Hi,

I thought I’d post a few of my favourite tips.

1. I usually find space for one or two of those cheap slide-lock clear freezer bags, These have two uses the first of which is to put wet items such as rain covers in when they go back in my bag. It doesn’t make sense to put wet items back in an otherwise dry bag. With the rain covers inside one can roll the bag so as to squeeze out air inside the bag and compress the space it takes before closing it up. The second use is, when out in the very cold and coming into a warm environment where water condenses on one’s gear. Put the camera and lens in the bag and close it up whilst still in the cold and then the water will condense on the outside of the freezer bag when you come back into the warm and not on one’s camera. Additionally I pop one of those small silica gel sachets inside the bag before closing it up. Size wise this is suited to smaller cameras and lenses which works for me as I don’t use large cameras and/or very long lenses.
2. I always number my batteries so as to tell them apart using my Dymo label gun and I also put an arrow symbol on them which makes getting the battery the right way round very obvious when changing batteries in a hurry.
3. Use cheap centre pinch lens caps rather that the costly to replace camera manufacturer’s ones. Another nice thing is that, with a bit of searching around one can find different coloured ones which stand out better if you drop one of them.
4. Apart from the well know rubber band or filter wrench methods of removing a stuck filter I prefer using a different method. I cut squares from a hard fronted neoprene-backed mouse mat to fit the largest of my filter sizes. One then simply presses the neoprene side flat against the front of the filter and uses an even force whilst unscrewing the filter. This has never let me down. In a pinch one can use the rubber sole of training shoes etc. preferably not after trudging through a muddy field, along a dusty track or sandy beach etc.!!. 🙂

A fifth bonus tip 🙂 sometimes on longer journeys where available I use the USB sockets in public transport buses and trains to charge/top up my mobile phone or camera batteries using one of my USB camera battery chargers, well why not it’s free!. These sockets are vey often located at about ankle height. As I don’t want to put my phone or battery charger on the floor I make sure that I have a 2 Mtr long USB charging cable with me then I can put the device on the seat next to me or a tray table etc.. 🙂 Although I’m pretty standardised on USB type C connectors on my devices one can also get small push on adapters that convert from micro USB to type C and vice-versa to suit whatever type of USB cable your using and thus you have the best of both worlds and, if you have devices with both types of connection, one fewer cable.

I’m always keen to learn new ideas so if anyone has any that they’d like to pass on please let me know in the comments.

Kind regards

Leigh