“Finding a right camera bag is a journey in itself man. Your gears change, you will need a new bag..”, a salesman at Ted’s Camera, a leading camera shop in middle of Sydney city center told me. I am a believer in what he said, because I just completed a leg of that journey. With emergence of passion in photography, my searches for the accessories are leading me to uncharted territories, and its fun. Finally 3 weeks after purchasing a set of a Full frame mirror less body and a couple of lenses to go with it I found the kind of bag that was right for my gears. But not before I went on shop hopping around Sydney that took me from camera shops to electronic retailers, Sony pop up shops added with some hours spent online hunting, reading reviews on Amazon and so forth.

So why is it so difficult to find a mere camera bag that fits well? It is very hard to fit in your expensive camera and lenses securely in an ill fitting bag without risking damage. It could be the position of the base or the lenses, the pressure each of those might put on each other inside, and if they wobble, they could get damaged. So, finding something that holds everything together in a compact secure way without damaging each other is the holy grail, and I found out, it is not easy.

Sony was disappointing overall in this respect, except for their hard working, very friendly sales guys and girls. I ordered a small bag from their online shop, thinking I would give the manufacturer a try, only to cancel my order after they said it would be three months for delivery. The Sony guys deserve respect in giving it a full try searching their store exhaustively everytime I asked them. I needed something that would hold the camera securely, without wobbling it when carried, and gives me some space for a spare lens, I currently have two. So here it is, a Mirrorless mover 25i by Thinktank Photo:

It can hold my camera body with my bigger lens attached, holding the lens feom below using the padding. It also securely holds my smaller prime on the side. Because the bag is not too tall, the lid presses on the goods securely without crushing them. Highly recommended. Link: https://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/mirrorless-mover-25i

I had bought a Lowepro 160 from Ted’s before, on one of the stops on the grail, but did not work out. Ended up keeping the bag anyway for other gear at home.

This evening after managing to put my six month old to sleep after a couple of hours of trying I finally had some time to jump on my computer and search for some Full frame lenses that I am eager to get in addition to the prime that I have, my first and only one so far. Things were humming smoothly, my wife with her favorite show on Netflix, me finally being able to read reviews on Amazon – trying to decide whether to get a Sony native 28-70 f/3.5-5.6 or a more expensive one by Sony Vario-Tessar 24-70 f/4, sporadic rain outside, no noisy children playing. Then I coughed, loudly. I might have caught some cold because I am still taking fully cold shower still, and the weather has turned chilly the past few days. My cough startled my child so bad, he jerked his little body and woke up crying hysterically. In this kind of situation he brings out his loudest cries, tears and all. I have heard some say it exercises his lungs, well i don’t know. I will feel his voice going hoarse from crying though. My wife tried in vain to calm him down and rushed to prepare some milk to console him. He gets startled if the noise is sudden, it could be cars outside, a plane, doors slamming and cough. If it is a slow build up, he seems to okay. After a bit of milk and shoo shooing, my little one finally had enough of the tantrum and went back to sleep soundly in my chest. I put him on his mat and he was okay. While patting his back and shoo shooing, my mind drifted to the children in the war zones and refugee camps in the Middle East – Syria,Yemen,Gaza, where bombs are falling down from the skies. How shocked and terrified those little faces would be, how frantic their cries would be, how would the parents run for cover clutching those little souls. We talk about peace and humanity, but drop bombs on children and wonder why there are so many ‘terrorists’ around. Given all the media fed prejudices and phobias, I wonder if we have become so insensitive we won’t hear even if those terrified children were crying right into our ears.