In your bag 269, Chad Tobin
A really cool bag for you today, from the wilds of Nova Scotia. Chad has a nice simple setup for us all today. Let’s have a look and see.

My name is Chad Tobin. I am a 36-year-old street photographer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. Robert Frank, Riccis Valladares, and Capa heavily influence me. I use to have a huge Thinktank bag with Nikon D700 and a boatload of primes. One day I picked up my friend’s M4 and couldn’t get over the feel and ergonomics of the camera. I bought an M8 and CV 35 1.4 to test the waters and I was hooked. Fast forward a few months and I sold the entire SWAT Team/Nikon Bag and then started buying the kit below. My gear dragon is slain. It is time to make frames and stop gear chasing.

The Bag: Artisan&Artist ACAM 7100. Also know as the Oskar’s One Day Bag. I find it the perfect size for me. Plane tickets fit, my iphone, gear. Very high quality bag. I cut two strips of velcro to attach to the pockets so that I can have silent operation. I make sure I clip the top flap to the bottom as not to have gear fall out.

The Leica: The M9. My main camera. The digital M Full Frame sweet goodness. I do not mind the lcd or the iso limitations of the camera. I loved my M8 but wanted my lenses to be their true focal length.

The Fuji: Instax Mini 50S:: Recently picked one of these up and I am loving the ability to make a printed photo on the spot. Something so magical about using this camera. The photos are very tiny but yield a great print. Mini 50S

The Lenses: I`m only using two. The 35mm f1.4 Summilux FLE version and the 50 mm f1.4 Summilux. The 35 is on my camera 90% of the time. I find the 35 mm focal length perfect for context and story telling. I recently took an environmental portrait of Robert Frank and I used this lens. A year ago I would never have shot a portrait with a 35. I would have grabbed my 85mm 1.4 and shot the details of his face instead of him sitting in his home. The 50mm f1.4 Summilux is a recent purchase and is my “telephoto lens.” Most people would not consider a 50 a telephoto but I call it my when I need something “closer” lens(haha).

The Flash: Leica SF-24D. When I was using the Nikon system I would always bounce my flash for a pleasing soft light look. Now that I have scrapped the DSLR I picked up this flash to use for that direct flash in B&W look.

The Memory & Film: Fuji instax film coming in at 10 shots per pack and Sans Disk 16 gig cards that are recommended for the M9. They have worked well for me so far.

The Accessories: The most important accessary in my bag is the Thumbs-up product that simulates the film advance lever. It does so much for the balance and feel of the digital M its ridiculous. The minute I tried it on my M9 I bought it without hesitation. Other accessories are rocket blower for dust and moleskin for notes on my current photography projects.

Links: My home on the web!

http://chadtobin.tumblr.com/

Thanks!

Cheers, Tobin

Thanks for sharing your bag with us Chad. I was interested to hear about your choice of 35mm over 50mm, I am much the same, my 35mm rarely leaves my camera.
Check out Chad’s link and make sure you come and comment.

Keep them coming folks, we need more submissions, so get your bag on Japancamerahunter.com. Send me a hi resolution image of the bag (please make sure it is horizontal) and its contents, with some details about yourself and what you shoot. Oh and don’t forget your contact details (twitter, flickr, tumbler et al). Send the bag shots here.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter