When we started to haunt airports and airshows a couple of decades back, we needed a way to have our camera gear always with us and at the same time, be hands-free to do things like push aircraft. Leaving a bag of gear on the ramp and walking away from it is not only bad form, but it’s also out of reach when you need it. I then happened upon the Mountainsmith at REI, the perfect solution, so I outfitted all three of us with one. We’ve used them ever since until this year, when, well, I simply wore it out, and it needed replacing. I was so pleased to see they still make the Mountainsmith Day EVO Lumbar Pack – 13L, and with a ton of upgrades. The biggest being the material, which is darn bulletproof. They’ve improved the interior design (which is padded just enough) and pockets. They have redesigned the back, rear pocket, and made the “waterbottle” pockets larger. I’ve added the lens cube to the interior that permits the Mountainsmith to carry Z14-24f2.8, Z24-70f2.8II, Z70-200f2.8II, and a body. That’s what I always have with me. I added the new Mountainsmith Strapette EVO rather than use the old one, as it was vastly improved as well. Now the patches (velcroed on), multi wrench, etc doesn’t come with the Mountainsmith. It’s not your conventional camera bag but then again, it’s an unconventional requirement and the Mountainsmith fits it perfectly!

If you take two table grapes and put them end to end, you have the size of the Orange-bellied Euphonia. One of the secretive birds of the Andean Highlands of Ecuador, as you can see, the male is quite striking. You can see it’s striking because of basic camera craft, which must include the DX Crop feature. This shot is taken at 1800mm f/11. You have 600mm, doubled with glass, and then .5x with the DX crop. Yes, the DX delivers a bigger image size (and great image quality) but has another huge benefit. Using flash to make those colors pop in a dark forest requires flash. DX Crop doesn’t affect the aperture, so you can get the maximum power of the flash to kiss those colors. Flash or no flash, I depend on DX Crop to the extent that on lenses like the Z600f4TC, the speed ring is set to engage and disengage DX Crop. Just sayin, the DX Crop is a great tool!

If there was one tool I wished were always in my camera bag, it would be saturated light! What is saturated light? Out in the wilds, it is light from the sun that is subdued, protecting highlights, opening up shadows, and making color jump off the charts. The clouds are not the heavy black rain clouds nor the thin God Scrim type. If you look at the water in the background, you can see the gray skies reflected in it. That’s the reflection of clouds that creates saturated light. The adult male Snail Kite has crazy orange feet and mandibles. I touch more light, and that crazy orange becomes washed out. But with the saturated light, they are almost neon. It takes a little camera craft to bring it all out. First, I overexpose by 1/3 stop. Then I set the white balance to 6000k (Cloudy). I always have the ev comp and white balance. I just wish I always had the beauty of saturated light.

The Emergency Kit is kind of a scary term for the contents, but it’s what I’ve always called it. In reality, it’s the kit that keeps the camera gear up and functioning while I’m on the road on a shoot. If flying, it travels as a unit in my checked luggage. It contains all sorts of trivia, which I’ve just gone through removing all the “F” mount items, as it’s just for “Z” mount now. What you see above all fits easily in a Think Tank Logistics Manager cable manager. Here are the contents of the Emergency Kit

Some items are “older” and no longer readily available. Some items like the 3D Loop Spacer I had custom-made. Those items for which I have links, I’ve included them. It wasn’t my thought one might copy item for item my Emergency Kit; rather, it’s kind of a road map for making your own. Trust it will help :-)

Search on the word eyecup here on the site, and you’ll see all of the different ones I’ve tried since the Z 9 hit the locker. The gold standard for me was the original Nikon DK-2. Its thick rubber, stiff yet not too stiff, large diameter yet low profile, just worked. Well, I find that exact eyecup in a Z 9 / Z 8 / ZF that rocks! This no name eyecup is just like and I mean, just like the DK-2. The way in which it is mounted to the attaching ring is so over engineered, it’s a thing of beauty. The rub, stock is slim to none at times. It took nearly 3 weeks for my first order to arrive. They are worth it, though, even if it only took four years.