In your bag 360, Martin Lux
Todays bag is pretty tasty. Two bags in fact, and in monochrome no less. Very arty. Come and have a look at what Martin is using in his bags.

Dear Bellamy,

I’ve been following you for about a year now, I think it was Eric Kim who brought me to your website. I looked at every bagshot you posted from the beginning and as I took a break from photography I had to build up a new web-home, before being hopefully presented at your inside-the-bag-series.

I’m Martin, 25 year old student of Medicine in Germany. I came to photography at the age of 15 inspired by my parents who shot beautiful pictures during their trips around the world.

I soon got interested to see my photos as well published in newspapers and as digital photography wasn’t that prevalent at this time (mobile phones didn’t even had color displays or a camera built-in) it wasn’t really difficult to get the job done as a good working young news photographer with an official press pass.

Starting my university studies of Medicine made me realize that I had to decide which path to follow and I left my news and sports photography as I only got little time to follow my inspirations outside the campus or clinic.

About a year ago, I dived back into the photography world as I had to try out something different. Leica rangefinders always fascinated me so I managed to get a flawless, used Leica M8 with about 500 actuations. It was awesome, but I had to wait another two months to buy the first lens for it. Money, money! Leica isn’t that student friendly. I could have sold my DSLR equipment that I collected over the past 8 years, but I can’t say that this Leica solves every photographic problem I’m faced with. I didn’t even know whether I keep it or I resell it only after a few months, shocked by the prizes even for used Leica glass.

Below you see my bagshots, but I can’t really name them this way. I usually don’t like to carry around any bags although I own quite a few from my “professional” career. As Chase Jarvis says that “the best camera is the camera that’s always with you”, I like to say, that the best camera is the one that’s always in your hand, ready to shoot. I usually don’t carry my iPhone this way. During the winter period, it’s very easy to carry a second lens inside your jacket. Love those little M-System lenses, even if they are from Voigtlaender, Zeiss or Konica.

If I have to carry a small tripod/monopod or on my travels around the world I try to carry an ordinary messenger bag, I won’t show here because it’s always changing, packed with a camera insert, so you normally don’t even notice that I’m carrying more equipment than you see in my hands.

That’s what inside my two bag versions:

Leica-Bag:

Leica M8
Voigtlaender Color Skopar 35mm F2.5
Konica Hexanon 90mm F2.8
Cable-Release
Monopod

Canon-Bag:

Canon 5D
Canon EF 17-40mm F4, 24-70mm F2.8, 50mm F1.4, 70-300mm
580EX Flash

For news or sports I use a 300mm F2.8 with a 1.4x Konverter and sometimes a 70-200 2.8 but those are actually lenses I use only a few times a year. I would possibly sell them for good Leica glass but my dream Leica 35mm F1.4 FLE is even more expensive than those two. What a shame!

Along with this I usually carry a little Macbook Air, CF and SD-cards, filters and two external HDD’s.

My current dream setup would be a used Leica M9 or the new M (as I love fullframe) with a 35mm Summilux and my little M-Hexanon 90mm or a 90mm Summicron.

Why the Leica? Because it’s “German” and it makes me see my photography in a totally different way. It’s a very inspiring tool regardless whether you shoot film or digital and everybody is very happy to get their pictures taken with it, if you ask them friendly for permission. The downsides of Leica is, that they are a little too expensive for everyone interested, or in other words they make it quite difficult to join their passion of photography, so a lot of (“younger”) people shrink back when they take a closer look at their price-list, even for the used ones. That’s life. When you are young and you are able to enjoy your great purchases for a long time you don’t have the money. When you suddenly have the money to buy a 5K Kamera and a 3K Lens, well you know what the answer is. Time goes by so fast.

I will continue to write about my experiences in the world of photography, traveling and Leica, as I begin to really enjoy working with tumblr. Much more pictures coming up! Hopefully writing something for the Leica Blog in the future as well. We’ll see!

Cheers,
Martin

If you want to follow my steps you can find me here:

twitter – http://twitter.com/pholux_martin
tumblr – http://www.pholux.com/
facebook – http://www.facebook.com/martlux
I’m happy about every new follower!

Many thanks for sharing your bags and your thoughts with us Martin, it is interesting to see the contrast between the two bags.
Check out Martin’s links 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