Camera bag: Lens down, to the side, or up?

[Polyphony]

How do you carry your DSLR in your camera bag? Lens down, lens to the side, or lens up? After purchasing my first DSLR and bag, I was not comfortable with letting the full weight of the camera rest on the lens. Instead, I took out the configurable dividers and now carry it lens to the side, with most of the weight on the side of the camera body. I plan to put a small square block of foam under the lens so even less weight rests on the lens. (For you physics nerds out there, what I actually meant was: so that the weight is more evenly distributed along the lens) Is this a good idea? Is carrying lens down safe? What are your opinions?

 

[Josh66]

Lens off.

Really though, that's the only option with the bag I have.


I wouldn't really worry about it too much...

 

[Juice]

Lens down. The bag has supports for the body and a space for the lens to fit, so it's a nice, secure fit. However, cameras are pretty resilient, as long as you aren't rolling the bag down a flight of stairs or dropping it off a building, any way should be fine.

 

[Polyphony]

Lens down. The bag has supports for the body and a space for the lens to fit, so it's a nice, secure fit. However, cameras are pretty resilient, as long as you aren't rolling the bag down a flight of stairs or dropping it off a building, any way should be fine.

I would put mine lens down but my bag doesn't have a cutout and supports. Oh well.

 

[Nod]

I carry mine lens down. I made a foam support that lets the lens hang down and the camera rests on the top of the foam. I took pieces of 2" foam and cut out a circle a little bigger than the lens and left enough space at the bottom so the lens doesn't touch the bottom of the bag. Works perfect and the camera and lens are protected on all sides.

 

[KmH]

It depends on the camera and lens.

Lens down, the only thing holding the lens to the body is 5 or so tiny screws that attach the mount flange to the body's bayonet.

Some, who carry the camera/lens with the lens down, have discovered their lens still attached to the mount, but the mount no longer attached to the camera body, particularly with plastic bodied cameras. Typically, if the lens is heavy like a 70-200 or 80-200 f/2.8.

The safest way is just as O|||||O said, camera body and lens, stored separately.

 

[Josh66]

It didn't take me long to get used to having to put a lens on every time I open my bag...

I mean, to me, it's more work to store your camera with a lens on it.

You have to arrange your whole bag to fit one camera/lens combo.
That means you have to install the 'bag lens' every time you put the camera away.

Will that lens be the one you want to use the next time you open your bag?

Maybe. Maybe not.

...That's a lot of lens changing just so you can say that your camera is "always ready to go".

To me, it's faster to just put the right lens on instead of taking the wrong lens off and then putting the right one on.


edit
For those of you that do keep a lens on your camera while it's in the bag -

How often do you change that lens immediately upon removing the camera from the bag?

(Just curious)

For me, it was almost every time. That's when I decided that keeping a lens on the body was pointless.