Cameras (or anything valuable) on bikes

[Dom]

I have finally got myself a decent camera, question is - how to transport it? How does everyone on here carry their camera or anything else expensive/fragile around with them?

I'm thinking a special camera rucksack would be best in a way since there's not half as much vibration, but I'm really not keen on the idea of falling off my bike and having a camera imprinted into my back. That leaves a tankbag really, but I'm worried about vibes.. has anyone had problems carrying electrical stuff around in a tankbag?

Cheers.

[froggy128]

i took a £1300 brand new laptop in my top box once!
i would use a tank pad and put some buble wrap in it

[Dom]

Bubble wrap, genious.

[Walloper]

[Kickstart]

Hi

For the camera gear I use a ruck sack. Jessops one for carrying camera gear.

All the best

Keith
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[Suzuki]

I ride to work and back every day with a £2000 laptop, £250 digital camera, mobile phones, etc, in my tank bag.

Never had any problems.
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[Liono]

If you want a waterproof case then try and find the right size Pelicase:
https://www.waterproof-cases.co.uk/
They are quite impact resistant as they are hard plastic lined with egg-box style foam, which should dampen any vibrations. When I used to do a lot of kayaking loads of people used them, and I've seen one bob its merry way down a fairly nasty stretch of river unharmed.

[Bendy]

I got myself a camera case from Maplin and attached it to my back seat with a strap. Mainly because it's a pain in the neck to have to take your rucksack off every time you want to take a photo (and turning up at Boxhill with a rucksack will see you carrying ten peoples drinks and sweets within 5 minutes!). So this is my minimalist solution when all I need is the camera and my wallet. And no, it wont fit under my seat, which would be the obvious solution.

The 'not wanting to land on it in a rucksack' point is a valid one, but I carry shit I wouldn't want to land on all the time because I'm too lazy to do it any other way. Or have faith that I won't crash. Pick one.

[The Tot]

Yep, i had my 500 quid Ibanez guitar in a gig bag on the back of my bike several times. I made up a rig that allows me to ride without movement restrictions and improve visibility. It basically pulls the gigbag closer towards your back so that it doesn't flap about. Done the journeys to the studio several times and even filtering through central london with it was fine.

Last thing i want to see is a guitar through a car windscreen, cos they don't make my guitar anymore, i'd tend to my guitar first rather than whoever i hit.
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[Dom]

Cheers for all the replies.

Those Pelicases are great, if a little over the top. Shame they're so expensive because they look excellent.

I wouldn't dare try something like a case attached to the rear seat tbh. It's taken me a while to get the cash together for the camera plus I will likely have more than one lens to cart around with me when the bank balance recovers.

I'm considering buying some foam the size of my tankbag and cutting out a camera shaped whole in it.

(Titz, a mate of mine at college used to ride in with his guitar on his back in a standard guitar case, always thought it sounded bloody dodgy )

[Kickstart]

[stinkwheel]

I used to ride around on my 125 with a two piece, 12' carbon fibre hexagraph salmon fly rod (about £250 worth 10 years ago) strapped diagonally across my back using a bootlace. A fishing bag with landing net attached across the other shoulder. And yes, I was wearing wellies, a wax jacket and an open face lid too.

I would be more concerned about putting sensitive electronics on top of the pile of big f-off magnets in a tank bag.

Stick it up the front of your leathers. Who ever lands on their belly when they fall off their bike? If you come off badly enough to knacker the camera, the camera is the least of your worries.
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[Ichy]

I used to wear my camera under my leathers, makes it easy to get to. Only thing I was ever really bothered about losing off the bike was my missus, especially when she was 9 months pregnant.

[KLR600]

[quacker_boy]

[Dom]

[jay12329]

My camera regulay goes in a tank bag. THe camera and all my gear goes in a padded camera bag which fits nicely into tmy tank bag. Not had any problems so far.
HTH
J

[Kickstart]

[Visitor Q]

You are all quite frankly mad.

£400 camera lenses.... My camera cost £35

It takes videos too.

Job done.

As for up the jacket, thats a good idea to an extent, but i lost several dvds doing that once. 100 plus gets air in. Unzipped and gone.
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[Kickstart]

[dodsi]

On ride-outs I just use my phone camera. its 1.3MP so its good enough really.

[Dom]

[Kickstart]

Hi

Not going to be many more track days this year, and if you can make it you are welcome to wander to one some time where I am and try out a couple of lenses.

That Sigma is nice. Here they are going to upgrade Hubble with it . Being honest I suspect it would be a nightmare to control when you are trying to pan. The longest lense I have is not easy as if you get you panning wrong it just has too much momentum to cleanly correct the rate you are panning at.

One thing to do is to take a look at pictures of bikes online. Save them onto your PC and check the properties, then summary tab and (unless it has been wiped out) you should see the focal length, shutter speed and f stop used to take the picture. Check which ones give a good effect to know where to start yourself. Higher shutter speeds are far easier to use but tend to make the bike look frozen, slower shutter speeds give more background blur and hide the wheel spokes, but also are far more difficult and result in far less images worth looking at. For me I find that 1/160 gives an acceptable rate of OK images, 1/125 gives better results but is getting far harder while 1/200 makes life fairly easy. A lot of the professionals taking pictures at tracks have the shutter speed up around 1/500 which means they are almost certain of a non blurred shot, but then they need to make sure they have plenty of acceptable pics of everyone.

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[jay12329]

I have a 300d, with a cannon 75-300mm lens. I've had some good results and some not so good ones. I genrally sit with the shutter speed at around 1/125. THe lens is good but a little slow. I'm looking at getting one of the Sigma f2.8 200mm lenses like kickstart has. I've had a play with his and it is a lot quicker than my lens in auto focus and takeing pictures.
HTH
J

[Jack_Cheese]

https://www.motrax.co.uk/Index_pages/accessories/bikecam.htm

Make a video en-route, just make sure your cam is waterproof.

For a bag, try all the camera shops, dixons will be stocking a shitload now, too. I have a techair laptop bag, and i think they do camera bags, too. when i fell flat on my back off my scooter, i landed on my laptop. The bag protected it beautifully.

Hope you find what you're after

Jack
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