much themselves so there were times during shoots where I was lying down to get a certain camera angle and forgot that the empty holster was on my belt. Because of the simple slotted design of the holsters, I was able to quickly clear the holster of sand once I stood up. What little sand that got into the lever was quickly removed with a few clicks.
Couple of minor issues that I ran into. I ordered two of these and while I was attaching the holsters to the belt, I noticed that one of the screws on one holster was slightly stripped ( I was able to remove it eventually with some effort ). On the other holster, I found that one of the screw holes was completely stripped, so instead of using 4 screws to attach the Think Tank adapter loop to the holster, I was only able to use 3. I contacted the company about this and they were very quick in getting back to me to arrange a replacement.
I also ordered the Arca-Swiss adapter plate which attach to the bottom of the Spider Plate so that you can still use the camera on a tripod. Unfortunately the plates were just a hair too narrow on my ReallyRightStuff ballhead, so they kept sliding out of the slot. I ended up having to return them. I was told by the Spider Holster company that they outsource the manufacturing of the Arca Swiss adapters and might have to discontinue doing that.
What I might end up doing is getting a RRS quick release plate and mounting the Spider plate to the bottom of that, so that I have the option to quickly take off the Spider Plate in order to mount the camera on a tripod. Similar to what this guy has:
Another issue that I ran into is that since the camera is simply attached to your hip by the metal clip, it offers pretty much zero protection for your camera. Have to be careful when walking through doorways and such because since there’s no camera straps, it’s very easy to forget you have the camera on your hip and accidentally knock it against something as you’re walking by.
The last issue is that when you’re walking around with your camera swinging from your hip, it’s kinda hard not to get this song out of your head:
Think Tank Photo is a company that really puts a lot of thought into every one of their products and their new Retrospective series of camera bags are a great example of this, which is why I bought one from Bic Camera in Ikebukuro on a recent trip to Japan.
It’s also available in black but as a fan of the recent television series “24”, I liked this version better, the Retrospective 30 Pinestone. It is so well designed that if Jack Bauer were a photographer, this is the bag he would carry.
The first thing you’ll notice is that there is no label on the front that screams “Hey! I’m a camera bag with a lot of expensive stuff in me!”. I wish more camera bag manufacturers would have the brains to do this. No matter how much manufacturers claim their bags “do not look like a typical camera bag”, the second they sew a label on the front of the bag for everyone to see, it’s game over. Thieves are not stupid, they can look through any photography magazine and memorize the names of typical camera bag manufacturers. Once they see that label on the front of a bag, they know it’s a camera bag and a potential target. On past camera bags I’ve either torn the label off or covered it up with something like a “Starfleet Academy” patch. (I’m a geek yes, I’m well aware of that.)
Maybe I can find a “CTU” patch for this bag. ;-P
The Retrospective 30 has an outer label, but Think Tank intelligently put it on the BACK of the bag – the side that is against your body when you wear the bag so that no one can see it.
Not only that, but they made it very small and discreet. You really have to look closely to see the name. The label is very inconspicuous, and from the front this bag looks just like an average messenger bag you can get from Amazon or wherever. Just like what Jack Bauer would carry all his guns and knives in.
There are many more intelligently designed features inside the bag, beginning with the pockets.
Some camera bag manufacturers add outer pockets to their bags while never even considering you might want to put something IN those pockets. I’ve seen even large roller bags with pockets that cover the entire front face of the case yet made so thin, you literally could not even get a single finger inside of them.
The Retrospective 30’s pockets are very roomy. If you look at the sides of the pockets, you’ll see that they are designed to expand to hold a lot. A 7D with a battery grip easily fits in one of these pockets with room to spare.
Another nice feature of the front pockets are the velcro closures. There are small strips inside the pockets you can attach the cover flaps to if you want to keep them out of the way for faster access to what you have stored there.
This is really helpful to me on shoots where we have to pack up and move between locations quickly. Although I may pack my camera bag a certain way, I don’t always have time to put things back in their proper place when I’m in a hurry. Large open pockets like these let me just “dump it in and go”, and worry about putting things back to their proper place after the shoot is done.
In the back of the main compartment is a zippered pocket which runs the length of the bag. Useful for storing papers like model release forms.
The bag comes with a bunch of dividers so you can customize the interior to how you like it. I usually keep it to 4 dividers.
There are several different sizes of bags in the Retrospective line. The Retrospective 30 is currently the largest one Think Tank offers. The main compartment of this bag can hold a pro body and about 3-4 lenses.
My usual wedding loadout for this bag is:
Center – 5d mkII with a battery grip or the WFT-E4 wifi transmitter, with a 24-105 f4L lens and the hood in shooting position. Left – 70-200 f2.8L IS lens Right – 7D w/ 50mm f1.4 lens Front pockets – 2 Canon 580 EX flashes, 2 external battery packs
On either end of the main compartment you’ll find these small flaps.
