Carrying a camera while riding

"phil" wrote

For serious cameras, there appear to be two schools of boarding
photogs:
- those who use a backpack;
- those who use a chest mount bag

I use a chest mount pack - Lowe Pro TLZ or equivalent. This will take
a full-sized pro SLR with a decent lens (eg Canon 1 plus 100-400). I
stick other lenses in a shovel pack. The chest mount works
brilliantly, as you can get the camera out in double-quick time.

Went and got a LowePro TLZ (Top Load Zoom) Mini pack
at Cameras West ($20) - thanks Phil! So far I only have a 35 f/2 lens
for my new D70, and the whole package fits there with at least an inch
space left for a longer lens.

The pack can be used either with a shoulder strap, or you can
attach it to your belt. I tried putting my GoLite backpack on and
just snaking the backpack's lower belt into the TLZ's belt hole.
I can place the camera pack on the left or right hip just fine, and
the whole process of taking the camera pack out of the backpack
and mounting it on the hip takes two minutes tops. So looks like
the ticket would be to carry the camera in its pack in the backpack
most of the time, and then take it out and hip-mount it for when
I'm likely to be using it.

This is how it looks like (sorry, poor flash photo):
http://azazello.net/misc/LoweProTLZmini.jpg

Note that I'm only waist size 31, so it looks bit bigger than it actually
is on that photo.