In your bag No: 1305, Hilde Heyvaert
Hilde visits us today, with a bag full to the brim with all sorts of different cameras. Including one camera which might be better used as a doorstop. Check it out.

I would like to share my trusty brown Kånken Big, which is generally full of cameras and random tat (mostly cameras though). I’ve always been a photography nut and have owed a camera since I was a kid (it still lives somewhere at my parents’ house, it was a cheap not-really-a-brand 35mm one that was tricky to load) and recently rediscovered my love for analog photography. I still use digital too, but I definitely have a big love for film, and generally can’t choose which camera to pack. Which of course ends with my husband and friends saying “don’t you think you’re overdoing it a bit”. As if that’s possible! Imagine that for some reason or other I’d need another camera and it’s not in my bag, perish the thought! (I’m jesting of course, sometimes I do carry less cameras).

So that’s why I generally use a Kånken Big when I’m out and about with the intent of shooting photos :) (Kånken pocket dimension would probably be a more apt description).
Seeing I work part-time, I luckily have a lot of time to wander around places in Belgium (and sometimes abroad too) to take photos.

I must admit that I do shoot so much analog, not just because I absolutely love it (I don’t have anything against digital, but analog just has a totally different feel to it that I adore) but also because I can get film developed into negatives on the cheap at HEMA (both 35mm and 120mm) and have a negatives scanner. That suddenly makes shooting film a perfectly affordable hobby and I’ll easily go through a few rolls a month.

So onto the cameras!
And their covers, because I’m a bit paranoid about cameras getting damaged (it’s not like my backpack is sturdy, holding everything and ergonomic yes, sturdy, no).

Agfa Isola 1, medium format camera. I found this camera in the local thrift shop for € 2,50 back in 2013. I was kind of convinced that it wouldn’t work, especially because it was so incredibly cheap, and that it would just be something that would look pretty on a shelf. And then a friend gave it the once over and said it was in perfect working order. I didn’t really pay attention to it for a while because I love in the back end of nowhere and getting 35mm film is enough grief as it is. But then my husband bought me a negatives scanner that also scans 120mm and it turns out that HEMA’s lab will develop 120mm as well nowadays (they used to be super basic, and nowadays very few things seem too crazy) so now all bets are off. Or better said: whenever I’m in Antwerp to get comics, I also go get film at Grobet (which still sells all the film, hurrah!). It’s the only one of my cameras that has an actual bag as a case: a Zatchels barrel bag. I don’t think that bag has ever been anything but a camera bag mind, I often wear it crossbody for easy access to my Isola. When I’m not packing the Isola I put the Instax in it.

Canon EOS 700D, my trusty DSLR. It gets carried around in an older model Löwepro holster. Obviously I’ve had this holster longer than this SLR (it’s my 3rd EOS camera, I still use my EOS 550D sometimes with a Lomography Diana F premium glass lens, which plays nicely with the borked sensor of the 550D). It’s a good, trustworthy basic DSLR and I like it a lot. Unlike my Isola and especially my Samsung, I have little emotional attachment to it. I feel like these cameras are simply no longer really build to last, and I know full well I’ll have to replace it again in a few years time. I’m very realistic that way, but I still hope it’ll last a good long time.

Canon PowerShot D20, it’s waterproof. Which means that if it rains, I can still take photos. And I am also one of those daft people that will happily stick their camera in a pond full of fish (or frogs, or newts, or other underwater creatures unlikely to take a bite out of me). It’s served me well lots of times. Having a compact camera is just really practical, especially when it’s waterproof.
Its case is a bag (I’m not sure whether it’s a pencil or make-up bag) that my dad bought me from HEMA as a gag gift years ago when I was still in school. I’m not a pink kind of person, but at least it means I can always find that camera in my bag without doing much effort so the ugly definitely has it’s uses ^^.

Fuji instax 90 NEO CLASSIC (what’s in a name right?). I used a 7s for years, but then last year I caved and got the upgrade. I’ve not regretted it for a day! I love instant cameras, I used to have a poloroid back in the 90s but when film became too much misery to get and too expensive I gave it to a friend. I switched over to instax the week after finding out they existed back in 2009 and getting film for that was an expensive pain (not as bad as Polaroid though). So I’m definitely pleased that they are so hip now, because it means I can get affordable film without any hassle at all. I bought this case for it on ebay. It was very cheap but it’s really sturdy and practical.

Lomography Action Samper it’s a crap and untrustworthy camera (which is my experience with Lomography full stop sadly) but it’s a lot of fun making jump shots, photographing pets and my nieces (who, much like my pets, have a hard time holding still for a photo). Plus it’s so tiny and weighs nothing, so I may as well pack it. This one is the soccer edition, I got this one together with my Lomo Diana lens because I was ordering anyway and it was on a massive discount (€ 9,99). I’m assuming because of the soccer print on it, but I’m not bothered by that. It’s a toy camera anyway. It lives in a pencil case from HEMA.

Samsung Slim Zoom 115 A Panorama, the analog camera that has been with me since 1996. Back in the day it was a really good “compact” camera, and right up to June 2006 it was my one and only camera. But at that point film was getting an expensive hobby and my dad ended up buying me my first digital camera (a Canon EOS 350D). It’s still my go to analog camera. I especially adore the panorama option.

Other stuff
Collector’s Library (aka handy postcard format) edition of Jules Verne’s “Around the World in 80 Days”, my favourite book. Whenever I’m not carrying one of these series books, I’m carrying my old Kindle keyboard. I have nothing against real books, I just prefer reading those at home. Small books and the e-reader reduce weight and save place for cameras.

iPod Classic and Coloud Color headphones. Because I like listening to music. Especially on the train or cycling/walking around when I’m on my own.

If anyone is interested in my photographic antics, I have a flickr page: https://www.flickr.com/photos/houseofsecrets/ and I often post photos on my blog:
http://hildekitten.livejournal.com/
Aside from that I also have tumblr (http://kittensandsteam.tumblr.com) and twitter (https://twitter.com/HildeBCM).

Thanks for sharing your bag with us, Hilde. That is a very interesting selection of cameras you are shooting.
Keep them coming folks, we need more submissions, so get your bag on Japancamerahunter.com.

Send me a hi resolution image of the bag. Optimum size is 1500 across. Please ensure there is a bag in the shot, unless you don’t use one. The more you can write about yourself the better, make it appealing and tell us a story.

Oh and don’t forget your contact details (twitter, flickr, tumbler et al). Send the bag shots here. Please understand that there is a long wait now as there is a backlog of submissions. Not all make the cut, so make sure yours is funny/interesting/quirky. And please make sure the shot is of good quality, as the ones that are not do not go up.

Cheers
Japancamerahunter