Lifting these flaps reveals another pocket. I usually store my battery powered router in this pocket.
Inside this pocket is yet again, another velcro strip in case you want to store the pocket strap out of the way.
It’s the attention to even the smallest details like this that make Think Tank one of my favorite companies to purchase camera bags from.
On the inside of the front of the bag is a velcro flap with the company logo. This hides a section for pens, business cards, lens wipes, memory cards etc.
I like how they put this section inside the bag, which frees up the front pockets for other gear. I also appreciate how they thought to use the logo flap to hold this section closed so that it doesn’t get in the way when you move gear in and out of the bag.
On the inside of the main cover is a spot for a business card for ID purposes and the “Stealth Mode” velcro.
This particular feature is one of the things that attracted me to the Think Tank line of products in the first place. It is something they had on their Skin Component system and I’m glad they carried it over to this bag. What it does is it allows you to fold down and cover the velcro strips so that when you open and close the cover of the bag, you don’t make that loud ripping noise associated with velcro.
This is really handy when you need to go into silent mode and not draw attention to yourself during a wedding ceremony. Or if you’re sneaking into an enemy compound to rescue a fellow CTU agent.;-)
Think Tank Photo – designed by freakin’ NINJAs. 😉
Remember the outer label on the back? I forgot to mention that right above that label is a zipper. This is one of the best examples of how forward thinking the people at Think Tank are:
It’s not designed for the typical laptop, but it does fit an iPad perfectly.
When I say “fits perfectly”, I mean PERFECTLY. I have my iPad in an Otterbox Defender case, which is one of the largest iPad cases available, and it still fits like a glove in this pocket.
This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. With the WFT-E4 on the 5D transmitting images to the Shuttersnitch app on the iPad via the router in the side pocket, I now have a fully mobile wireless tethered shooting setup all in one bag.
The Retrospective 30 also comes with a really good raincover. I usually store it in the side pocket so that it frees up one of the front pockets.
A video by Think Tank showing how to put on the rain cover. As far as I know, they are the only company that thinks of doing videos like this to help their customers.
There are only a few minor issues that I have with this bag. First, the side pockets are a little too small for my tastes. Putting in a water bottle or a flash like the 580EX is a bit tight.
It would be nice if they were to enlarge this pocket just a skosh more on their next version to make it easier to slipthings in and out of it. The strap right above the pocket is for if you want to attach a modular component, such as an additional lens case. It does get in the way a little when putting things in the pocket. I usually put the raincover in one side pocket and a couple of camera raincovers in the other.
The other issue I have is with the strap.
It’s nice that it is somewhat padded and has these rubber lines that help grip your shoulder, but the strap is permanently connected to the bag. I understand the aesthetic choice they made with doing the strap this way, but on the next version of this bag I would like the option to be able to replace the strap with something else if I wanted to.
Overall though I’m really happy with this bag and I highly recommend it for location work. It’s well designed and the exterior is rugged enough to take a lot of punishment – just like Jack ;-).
(I would know, ’cause I’m really rough on my gear on a daily basis, ask anybody. If any manufacturers want to know if their product can really take a beating, just send it my way. If it survives a week with me, heck it’ll survive anything.)
The people at Think Tank Photo were also gracious enough to allow me this year to start offering a special gift to readers of this blog. On any order over $50, you can get a free camera bag or accessory such as:
Modular Pouch – Good for carrying small things like memory cards, pocket camera, light meter, etc.
Security Tag – has a serial number that you can register at the Think Tank Photo website to help recover the bag it is attached to if lost or stolen.
Cable Management 20 – Great for organizing small cords and things. I use one in my video bag to organize lavalier microphones.
To take advantage of this offer, go to the Think Tank Photo website via this link and enter the affiliate code AP-483. You’ll be able to choose your free bag or accessory upon checkout.
that I used to use. Don’t get me wrong, the Lowepro bags are great too, and they really protect your gear, but having several Lowepro lens cases on my belt just made me feel a little too wide and I’d be bumping into things when trying to maneuver around a crowded room.
with a 
and a 
with a 
. On one of my recent beach wedding shoots, I nearly dropped the 
came undone right in the middle of the bride’s processional. Luckily I was able to catch it before it hit the sand, but I didn’t have time during the ceremony to reattach the strap.
lens bag on my hip, I used that as a temporary camera holster for the 7D/70-200 lens whenever I needed to use the 5D on the sling.
attached to my 
, but to accommodate the 70-200 lens I would have had to get the large 
and the 
.
, I liked this version better, the 
” patch. (I’m a geek yes, I’m well aware of that.)
or wherever. Just like what Jack Bauer would carry all his guns and knives in.
perfectly.
, which is one of the largest iPad cases available, and it still fits like a glove in this pocket.
in the other.
Mizomi Photography 