Best way to store Camera & mounted lens in bag?

I recently got a heavy lens and realized I need to be more careful about my
mounts. I do a lot of shooting outside, therefore like to go out with my
main lens I am going to use attached. When I was using prime lenses or
short telephoto, I was just setting it down in the bag as if you were
setting it on a table with slight padding under the lens.

With my new heavy (around pound+) lens, I was told to put the in the bag
with lens pointed down. In my computer bag, I have side dividers, so the
lenses are protected, but nothing to really hold the weight of the camera.
I was told by a person that this is fine as there no bad pressure on the
mount.

Any advice and thoughts would be very much appreciated!

 

It sounds like reasonable advice to me. First consider an
unusual, perhaps unreasonable case, where you want to store the
camera while attached to a 20 lb. lens. You'd probably want to have
the relatively small body perched atop the gigantic lens rather than
the other way around. The lens would make a nice secure base for
the lens, and I don't see that the weight of the camera on the lens
would in any way cause a problem. Probably the worst position for a
mounted lens would be when it is being used to shoot pictures, since
it would usually be held horizontally, and the torsional forces are
probably much tougher on the mount. But who has ever had that cause
any kind of problem? Nobody, I'd guess.

The only position in a bag that *might* make a difference that I
can think of would be with some of the small P&S cameras that have
moderately long, fragile lenses. Some of these have been known to
be easily damaged by relatively light taps to the lens. Maybe it's
due to the use of cheap plastic or nylon gears or other parts in the
lens, aided and abetted by loose tolerances. For them, it might be
better to put the camera in the bag LCD down, with the lens pointed
straight up, touching nothing. With a DSLR and heavy lens such as
you have, I'd try to do the opposite, storing the combo with lens
pointed down, preferably with the lens resting on the padded bottom
instead of hanging from a securely mounted camera. But this is only
a preference based on an assumed convenience, and any orientation of
the camera in the bag is probably just fine, as long as the camera
and lens are secure and protected (with padding) from being jostled
by any other dense or heavy objects also stored in the bag.

 

Perhaps you should look at your choice of bag. A computer bag is hardly the
suitable choice for a camera. I bought an excellent flight bag in Tesco for
around £8, and it is absolutely superb. I also wrap my Nikons in large
chamois leathers before storing them in the bag.

Dennis.

 

Don't worry so much. A camera is a tool, not a member of the family.
As a tool if you worry too much about the tool you are more likely to miss
the object of the exercise, the image.