Late to the party (but always nice to be invited) it’s high time I shared with you the contents of my bag!
The obvious choice for me was the Billingham Hadley small. To me this bag has everything I need. The ability to cram in more stuff that anything that size has any physical right to hold, it has no zips or Velcro (these things have a habit of breaking and/or wearing out) and I find it comfortable to wear and carry.
Best of all it was about half price in a department store sale and that was all the Bag Acquisition incentive I needed! Fours years on and it has red wine and cafe food stains because at times I can be a clumsy fuck (and I like to keep it on-the-lap close to me in cafes), the colour’s rubbed off a bit on one edge where the bag rubs against my hip, but most of all the quality of the bag has rubbed off on me! (If you’re reading this Billingham, I can provide ad copy for a small fee)
If the worst happened and it somehow died I wouldn’t really hesitate to replace it with another…. I probably wouldn’t score a half price one again though and would have to console myself with having a colour choice. Not that Khaki is terrible… but it’s no black.
If I’m taking everything, it’s usually this – Leica M9P 50 summicron 35 and 90 summarits and the 7Artisans (mounted) as you can see from the cork, the M isn’t a big bit of kit!
I also keep in the Billingham:
A spare SD card, spare batteries (not pictured)
A cleaning cloth (not pictured)
A White Balance Card, a lanyard to attach the WB card to things (like me)
A lens cleaning pen
ND filters
Hayfever tablets
A plastic bag for wet/dusty environment lens changes
A nicotine vaporiser (for nicotine is addictive yet cigarettes are bad and Adam is only able to live without the latter if he still has the former!)
The Billingham serves as my ‘I simply have to take all my stuff with me’ bag. This is a rare occurrence… as usually I’ve a reasonable idea of what kit I want to shoot so there’s no point dragging it all along with me.
For the most part I don’t want to take all my stuff with me…
Which leads me to my Case Logic small DSLR bag. This bag will happily fit one Leica M (or Fuji X-Pro) with a lens mounted and another lens loose in the main compartment. I’ve had this bag nearly a decade and my only recollection is seeing it in a store, baulking at the price, then scoring it on eBay for about 60% less. Between them, the two side pockets can fit a spare battery (or two for an X-Pro – it’s not that the Fuji batteries are smaller, just that it might be worth having two spares!) and some filters, WB card, door keys. After all these years the only issue is that one of the rubber mouldings that encases the zip puller has snapped off, but there’s still ample left to tug on the zip.
My third bag is another decade old one, a Golla something or other I mainly use this as a hand luggage bag, as it’ll take three lenses, then this little bag can go in my big (but still small enough to fit under the plane seat 
) rucksack that I travel with.
Occasionally I take both the Case Logic and Golla bag out with me, on that rare (like count on the fingers of one hand number of times) that I want all the lenses, but don’t want to bring the Billingham with me.
Of course gear’s great, but what does all this get used for?
Well a variety of things!
As you might know, I’m english but I’ve been living in Portugal for the past five years and I never get tired of how different the world looks here!
Portugal also offers me many different opportunities for street photography!
I quite often use the 7Artisans 50mm F1.1 with my M9. The DS massive is a little split as to whether it’s a good lens or not… I won’t tell tales on who thinks what…
But I’d be the first to admit that better IQ is available with native M glass (and no doubt Zeiss and almost certainly modern Voigtländer glass)
I hope that you enjoyed this little peek into the murky world of my bag…. The short answer to the question (what’s in my bag) is basically one camera and 35mm and 50mm lenses, which I do find covers off so, so much of what I like to take pictures of.
I usually just take the Case Logic bag with these two primes… But often in the summer months, I just pick a lens for the day, sling the camera round my neck and head on out with nothing more than a spare battery (or two) in a jeans pocket. Rolling back home some hours later as golden hour fades, perhaps a little sun burnt, usually full of cafe food and very occasionally with an image or two that I’m quite happy with
All images shot with the M9P, 50 summicron, 35 and 90 summarits and the 7artisans 50mm F1.1