Storing your camera with lens attached or not

[Supastudio]

I've viewed numerous photos of camera bags and gear and noticed that some people keep their lens unattached to the camera body. Is there and advantage to this besides space saving?

I keep my lenses attached to the camera to save from getting any dust inside. It also saves me the step of attaching the lens and makes it faster to start shooting. Am I missing something with keeping the lens and body separated during storage or is this what all the cool kids do? :cool:

[ed rader]

I've viewed numerous photos of camera bags and gear and noticed that some people keep their lens unattached to the camera body. Is there and advantage to this besides space saving?

I keep my lenses attached to the camera to save from getting any dust inside. It also saves me the step of attaching the lens and makes it faster to start shooting. Am I missing something with keeping the lens and body separated during storage or is this what all the cool kids do? :cool:

when i'm travelling lenses are unattached. when i'm shooting lenses stay attached. dust, i don't worry about.

ed rader

[mike_d]

I keep my 24-105 attached for storage because that's the lens I use most and I don't want to waste time attaching it.

[Supastudio]

when i'm travelling lenses are unattached. when i'm shooting lenses stay attached. dust, i don't worry about.

ed rader

Why don't you keep lenses attached when traveling? Is it just for storage space and handling concerns? Right now I keep my lenses attached to my bodies in my roller bag. Is in not safe to do this?

[wildland]

when i'm travelling lenses are unattached. when i'm shooting lenses stay attached. dust, i don't worry about.

ed rader

Ed, do you travel with them unattached for added safety (a jolt or dropped bag not being able to break the mount etc.)? I've heard stories from people who reached their destination and pulled out the camera body with the mount staying in the bag still attached to the Bigma. After that I don't usually keep my long lenses on for travel, but I often keep some sort of standard-ish lens attached for snapshots...

I wouldn't worry about dust either with a body cap in place, and sometimes when I don't know what lens I'll want next, I'll keep the body separate, so I can pick a lens to mount quickly without having to deal with putting the last one away.

[LowriderS10]

I keep them attached for dust reasons.

[ed rader]

Ed, do you travel with them unattached for added safety (a jolt or dropped bag not being able to break the mount etc.)? I've heard stories from people who reached their destination and pulled out the camera body with the mount staying in the bag still attached to the Bigma. After that I don't usually keep my long lenses on for travel, but I often keep some sort of standard-ish lens attached for snapshots...

I wouldn't worry about dust either with a body cap in place, and sometimes when I don't know what lens I'll want next, I'll keep the body separate, so I can pick a lens to mount quickly without having to deal with putting the last one away.


safety is one reason but if i'm travelling there is no reason for a lens to be mounted to a camera.

ed rader

[JohnnyEgo]

When using my flying bag, it's a better use of space to pack my body and lenses with the lens unmounted. Otherwise, I tend to keep a lens mounted when at home, in my car, or out and about.

The arguments I have heard for keeping the lens mounted generally have to do with dust protection, and in my case, speed of use and/or basic laze.

The arguments I have heard against are that a strong enough jolt or impact could torque the lens or body, doing damage to the mounts, etc... My personal, non professional and unqualified opinion, based solely on my own experience and observations, is that the mounting mechanism between camera and lens is already pretty strong. Realistically, I put plenty of torque on the mount just by holding the camera by the lens. I am certain it is both possible and has happened that someone, somewhere, had damage to their camera while in transit with the lens mounted. I am equally certain that sufficient force to cause this would also have caused damage to whatever it was applied to, being the camera-lens junction, or the camera or lens separately. Consequently, I don't spend a whole lot of time worrying over whether I should keep my lens mounted or not. Then again, everyone's risk tolerances vary.

[SuzyView]

I keep my 5D2 with 24-70 always attached in the bag for when I need to just grab it. Otherwise, the 40D also has a lens on it in storage in another bag. Dust is a problem so I always keep caps on no matter what.

[tvphotog]

I keep the 24-105L attached even for travel. My back is very well padded and there's no way the mount will be torqued. I also want to be able to pull it out no matter where I am, no matter when I'm there.

[beeng]

I keep my lens attached... My bag is always pretty close to me when traveling so I have no worries about it being jostled about by poor baggage handlers.

[bohdank]

Always attached, even when travelling. Eats up less space in my bag.

[jhom]

Since I use primes very frequently, I keep my bodies unmounted when not in use. This way I choose the lens I want to use. This is how I have it in my bags as well as it is stored in my cabinets at home.

[Tim3less]

^^pretty similar, i use primes frequently and find myself switching lenses all the time anyway, so I keep them unmounted.

[rklepper]

My travel bag is my shooting bag so I always have 1 lens attached to the camera.

[hfgarris]

I carry mine attached when they are relatively loosely supported in a bag. When I use a roller bag, the camera body is pretty firmly held in place by the padded dividers, so I never leave a long lens attached which could exert a large "lever like" stress on the mount from shock or vibration. Since a long lens can act as a "mechanical lever" and multiply force, the camera must be free to react WITH the lens when stressed.

I think the mounts are plenty strong for any lens you may mount as long as neither the camera nor lens is rigidly prevented from also moving in the event the other is stressed.

-howard

[RDKirk]

I don't worry about dust. I don't worry about "torque." In forty years from film to digital, I've never worried about such things. I pack for efficiency: Optimum traveling efficiency when I'm traveling or optimum shooting efficiency when I'm shooting.

For the same reason, I have different containers for each purpose. My travel case is hard (a Portercase), my shooting bag is soft (a Domke F2). When in the travel case, lenses are unattached. When shooting, I'll have one or two cameras hanging on my body with lenses attached and two more lenses in the bag.