Photo Gear Storage

[eddie]

the best simple solution to your problem....send the stuff to me! i will even pay shipping!

seriously now, be careful with the stuff in the basement. i seems to always have a damp basement where ever i live. as a result i store all my photo gear on the 1st floor....in every spot i can find. under the bed, closest, "extra room". that gives me a great idea. break the unfortunate news to your daughters that they will be bunking together from now on! or move one of them to the basement with the cat!

dear mr scum! all i have to say regarding your post is that it was really F#$%ing funny! i am still laughing.....now to get the butter out as another poster suggested.....


eddie

[John Kasaian]

A drawer in a filing cabinet??

Or, if you've got a good looking woody how about getting an oak lawyer's book case with the glass flaps? Your camera, lenses, books even a tripod all in one handy location?

Or is it is especially ugly and you don't want to look at it? Then get a surplus GI upright locker.

[Peter De Smidt]

Make sure not to store lenses in a humid place. My darkroom is in my basement. The only enlarging lens I ever bought new was kept on the enlarger. I had a dehumidifier and so thought it was ok. It was not, as it came down with a case of fungus. I keep my lenses in air-conditioned living space. If I don't use them regularly, they're kept in a closet in rubber maid containers with lots of desiccant.

[Nick_3536]

You can buy hardcases pretty cheap on Ebay. They stack well. They're hard and keep things safe. I've got one for the RZ stuff. One for LF lenses. One for 35mm stuff. A couple for the Bronica stuff. The smart thing would be to label the cases. But in a pile they don't take up much more room then the stuff itself would. Easy to stick in a closet. Or under a bed. You could even park the vacumn cleaner on top -)

[aduncanson]

I have just built a darkroom in a basement where everything was prone to mold or mildew. I knew that I had a significant investment in enlarging lenses (and I had just bought one on ebay that turned out to have been pretty much ruined by fungus - a beautiful Beseler HD that makes lovely, sharp, but all gray, prints.) I wanted to protect my investment and so bought an industrial (ok, commercial) strength dehumidifier. My basement now measures drier than my living room, about 40% RH. And that is saying something in central Indiana. Reportedly keeping RH below about 60% will discourage fungus.

[bigdog]

Several years ago I went to the office furniture place and bought one of those metal storage cabinets - about 6 feet tall and 30" wide - strictly to keep the cameras in. A friend told me that this purchase marked my passage from photographer to camera collector.

[John Kasaian]

A gun safe??

[Jean-Louis Llech]

Firearms - legal ones, of course - must be well protected against theft or unauthorized use.
Thus, secured weapons storage cabinets seem to be a good solution, and not too expensive, if we consider the value of photographic gear.
You only have to replace gun mounts by shelves. Most of these cabinets can be secured to floor or walls.

[mccormickstudio]

I found a great old steelcase lateral file from an auction - 3' wide, 4' tall and 16" deep. The faces of the file drawers flip up and fold in, and the file bottoms slide out. I prefer to keep most of my gear stored this way rather than in bags because there is always some critical piece in the bag I didn't bring. Best of all - the cabinet is lime green with yellow faces.

Old steelcase cabinets also come in tall sizes with shelves. You can find tons of these things for little cost at university surplus or govt. surplus auctions.

[mdd99]

Beneath the bed, either stored in your backpack, if it fits, or in narrower breathable containers. I wouldn't enclose them in sealed containers.