I am a bit of a camera kit hoarder, as I have previously disclosed, so my problem is how to keep all the kit I like to take out and play with (and occasionally use) organised, accessible and protected.
Like most folk, I imagine, I've just got regular household furniture, so I've got some drawer space in my office/den, but that's not ideal for cameras because every time you pull the drawer open you get expensive bits of kit rolling around and knocking chunks out of each other.
I wanted a customisable drawer-based camera storage and protection system which, surprisingly, doesn't give you much when you type it into Google.
So I made one.
This time (don't ask about the other times) I thought it through completely before I did anything. And then I bought some things:
What you will need
1) A carpet tile
2) A craft knife
3) Some double-sided sticky pads
Look at that, snug as a bug in a rug. Literally, a rug. (Image credit: Rod Lawton/Digital Camera World)
How to make your customisable drawer-based camera storage and protection system
1. Measure the internal height of your drawer
2. Cut the carpet into strips slightly less than this height (just to allow some clearance)
3. Roll the strips up to fit around the bit of kit you want to protect, e.g. a camera body, a lens
4. Leave a bit of an overlap but trim off any excess
5. Stick the ends down to make a 'hoop' to hold your gear
6. Make as many of these as you need and squish them into the drawer until there's no more space
My top tips
Unlike all some of the other things I've made, this has been spectacularly successful. So much so that I'm not even sure I should be sharing this. I do have some additional tips that might make these even more successful if you decide to try this out:
1) You don't have to go to the huge expense of a carpet tile if you have some old carpet offcuts in the house.
2) Don't use a carpet tile with a pungent rubber backing because it will have a strong smell for a long time (don't ask me how I know).
3) Avoid heavy-duty hard-to-bend carpet – it's very difficult to stick the ends together and they will immediately un-stick the moment your back is turned.
4) Some carpets can release lots of annoying little fibres until they lose their newness. I'm not sure what's to be done about this (dammit).
So... good luck, and be careful with that craft knife. Carpet doesn't like being cut, but fingers (apparently) do.
Rod is an independent photography journalist and editor, and a long-standing Digital Camera World contributor, having previously worked as DCW's Group Reviews editor. Before that he has been technique editor on N-Photo, Head of Testing for the photography division and Camera Channel editor on TechRadar, as well as contributing to many other publications. He has been writing about photography technique, photo editing and digital cameras since they first appeared, and before that began his career writing about film photography. He has used and reviewed practically every interchangeable lens camera launched in the past 20 years, from entry-level DSLRs to medium format cameras, together with lenses, tripods, gimbals, light meters, camera bags and more. Rod has his own camera gear blog at fotovolo.com but also writes about photo-editing applications and techniques at lifeafterphotoshop.com
