Bags of Room

McNamee & Gallagher take a walk in the country with more gear than is sensible.

It was all Gallagher’s fault! Persuaded, as he was, to field-test some bags and tripods, we ended up in Dalbeattie Forrest, lugging shed-loads of gear around.

Now the reader should understand from the outset that there is a big difference between a Gallagher and a McNamee. One is tall, good looking and carries his weight well, the other is called McNamee. A big bag on Gallagher, therefore, is something approaching a troop carrier when lashed to the back of midget McNamee – think of a snail carrying its home on its back and you will not be far from the mark. Other suggestions have included a tortoise and a hemit crab, none very flattering.

So it came to pass that Gallagher carried a LowePro Trekker AW2 replete with Ebony 45SU Field Camera and a Gitzo GT 3540; McNamee carried the Kata 502, replete with a Manfroto 055 MF3 and various categories of ballast. The 502 is the largest bag that Kata make (for back carrying that is), so large , in fact, that we ran out of gear to fill it up and ballasted it with various tins of dog food, drinking water, food, clothing along with D-SLR gear and a bunch of spare double dark slides. The idea was to test the bag at its limit (and to test the tester at his limit at the same time!). The complete list of gear you can put into a 502 is as follows

2 bodies with motor drives
9 lenses
1 flash gun
1 tripod
1 laptop
accessories.

On average this would weigh between 15 and 20kg, depending upon the actual mix and the bag itself adds another 4.7kg. This is OK on the flat but a serious impediment to climbing hills. It is quite a lot more than a child in a backpack (usually up to 20lb, not kilo). The Kata therefore will get a photographer to a remote location with more gear than they might reasonably be expected to use in a day, with a half-decent chance of being able to stand up, and take pictures, on arrival. The adjustable waist strap is vital to both comfort and stability of the set-up as the tripod is side mounted and skews the load quite badly. There is a conundrum to solve here – a tripod on the side twists the bearer sideways, a tripod on the back is placed well out from the spine and twists the carrier backwards. If you look at images of native porters you find that bundles of wood are carried very close to the neck, ie high on the shoulders and close to the spine – they know a thing or two these guys!

In order to put some perspective on the load we did some research on the web. Royal Marines start training on 3-mile runs with 25lb packs and increase their load to 60lb. For ordinary mortals moving about in the back-country the categories for back-packing are as follows

Ultra-light backpacking 4.5kg
Light backpacking 9kg
Traditional backpacking 15 to 30kg

It is truly amazing how the lightweight backpackers get their gear weight trimmed down, titanium sporks (spoon-fork) for example, along with toothbrushes minus their handles and carefully weighed out quantities of toothpaste. The message is clear though, a laden Kata 502 is at the high end of the comfort zone.

TOP: Paul Gallager with the Lowepro Trekker AWII fully loaded. ABOVE: The 60-litre Kata 502 will comfortably accommodate a puppy and 12 rolls of Andrex! Alternatively it will hold vast quantities of equipment.

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Photo Quote: A photograph is usually looked at - seldom looked into. - Ansel Adams