Re: [Leica] bag & Heavy Leica!?Leica Users digest V17 #159

["Doug Richardson" <doug@meditor.demon.co.uk>]

"Darrell Wood" <darrell@wood-site.co.uk> wrote:

>I purchased M equipment to reduce weight but am finding it heavy...
6kg +
>Does anybody have any advice?

Having lugged an SL2 outfit around Paris during a holiday around 18
months ago, I sympathise with your problem.

Your basic outfit of two M6 bodies and four lenses seems a reasonable
one for travel, so my suggestion would be that you get the kitchen
scales, and measure the weight of your bag plus the two bodies and
four lenses

A quick calculation suggests that the combined weight of the two
bodies and four lenses is  somewhere around 2.5kg, so that lot plus
caps and a camera bag should tip the scales at around 3.5kg

Now weigh one by one all the other items you’d normally carry and make
a list of their individual weights. Then sit down with that list, and
look at each entry, thinking about the added capability that each item
gives you and the price you pay in terms of added weight. Start
deleting items and keep going until you get to the weight target you
want.

The only way to reduce weight is to compromise between what you’d like
to have with you and what you must have. Identify the basic
capabilities you must have, then cast a jaundiced eye at any item of
kit which is not required to achieve that basic capability. After
every day’s shooting, note any lens or gadget you did not use, and
gradually identify and eliminate items of hardware which for most of
the time are simply dead weight. For example, though I like 135mm as a
focal length, in practice I find few subjects for which it is
essential, so these days it often gets left behind for a saving of
440-655g.

Think in terms of capabilities rather than specific items -- for
example a table tripod and flash unit both let you cope with very poor
lighting conditions, but do you need both methods of obtaining
low-light capability? For me, the Leica table tripod and ball & socket
head are great light stretchers but weigh more than 500g, but an
improvised camera position such as a church pew and some small coins
to pop under the camera to level it will often suffice -- I may have
to compromise on the location from which I take the picture but I’ve
cut another half a kilogramme from my bag. But if I was planning to
spend a lot of time in churches or museums I’d take it along.

To take another example, does your bag need to be waterproof and is it
significantly heavier as a result? Under many circumstances (but
perhaps not for the tropics) a lighter method of having waterproof
*capability* be to use a lighter showerproof bag which could popped
into a supermarket plastic carrier bag if you get caught in torrential
rain.

I don’t know what kind of travelling you do, but if you’re going to be
based in a hotel each place you visit, devise two weight targets - one
for what you are prepared to carry en-route to your destination, and a
lower one for what you will carry daily. Most of my travel
destinations are cities, so I take as much kit as will fit into my
hand baggage on the aircraft, then try to select my daily load to suit
the sort of subjects I expect to be shooting and how far I expect to
be walking. However, your reference to the bag having to withstand
tropical conditions suggests you may be in more basic travel
conditions, so you may have to devise a single weight target.

Regards,

Doug Richardson