Monorail Backpack

[Sheldon N]

I posted an older version of this over at Photo.net a month or so ago, but I thought you might enjoy seeing this here as well.

I've been shooting for a while with a Cambo SC monorail (and the associated hard case), and did not find it very portable at all. I was on the fence about buying a field camera, but I enjoyed the long bellows and ample movements of the monorail (and the low price). So, after a little trial and error, and a couple design changes, I've come up with a pretty slick way of backpacking the monorail around on day hikes.

I started with a $25 used Kelty backpack, a fairly large frontloading design. I then bought 2 roll up sleeping pads (dense, stiff, lightweight foam). With a whole lot of measuring and planning, I designed a backpack insert that will hold the monorail standards (with the rail removed) as well as lenses/boards/accessories.

Building it took about 3-4 hours in total. The foam was measured and cut, then glued together using a hot glue gun. I solved the problem of things shifting around by having a snug fit for each piece, and lots of support blocks around the edges. The area at the bottom of the pack holding the lensboards is really nice, because the front and rear elements of the lenses don't touch anything, each lensboard is held in place by the foam and support blocks.

The pack holds the monorail, 5 fidelity film holders (B&W film), Fuji Loupe, Pentax Spotmeter V, Kodak Readyload holder with 10-15 Fuji quickloads, filters, Nikkor SW 90mm f/8 (thanks to Guy Tal!), Fuji W 135mm f/5.6, Fuji A 240mm f/9, each in lensboard with cable release. I made my own lenswraps out of inexpensive soft black fabric. The whole foam insert fits snugly into the backpack. The rail, clamp and tripod all stay together and attach to the side of the pack. Not shown in the picture is the darkcloth which fits on top of the film/loupe/meter and keeps them in place; a foam insert which fits between the monorail standards; and a fitted foam cover which folds over the top of the monorail itself to hold it in place (with a hinge made out of gaffers tape). The whole pack, fully loaded and including the tripod comes in at 28-29 lbs which is totally portable for anything I'll do in a single day.

I've had it out on a couple hikes already, and did 5 miles yesterday evening in the Columbia River Gorge. It's worked wonderfully, both as a way of transporting gear and as a staging area for setting up and shooting once on location.

Anyhow, I hope this will inspire others to be creative in their efforts to get outdoors and shoot, no matter what gear you're using.

Sheldon

[Brian Vuillemenot]

Nice job, Sheldon, and a lot cheaper than buying an expensive photo backpack!

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Only if you don't place a market value on your time, Brian.

Sheldon, that looks great!

[Tom Westbrook]

Great job, Sheldon. I've often wondered how others retrofit regular backpacks for LF use. I used loose pack method (GnassGear lens cases, camera wrapped in the dark cloth, ditty bags, etc) in my Kelty Redwing 3200, but keep thinking about sewing some separators in there to keep things somewhat organized.

What kind of foam did you use? I understand some types will disintegrate over time.

[Steve H]

Sheldon,
You are my hero ! I've always needed something like this. I tried to put my whole case inside of an old army backpack (It fit !), but the weight was touching 50lbs at that point, and it was insanely bulky. I did manage to build a rack for my bike though, it works well. I am going to try your approach though.
Where did you purchase the foam ?

[Sheldon N]

I bought the foam from a local sporting goods store here in Portland (Deek & Brian's Next Adventure). It was one of their generic foam rollup camping mattresses, and only cost $5. They had a blue colored one that I originally started with, but the foam was much softer and I could see how it would wear poorly over time. For some reason, the foam on the green mattreses was much more dense and sturdy. Once I glued it all together, it was remarkeably rigid. You really can't flex the bottom half of the insert by hand, even with it being empty. The beauty is that the insert itself is very light, only a couple pounds.

The hotglue gun is a little generic craft item, costs a couple bucks. I used a LOT of hotglue, something like 40 or 50 sticks. This thing is not coming apart!

[Bob Gentile]

Beautiful! Great idea well executed.

[Turner Reich]

I like the neat compartments, it looks quick and easy to find everything. The lens compartments are way cool in the layout. I would have never thought of the rollup foam, great idea.

[Nitish Kanabar]

Great idea and well executed. Thanks for sharing.

[Eric James]

The compartments look great but the 500 pound tripod and rail hanging off one side looks like it makes for a painful load. Tripod management on the trail is always a pain. I center mine and snug it into the load as much as possible; even then I sometimes resort to carrying it by hand. You may be able to center your tripod if you buy some accessory straps to attach to the existing straps - or since you're handy with these things your might sew in some 1" flat webbing with a speedy stitcher and some waxed cord. Off course, you'll have to pad the inner load (beneath the tripod) if the tripod is centered on the back.

Thanks for sharing!

[Sheldon N]

Actually, the tripod is really quite light. It's a Feisol CT-3301N carbon fiber legset with no center column and a Kirk BH-3 ballhead. The tripod and ballhead only weigh 3.85 lbs, and the rail and clamp add maybe 1 lb more. I didn't find it to be too unbalanced or intrusive while hiking, though the whole pack certainly couldn't be considered "compact". The hip straps on the backpack help a lot to balance the load and ease the burden on my shoulders.

I would consider packing the tripod centrally if I could, but all the filters are kept in the center compartment on the back and would interfere with that.

Thanks for the comments!

[Eric James]

Good deal - it looked like a Bogen Beast at first.

[Sheldon N]

Yeah, I had one of those for a while. With that lashed to the side of the pack, you might just find yourself walking in circles!

[David Karp]

Hi Sheldon,

Cool homemade insert.

A great option when hiking with a Cambo monorail is a Cambo to Linhof Technika type lensboard adapter. You can keep that mounted on the camera, and the compact Technika type boards use up far less room in the backpack. You can use the extra room for more stuff. I started hiking with a camera like yours, then switched to a Cambo 45SF, and was glad to save the space in my pack when I found the adapter board.

[Sheldon N]

Thanks David. I've thought of that, but haven't been able to find the adapter board anywhere. If anyone has one, I'd be interested in it.

[Gary Smith]

Sheldon,

Thank you for reposting this!! I was looking for the orginal post for quite a while but couldnt find it, as I have been wanting to do something similar, but couldnt remember the foam that you had used.

Thanx!!!!

Gary

[Rakesh Malik]

That's very cool -- and also very reminiscent of what the PhotoBackpacker folks are selling. You could probably make some money doing that sort of thing ;)

[Alan Davenport]

Sheldon, that's an excellent project and writeup! I've packed my monorail (same Cambo/Calumet style as yours) in my Lowe Super Trekker, and while it worked it was a miserable experience. In fact, I have to say that, while the ST has great padding and lots of room, it also has the worst suspension :( of any pack I've ever carried. Kelty builds packs that are infinitely easier on the back. I think you've hit the magic combination here.

[Sheldon N]

Thanks guys. I've since moved on to other things, but that was a fun project. You can see what I'm shooting now in this thread...

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=25288

The funny thing is that I sold this monorail and backpack combo on ebay last year, and it fetched a whopping $132. Shows how valuable my time is!

:)