Folding it away between shots??

[neil poulsen]

I keep my outfit in a backpack. If I carry the camera short distances, I do so with it mounted on the tripod. Otherwise, I put it away. For one thing, I use foam rubber in my backpack and have holes cut for each lens, etc. If anything's missing, it's obvious. So, it's advantageous to stow the camera as I move from one place another.

I remember carrying the standard bellows for my camera separately for a period of time. Well, I live in the Pacific N.W., and that bellows is somewhere in New England.

[Michael Graves]

Oftentimes I will throw my little kid out of her booster seat and cradle the open camera in her seat instead.

That shows an amazing lack of long-term thinking on your part, Frank. Is that camera going to be able to take care of you in your old age? Make the wife ride in the luggage carrier instead.

[Ed Richards]

I mostly carry my Ebony 45SU on the tripod. For a long haul, or climbing on rocks or the like, it goes back in the pack. Until recently I left the lens on, but I found that I then tended to take all my shots with that one lens. I have started taking the lens off, so that I have to choose a lens for each setup. Now I need a blank technika board to keep crap out of the camera.:-(

[Vaughn]

Ed -- I found the same thing happening when I had the camera set up in one orientation...I tended to see in that orientation after awhile. if one was to work in the same general area for three days, it might be interesting in having a "normal" day, a "wide" day and a "long" day, and just take one lens out for the whole day -- then compare images from all 3 days.

My 4x5 is so light that I hardly notice it on the pod -- about 2.5 pounds with the 50mm on it. I have a stuff sack that goes over it while it is on the pod -- protects it more from branches, dust, etc.

That said, when I was in NZ for 6 months, I tended to put the 4x5 back in the pack unless I was just moving a short distance. The cost of getting to NZ was too great to risk damaging the one piece of equipment that was instramental to the journey (I had only one lens, too). I carried an extra GG in a film box and a pinhole on a matboard lensboard as emergency back-ups.

Generally, I am on very uneven ground, in thick brush, around sharp rocks and thorns, and all that sort of stuff, so the camera is always at risk. I rarely move the 8x10 around on the pod.

Vaughn

[Drew Bedo]

This is why I miss my old Burk and James. The bed rails folded uo to protect the lens. I carried it mounted on the tripod for short distances. The lens stayed mounted when folded up and removed from the tripod . . .but it was heavy. Now I use a petite Wista model Zone VI. The lens must come off to fold down the camera,on or off the tripod.