Gear review -- Dimbu lens bean bag

A peculiar thing about professional bird (and wildlife) photography is that your quest for getting equipped with the right gear doesn't stop with getting the right lens and camera...but extends a long way further...you will need a variety of bags, you will need lens coats, you will need tripods (and monopods) and gimbal heads and so on...

Like with choosing the lens and camera, there are no easy acquisitions to be made here either; there are no short cuts. Choosing the wrong supplementary gear can be as disruptive / disappointing -- from the perspective of getting professional quality photographs -- as in the case of your primary gear, your lens and camera.

While a very basic and simple thing...a lens bean bag is a must to have for every wildlife photographer. After using one for almost 2 years now...I simply can't imagine being out without it, at least when it comes to taking eye level shots...and when it comes to photographing birds and wildlife from a car.

My bean bag travels with me all the time. In fact, during the last year or so, when I have been on umpteen trips, tracking raptors...I have even used the bean bag on car (and jeep) bonnets and car roofs. Many a time, when the raptor swoops down on you and gives you a flypast...this "setting" can give you tack-sharp images...something that you may not get even with the best Gimbal and Tripod arrangement.

Apart from being totally indispensable for photographing birds and other wildlife from a car and for ground level shots...a properly designed lens bean is a great help in numerous other situations...you can rest your long lens on it (if you are not using a tripod and hand-holding the lens) while on a hike / trek on uneven ground and be secure that it won't roll off, while you are panting and gathering your breath; you can use it on the parapets that line ghat roads...and you can even drape it onto a tree branch (if you are lucky enough to find one where you need it).

I speak out of experience, I have done all of the above!    

I use a Dimbu lens bag that I ordered from Toehold.

(There are other bean bags that you can buy as well...go here for the Nature Lounge bean bag, and do take a look at this as well :-) )

I have used rice and wheat as a filler for my bean bag. Typically it takes upto 3 kilos of either rice of wheat to fill up the Dimbu till it is fluffed up nicely.

I normally source the rice (and wheat) locally...so that I don't have to contend with 3 more kilos of weight while catching and changing trains.

Do get a lens bean bag.

You will curse the 3 kilos that it adds to your laden weight to begin with (assuming that you do birding on trails / out in the open), but when you will get used to it pretty fast, and soon have no problems with it sitting on your shoulder like a quiet, well-behaved monkey.

Any comments? Questions?

Fire away... the Birdman will try his utmost to help!