Sirui For The Club Person - Part Three

Far be it from this column to suggest that photographers go armed in public - that sort of behaviour gets you into trouble with the magistrates, and rightly so. Still, it can be a comfort when taking pictures at a family Christmas party or a wedding to carry a stout club with a metal end. You never can tell when the festivities will hot up and it is best to be prepared.

Sirui have released a dandy mace...I mean a very good photographic monopod...to help bring calm and steadiness back to your pictures. The P 326 is made in China where they understand this sort of thing and it is just the thing for most situations.

You'll see from the illustrations that it is made of carbon fibre - and in itself is not a heavy item. 400g. The thing will extend to 154 cm so you can get your camera up to eye level easily, and when folded down is a compact 38cm. The collar at the top is well-finished metal. Should be easy to wipe clean...

Use it whenever you need to steady the camera short of complete immobility - for that you still need a tripod. This is ideal for sports or theatre coverage. At a car show you can set the camera going on self timer and hoist it up above the crowd level for down shots.

The piece-of-carpet-tile or CD disc advice ( thank you, John ) we gave for landscape photographers applies equally with a monopod, plus if you are covering footy or a car race with a heavy rig, it prevents you screwing yourself into the ground. People who submit freelance pictures to publications will get screwed enough without having to pick their lenses out of the mud...

I see that there is also a light carabiner clip and plastic compass included with the monopod. If you are intending to use them to navigate your way through the desert or climb Bluff Knoll I would also suggest an EPIRB and a series of good excuses for when they find you. Send us a picture.

The Bag Of The Revolving Door

Oh, ya gotta come in and try this one. You'll either take your pants off in the store inadvertently or you'll think it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. This is the most ingenious backpack I've seen in a long time.

There have been camera packs of various sorts before that used the idea of something revolving - whether it was a separate belt that whizzed around the user's waist or a compartment inside the main pack that went round like the cylinder of a .44 Army Colt. The firmer gave the wearer a chance to keep their main goods up on their back while accessing the camera gear round the front - the latter just delivered lenses out a side flap. Whether they were delivered into your hand or onto the ground depended upon whether you were fast and dextrous...

Well, the Rotation 180 in Professional Green* by Mind Shift is one of the first-named designs. Basically it is a waist pack tethered indies a back pack - moving independently from being housed under the back pack or out at your front.

The release mechanism is on the right side - a plastic tab you push down. The flap it releases is spring-loaded to fly upwards and free the waist pack. The VERY clever part of the design is the incorporation of a strong woven nylon loop handle to grab just as the pack comes free - you use this to swivel it around to the front. When it is time to re-house it, there is a corresponding loop on the other side to tug it back into the special compartment. It's like pulling a goods wagon into a siding. The securing latch is magnetic so you can recover it all without looking at it.

Complex but simple. And if you have lots of gear to carry the bag at the front is an easy way of securing the lenses as you change them.

There is a zipped opening to the main compartment from the wearer's side - one of those South American you'll-only-get-my-sandwiches-over-my-dead-body security designs...but it is defeated by a simple zipped opening from the upper back. There is a dynamic there that puzzles me. At least there are ample other pockets and straps to hang things from - no-one should feel unencumbered.

As with all these adventure's designs, there is a waterproof rain cover you can deploy as it rains.

A well-made pack with a specific appeal.

Other makers have bags in Professional Pink but it is a different, older profession...

Shop online or see in-store at 230 Stirling St, Perth.

Shift Your Mind With Mind Shift

With a product named Mind Shift you have to be very careful. One typo and the lawyers start ringing like church bells.

That accepted, the bag that I looked at - the 20 Ltr Firstlight - seems to be an ideal size for the adventurous. In particular for the people who have advanced past the single camera in a bum bag  stage...but who do not want to go to the extent of taking two-oxen and a cart everywhere.

It is a stiffened-side sort of case with a rear entry flap and a number of external slide pockets for flat things like laptop computers or tablets. The main gear compartment would be suited to any DSLR without a battery grip attached and there is ample provision for the classic 3-zoom professional outfit plus a flash plus the charging gear.

People who wish to populate it with mirror-less outfits of any make will have no restrictions - there are lens pockets and body spaces galore. You could take a whole studio there.

There is even an illustration packed with it that puts a 200-400mm tele-zoom lens down the centre channel.

Ample water bottle/ tripod/ pack of Chewies storage on the outside.

Good back and shoulder padding. And an emergency whistle in case you get lost. Blow it enough times and your companions will make sure you get lost.

 A good bag at a good price for the pro walker, and quietly styled so as not to make you look awkward as you go. Always good to look comfortable.

See online or shop in-store, 230 Stirling St, Perth.

Out On The ( Bolton ) Street With Ona

The ONA company seems determined to rewrite a number of the designs for camera and equipment bags with a stylish pen - the Bolton Street back pack is one example.

The pack you see here is in tan waxed canvas though there are examples available in smoke grey or black. The basic design does not vary - side access for camera gear and internal space for a 13" laptop. The whole is sewn with fierce water shedding seams and flaps and a a padded and vented back piece.

As with other ONA products there is good quality leather used in areas prone to wear. Good quality strapping and padding material too - this is not a bag that will be wearing out in a year. It is designed to go into poor environments while keeping your camera gear safe.

Now you pay for it, of course, in weight and dollars, but the fact that it is such a customisable design means that even if you change your mind about major equipment and run off to another system, you can adapt the compartments to fit.

You also get some personal space as well as the DSLR room. Full range available at www.cameraelectronic.com.au

A Trip Into The Blue WIth F-stop

Now that I am able to use more backdrops in the studio to illustrate shop goods I can choose more colours. Sometimes I choose wisely. Sometimes. In the case of the f-stop Lotus bag I think I should have picked another one...

Well, it's done, and if you feel a bit blue after reading this column, you can counter it by staring at a lemon. If you stare at it in a glass of gin and tonic you may be able to brighten up to a considerable degree...

The f-stop company are a pretty innovative lot - even when they are following everyone else in the provision of backpacks. In the case of this pack they have combined a number of features that you sometimes only get singly from other makers.

Backpacks are hard to illustrate because they are gangling things - they flop all over- particularly if the maker has opted for tough but light external materials. They do this to reduce the weight that might be carried as much as possible - you are going to be adding camera gear, clothing, electronic devices, and guidebooks to this thing anyway and there is a limit to what your shoulders and back can take. To  make this pack stand up for itself - with a little help from the studio mannequin - I stuffed two sofa cushion into it. It might not be scientific but it worked!

Okay. You enter it from the top like a hike pack and also from the internal panel - like some other maker's security packs. Good idea.

You carry it with a vented soft back pad - also like other people's ideas.

You get an adjustable - and elasticized - breast band that can be run up and down the front to fit at just the right point for your chest shape. This is one point on any pack that cannot be made too carefully- all your breathing depends upon it. ( British Army Trotter packs were the pits on a long march! Ask about the wooden plank frame inside them, but don't ask me unless you want language...). There are numerous sewn loops in which you can hook things at the start of your hike that you think you will need. You can unhook them later and throw them over a hedge.

There is also a small compartment sewn into the top of the pack for papers and other things you need. Like the rest of the gear it is accessed with two really sturdy zippers. I think that is a detachable key holder, but who knows.

Altogether an innovative and useful pack - I would not hesitate to wear it if I was going to hike with a camera.