Photography for Cyclists: Carrying
Best Ways to Carry a Camera when Bicycling
Equipment and Technique Advice for bicyclists who take pictures: pros and cons of different ways to carry a camera when cycling.
After the bike itself, your camera may well be your most expensive piece of your cycle kit, and one of the more delicate. All cameras are susceptible to vibration, so some decent padding is essential, on or off-road. Their precision mechanical and electronic innards need to be protected from water and dust too. At the same time, you want your camera to be accessible. Clambering off the bike every time you want to take a picture is hassle enough, without having to extricate the camera from the depths of a backpack or pannier.
For both reasons, the camera is best carried on your person. Your body acts as a suspension system, so cameras suffer much less rattling than in bar-bag or panniers. It’s also the most accessible place. But carrying the camera on a neck-strap is asking for trouble, though you might risk it on a gentle cycle-path.
Camera Pouch Cases are Practical
There’s an obvious attraction, then, to small, pocketable cameras, but as discussed elsewhere, smaller digital cameras are often handicapped by a slow response to the shutter. SLR (single-lens reflex) cameras - film or digital - are faster and more flexible, but too bulky for 99% of pockets; they really need a separate case with its own strap or belt. The best of these are a soft pouch style, from makers like LowePro, Tamrac and Camera Care Systems, which cradle the camera in substantial padding.
These are most often slung on a waist-belt, but this can be uncomfortable when bicycling. If you aren’t carrying a backpack then the camera could ride in the small of your back; just make sure the waistbelt’s snug so it doesn’t slide round at the wrong moment. This becomes awkward when carrying a backpack, but carrying the camera on one hip makes it extremely vulnerable if you do come off.
My preferred solution is to carry the camera on my chest. I’ve tried a dedicated chest harness but either I’m a strange shape or it wasn’t set up right, because I couldn’t keep it snug to my chest. I’ve had much better results clipping the camera pouch to the shoulder straps of the backpack (see photo 2). This is stable and safe and as accessible as anywhere. Smaller cameras could attach to a single shoulder strap (where cellphones often go).
Riding in the Rain?
As well as protecting against knocks and vibration, good pouches are reasonably weatherproof too. If you’re riding through the monsoon, they’ll need back-up, be it a Zip-Loc bag or a fully waterproof case. If you actually want to take pictures in the monsoon then you’ll need a ‘raincoat’ for the camera itself, like an Aquapac case.
While the weight of a compact or typical digital will hardly register, you might find carrying an SLR anywhere on your person is a drag on long rides. If so, the next most accessible place is clearly in a bar-bag. However an SLR plus pouch or other padding - and cameras in bar-bags need good padding - will pretty well monopolise your average bar-bag. Bar-bags are not a good idea when mountain-biking, so the camera would probably end up in the backpack after all.
But remember; in the last analysis, a good camera is one that gets used. If it’s too heavy, or too much trouble to carry, it isn’t a good camera. It follows, too, that working out the best carrying strategy can make a good camera better.
 |
 |
 |
 |
