Carrying a camera while riding

Does anyone have any insight into the way they carry a camera while riding?
I'm an avid amateur photographer and have a medium sized SLR that I
typically carry. Last year I wore a back pack with the body and lens
separated and when I needed to take a picture, I zoomed down the hill, got
on my knees and assembled my camera to take some pictures of my friends in
action. It worked pretty well and I managed to stay on my feet the whole
day and the days I didn't, I left my camera at home. The only padding when
carrying my camera was a pull over fleece that I surrounded the body and
lens.

This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag that is
roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance so I'm thinking
I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and have it live there as
the danger of getting damaged would be less than if I carried it on my back.
Of course, this would pose a problem when getting on and possibly off a
lift.

My second though is for it to ride between a binding and the tip or tail.
My biggest issue with this is that one side won't be attached properly. One
side can be attached via exposed binding inserts while the other side would
have to clamp to the tip or the tail to really secure it.

Anyone have any insights or seen any contraptions that might do what I'm
looking to do?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Bruce

"Bruce Chang" wrote:

Anyone have any insights or seen any contraptions that might do what I'm
looking to do?

This sounds like a really neat project. If you do end up coming up with
something, I'd love to see it!

Iain

Bruce Chang wrote:

This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag that is
roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance so I'm thinking
I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and have it live there as
the danger of getting damaged would be less than if I carried it on my back.
Of course, this would pose a problem when getting on and possibly off a
lift.

Interesting idea but...
I can imagine the weight of the camera is significant in relation to
your board. Therefore you'll effectively be increasing your board's
weight significantly which will reduce your ability to control it - it
will make it harder to weight/unweight the board and to keep an edge
engaged. It's like increasing the unsprung mass of a car - it degrades
the ability of the wheels to follow the bumps in the road. I think its
better (and safer for the camera) to keep it in a padded bag in your
pack or strapped to your upper body.
Iain

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 06:37:35 GMT, "Bruce Chang"
wrote:

Does anyone have any insight into the way they carry a camera while riding?
I'm an avid amateur photographer and have a medium sized SLR that I
typically carry. Last year I wore a back pack with the body and lens
separated and when I needed to take a picture, I zoomed down the hill, got
on my knees and assembled my camera to take some pictures of my friends in
action. It worked pretty well and I managed to stay on my feet the whole
day and the days I didn't, I left my camera at home. The only padding when
carrying my camera was a pull over fleece that I surrounded the body and
lens.

This is what I've done and it works fine for me. I usually have a
smallish backpack on which is stuffed with hotel towels and which has
my camera in the middle of it. Getting my gloves off and on again is
the main PITA.



andyt

On Fri, 12 Nov 2004 06:37:35 GMT, "Bruce Chang"
allegedly wrote:

This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag
that is roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance
so I'm thinking I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and
have it live there as the danger of getting damaged would be less than
if I carried it on my back.

I'd worry about the vibration... you'd need a lot of damping in place to
stop the camera being shaken to death. On your back it avoids this
because you have your whole body acting as a shock absorber.

- Dave.

--
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"id" no@idea wrote in message
...
Bruce Chang wrote:

This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag that
is roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance so I'm
thinking I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and have it
live there as the danger of getting damaged would be less than if I
carried it on my back. Of course, this would pose a problem when getting
on and possibly off a lift.

Interesting idea but...
I can imagine the weight of the camera is significant in relation to your
board. Therefore you'll effectively be increasing your board's weight
significantly which will reduce your ability to control it - it will make
it harder to weight/unweight the board and to keep an edge engaged. It's
like increasing the unsprung mass of a car - it degrades the ability of
the wheels to follow the bumps in the road. I think its better (and safer
for the camera) to keep it in a padded bag in your pack or strapped to
your upper body.
Iain

I see your illustration but I think it's more complex than just
sprung/unsprung weight. How a car handles is a function of not just weight
but also the spring rate and absorber's ability to fight motion. I would
imagine it would be harder to control but not to the point one would be
incapable of controlling it, particularly if the weight was centered on the
board, rather than on the tip or tail.

I tried looking on the web for weights of boards but that apparently isn't a
very useful spec when looking for a board. Tierney Rides board says 8lbs
for a 38" and 9lbs for 41". That has to be a rounded figure or that would
mean at 14" the board weighs nothing neglecting the weight of the wheels.
If I can assume that the difference between the two boards is 1/2 lb and the
wheels weigh 1 lb, then the average weight of the tierney board is 6.33 lbs
for the 38" = 83.6 cm. My board is 158cm so that would make my board weigh
about 12 lbs (of course the tierney board is made of maple while my board is
probably some kind of composite material). I'd just grab my board and weigh
myself and then weigh myself and my board but I'm at work and don't have my
board handy.

