Time was when a camera equipment bag was enormous and included extra lenses, extra rolls of film, a tripod, a flash gun with lots of spare batteries and of course the camera itself which was, most likely, an SLR of significant proportions and weight. I think they were called gadget bags.
Time was when a camera price included a sturdy case!
How things have changed! My new digital camera, a Pentax Optio 430RS has a built in, powered, telephoto lens, built in flash, a very thin but long life rechargeable battery (50x35x6mm), and the one piece digital film (42x36x3mm) can hold several hundred photographs depending on the mega or giga bytes. All within very small dimensions – 90x60x35mm - about the size of a credit card and a wee bit thicker! Now admittedly in the case of certain of the accessories the SLR add-ons are of significantly better specification
but still, how the manufacturers of gadget bags must have suffered!
But that’s progress. Or is it? My £300 digital camera had a major omission – it didn’t come with a case of its own, not even a relatively cheap nylon version to protect it from scuffs. This omission is not peculiar to Pentax and is mentioned in many camera reviews. It does have a wrist strap supplied.WOW. But the good news for you all - this gave me the opportunity to hunt for one to my own specification and to write about it for Ciao!
This specification was fairly simple – having bought a small camera (remember, credit card size in width and height and 35mm deep) its case had to be of similar compact dimensions, with space for a spare battery and spare piece of digital film. The case needed to be kept under control and not wander too easily so a belt connection and optional shoulder strap were all added to the spec. For price comparison purposes I could buy a Pentax leather case for £28 but as they hadn’t included one with the camera I wasn’t inclined to let them extract more money from me.
My first point of call with many small items I need, is an ebay auction. Auction is often the wrong word – many items are simply made available immediately at a fixed price. I was hoping for some ideas – maybe a phone case would suffice, maybe an MP3 player case. My wildest dreams were exceeded (maybe that’s going a bit far) and I came up with a branded camera case for under £10, but the dimensions didn’t fit too well. Off now to the manufacturers web site – isn’t the internet wonderful? - and found out that they had a wide range of camera bags with a series especially for digital cameras! A bit of searching for the right dimensions, a quick email to the company from e-bay, a quick response pointing me to one I’d missed on an auction (I wouldn’t admit this to everyone but the camera dimensions of 90 x60mm can also be 60mmx90mm!!), a ‘buy it now’ transaction and in two days I had my camera case – all in price including p&p, £10.
What did I get for my money?
Manufacturer: Lowepro www.lowepro.com Case, called a pouch, which describes it very nicely has a ref D-Res 8S (Digital Resolution Series) Internal dimensions 100x65x40mm External material: water resistant nylon crossweave, mostly black, the zipped top in silver grey with the obligatory manufacturers logo. Internal material is a soft, lightly padded brushed nylon in grey. One full length internal pocket. Attachments: Two loops on top for the shoulder strap provided A wide belt loop, sewn in at the top and one velcro attachment at the bottom, forming the loop and another velcro connector underneath the pouch for safety. Like a safety clasp on a necklace. The pouch is sewn together in sections and keeps its own shape very well.
The camera is a snug fit vertically in the pouch, with a spare battery in the pocket and a spare digital film sitting in the base of the pouch. The sturdy zip closes easily, but also produces a little bit of compression to the pouch, so that nothing can move around. In practice I found the belt loop very easy to use. It can be attached without unhooking the belt and with the double Velcro its impossible to pull the pouch off the belt. Access to the camera is easy, unzip the top and the camera slides out with a little help, but the other bits stay in position. I usually keep the wrist strap on the camera for a that bit of security when its out of the bag. I haven’t actually tried the shoulder strap – the belt loop is so convenient.
I’m sure you won’t be surprised to learn that I can thoroughly recommend the Lowepro camera pouch and based on this experience, Lowepro products in general. Its very well made, light weight and a lot of thought has gone into the design. The camera itself is well protected and the belt attachment is very secure. And for £10 it’s a bargain. Pentax could do worse than include a Lowepro as a standard accessory – I’m sure Lowepro would happily re-brand them to Pentax for the right size of order. But then manufacturers rarely do anything that seems logical to us punters!
BTW good photo Ciao!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Yes it's annoying isn't - we just bought a Canon Ixus 400 for around £350 and they couldn't even include one of those cloth drawstring bags, the cheapskates!
kimking 28.10.2003 18:38
That was a bargan. good review. kim :)
SueMagee 28.10.2003 17:56
I remember when you used to get a good leather case with even the most basic of cameras!
Oct 28th, 2003
(Dec 9th, 2003)
very helpful by (100%):
