my lesson of the day/gear loss!

With snow on the ground I decided to go one of my spots to capture some wildlife photos today. I made my way through the woods and to the creek i like to shoot by as I often find deer and birds there. Got a few photos and decided to make my way back to the car.
Once back out onto the main trail I saw some stuff laying on the top of the snow, wait thats stuff out of my camera bag.. what the???
I have a backpack style bag with a large zippered pocket for camera and lens', The zippers made thier way down and w/o the large buckle to hold the bag shut I started to loose my gear along the trail and did not know it. Lucky for me that I keep the lens' packed in tightly and all 3 where still there, although my wide angle was just about to fall out.
I followed my tracks back and fourth for awhile gathering what i could find and I only lost 1 battery,small screwdriver and a few business cards. lesson is keep the buckle closed and check your zippers. my zippers are well used and unzip easily.
Joe

I hope you found everything.

Glad you didn't lose too much stuff; it helps to keep the zippers to one side or the other, rather than both zipped up at the top.

Snydremark wrote in post #11635922
Glad you didn't lose too much stuff; it helps to keep the zippers to one side or the other, rather than both zipped up at the top.

Thanks for that, I never thought about the zipper position to one side or the other as I had been keeping them at the top. good info!

I did find that I lost one CF card as well, the cost of yesterdays outing just keeps getting higher. Off to camera store today to keep the economy moving.

Joe

riggerjoe wrote in post #11638861
Thanks for that, I never thought about the zipper position to one side or the other as I had been keeping them at the top. good info!

I did find that I lost one CF card as well, the cost of yesterdays outing just keeps getting higher. Off to camera store today to keep the economy moving.

Joe

That was something *I* learned the hard way, through a similar experience. Hopefully you've hit the limit of what was lost now. Good luck!

Wow that sucks thank god you didnt loose any glass! Im glad you found out before it was too late. This is why I bought a lowepro flipside 300 to carry my gear around.

Thanks for the reminder as I've had some near misses myself with my tamrac backpack. When I have heavy stuff in the bottom section, I've forgotten to zipper and buckle and have had lenses fall out. Even a monkey learns after repetition but I often forget, duh??? Note to self: zipper and buckle. Thanks.

Always zip and leave the zipper things at the lowest level of the zip. Does that make sense?

neil_r wrote in post #11639598
Always zip and leave the zipper things at the lowest level of the zip. Does that make sense?

The zipper trick was by far the best advise I got from this mess. I just got back from camer shop. 108.00 for the canon battery and have not replaced the CF card yet.

I like my tamrac backpack, but maybe it is time to look at other options on the market. thank you to all that replies, hopefully my mistake is a lesson for others and they won't have this issue.

Joe

You might want to look into one of the F-Stop gear backpacks, specifically, the Loka. I just picked up one of the larger versions (Tilopa) and one of the best things about it is that the access "hatch" is against your back. So, even IF something happened that you left the zipper open:

A: The weight of the gear is pushing against your back instead of falling away from it

and

B: The actual camera gear is still zippered into an internal, padded storage unit (ICU) that is secured in the bag itself.

PhotoImposter2 wrote in post #11635882
I hope you found everything.

Nice to know you read the post...


And ya I always keep zippers on one side (for me it's the right side when looking at the bag). My 7 Million Dollar Home doesn't have zippers, but my laptop bag and such still do. In college I used a backpack I've probably had for 9 years (still have it) so it was important to make sure it was always closed =P the zippers had the stiffness of a wet sock and would open if you blew too hard on them.

I am as careful of my equipment as the next guy, but....

I do get easily excited and sometimes move faster than I should. I had my bag lying on a nice rock with the cover unzippered, but flapped back into position to keep the dust out. I was shooting with a wide angle lens and saw a hawk. Now my chances of a good shot of a hawk seem to be close to ZERO. When I saw the hawk, I grabbed my bag quick, and of course it was not zippered.
The best part is my equipment suffered no damage.
The next best part is my heart suffered no damage due to the 1000 beats per minute.
The worst part is....my chances of a good shot at a hawk are still ZERO.

riggerjoe wrote in post #11640344
The zipper trick was by far the best advise I got from this mess. I just got back from camer shop. 108.00 for the canon battery and have not replaced the CF card yet.

Joe

Not to get sidetracked here, but I've always bought expensive canon batteries for my 1Ds until dude at the camera store set me straight. Instead of selling me the $135 Canon battery that I came in to buy, he said, "I use the Lenmar equivalent and so do many of my pro customers, just sayin'...." I bought the $54 battery instead and haven't looked back. Absolutely the same quality, I've never been happier with a battery, and much, much cheaper. Now my CANON batteries serve as my backups, "Just sayin'..."

i remember in full detail something i lost when my zipper got unzipped .... .... (sorry i just couldnt resist!)

suecassidy wrote in post #11641470
Not to get sidetracked here, but I've always bought expensive canon batteries for my 1Ds until dude at the camera store set me straight. Instead of selling me the $135 Canon battery that I came in to buy, he said, "I use the Lenmar equivalent and so do many of my pro customers, just sayin'...." I bought the $54 battery instead and haven't looked back. Absolutely the same quality, I've never been happier with a battery, and much, much cheaper. Now my CANON batteries serve as my backups, "Just sayin'..."

I may need to mail order as my camera store stocks mainly canon gear, I now wonder if batterys plus carries such items as aftermarket batterys. I will also check out these gear bags.
Dereksalem, the 7million dollar home reminds me of the time I broke into a million dollar plane that had a 2 dollar lock on the door. The pilot lost his keys while in town, his spare was in the plane. so all us airport bums took turns with a paper clip at the lock and I made it happen.