My camera without the lens weighs about 1.5 lbs.

Any additional comments? Did I miss anything? Any additional comments on
the subject?

Bruce Chang wrote:

My camera without the lens weighs about 1.5 lbs.

Any additional comments? Did I miss anything? Any additional comments on
the subject?

The vibration and shock is gonna beat the **** out of your camera. Try
this as an experiment next time you buy a pop - strap it to your shoe
and walk around for a few minutes. Now open - kaboom. No shock
absorption. But you could have put in your backpack and been just fine.

Why don't you get a really small backpack, like the MEC Blitzcrag shown
in the attached link? Fill it with foam custom-cut to fit your camera
and accessories, and you have something like a Pelican case, only soft.

Neil

Andy Turner wrote:

This is what I've done and it works fine for me. I usually have a
smallish backpack on which is stuffed with hotel towels


LOL nice

bri

--

* enjoying the karma *
remove LKJSDFJSD from address to email

Bruce Chang wrote:
This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag
that is
roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance so I'm
thinking
I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and have it live
there as
the danger of getting damaged would be less than if I carried it on
my back.
Of course, this would pose a problem when getting on and possibly off
a
lift.

My second though is for it to ride between a binding and the tip or
tail.
My biggest issue with this is that one side won't be attached
properly. One
side can be attached via exposed binding inserts while the other side
would
have to clamp to the tip or the tail to really secure it.

Anyone have any insights or seen any contraptions that might do what
I'm
looking to do?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Bruce

Connecting anything on that large and that fragile to the board sounds
like a bad idea for all the reasons mentioned and more... I suggest a
turtle-shell style hardshell backpack with foam cutout interior. I did
a quick search and found these for under $100 (www.loadup.com has the
same brand for like $50 on super discount, but the website is finicky).

http://www.ebags.com/boblbee/peoples...?modelid=20394

http://www.flaxart.com/f/shopping/pr...4831&code=W2SD

If you still want to do it yourself, then I suggest making your own
hardshell pack by sticking a plastic contain inside a regular backpack.
The key thing is to pack the lens and body with proper padding... I
think the more protective would be to buy a block (or several layers
that stack up) of foam and cutout custom sized holes for your body and
lens. Encased in hard plastic, and suspended in foam in all directions
(the lid will close down over the "hole"). I think you will be in more
danger of being harmed by the camera in its container than the reverse
- as such I still would suggest buying a well-designed hardshell pack
instead of trying to build my own - this is not something I think it is
worth trying to save a few bucks on - plus it doubles as a spine
protector.

"lonerider" wrote in message oups.com...
Bruce Chang wrote:
This year I'm trying to think of a better way. I have a camera bag
that is
roughly the width of my board and about as wide as my stance so I'm
thinking
I *could* some how secure it between my bindings and have it live
there as
the danger of getting damaged would be less than if I carried it on
my back.
Of course, this would pose a problem when getting on and possibly off
a
lift.

My second though is for it to ride between a binding and the tip or
tail.
My biggest issue with this is that one side won't be attached
properly. One
side can be attached via exposed binding inserts while the other side
would
have to clamp to the tip or the tail to really secure it.

Anyone have any insights or seen any contraptions that might do what
I'm
looking to do?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Bruce

Connecting anything on that large and that fragile to the board sounds
like a bad idea for all the reasons mentioned and more... I suggest a
turtle-shell style hardshell backpack with foam cutout interior. I did
a quick search and found these for under $100 (www.loadup.com has the
same brand for like $50 on super discount, but the website is finicky).

http://www.ebags.com/boblbee/peoples...?modelid=20394

http://www.flaxart.com/f/shopping/pr...4831&code=W2SD

If you still want to do it yourself, then I suggest making your own
hardshell pack by sticking a plastic contain inside a regular backpack.
The key thing is to pack the lens and body with proper padding... I
think the more protective would be to buy a block (or several layers
that stack up) of foam and cutout custom sized holes for your body and
lens. Encased in hard plastic, and suspended in foam in all directions
(the lid will close down over the "hole"). I think you will be in more
danger of being harmed by the camera in its container than the reverse
- as such I still would suggest buying a well-designed hardshell pack
instead of trying to build my own - this is not something I think it is
worth trying to save a few bucks on - plus it doubles as a spine
protector.


And another question is whether some lift operators would not allow
you on the lift with a bag strapped somewhere on the board.