Organizing Your Camera Bag

Getting the right type of bag and stocking it with the proper type of equipment is not good enough when it comes to your digital video preperation. Even within this model you need to organize things correctly for easy access and the prevention against damage. Here are a few easy points to follow when packing items in the right order.

Your storage devices, meaning your tapes or digital formats, need to have their own specific pockets. They all need to be labeled correctly, but also stacked separately away from all interfering equipment. This will help you avoid losing any important footage, getting them out of order, or even damaging the storage by banging them up against rigid equipment pieces or those with magnetic surfaces. If they are in the form of flash drives, zip drives, portable hard drives, memory cards or sticks, or any similar format they should have their own protective cases as well. It is best if this pocket has padding around it and is protected from the elements so you should keep them in one of the inside secured enclosings.

All grip material should go into one larger pocket on the outside of the camera bag. This includes everything for physical technicalities, such as grip tape, power strips, extension cords, pens, levels, and everything else that you may need to prepare the location shoot and deal with the camera.

If you are using extra lenses and microphones these each need their own pocket and your camera bag should accommodate for this. If you are going to be using a lot of these you may want to use a larger hard case that has places in it for them to fit completely, or an even larger hard case that has a soft component on the outside for pockets. If this is the case you need to make sure that lenses have enough room so that they will not make contact with each other and that everything remains protected from moisture.

The Camera itself should be the only thing that goes in the main pocket. All other items should be removed from it, including the battery pack which should then be placed in its own pocket, in the grip pocket, or along with the microphones.