Lens Caddy – An Invaluable Tool For Photographing From A Vehicle

The perennial problem for those of us with long, heavy and very expensive lenses who shoot from our vehicles is how to stow our gear where it is readily and instantly available for use but also protected from crashing to the floor when you hit the brakes for an unexpected photographic opportunity or run into rough, washboardy roads that bounce your camera and lens all around.  Many of us have 5 – 10 thousand dollars (or more) tied up in just one camera and lens combination and that investment must be protected.  But if your gear is safely tucked inside a padded case you’re guaranteed to miss many wonderful shots as your subject (birds or wildlife) scoots away while you’re retrieving your camera and lens.

For me the perfect solution to that dilemma is my homemade “lens caddy”.  I’ve been using it for years now so it’s a little beat up (though I did give it a new paint job and replaced the felt recently) but for my purposes it’s invaluable.

 

I made it in my wood shop.  It’s secured to the seat console by extensions on the bottom that fit very tightly into the cup holders.  Felt pads protect both camera and lens where they meet the wood, though the pads up front  for the lens are probably unnecessary because I have a protective lens coat on my lens.  The lens plate fits tightly and securely into the slot on top of the caddy.

 

 

Here you see the camera and lens in place.  When I need it everything simply lifts out in one swift movement without having to detach or loosen anything.  I’m often on extremely rough roads and I’ve never had my lens come off the caddy but if I’m ever feeling insecure about it I can always put my hand on the lens and hold it down.  Quick stops are the biggest danger to a lens just laying on the seat but on those occasions my gear isn’t going anywhere.  It simply can’t.

As some of you know, my good friend Mia McPherson always photographs with me while shooting from the back seat.  To protect her gear Mia holds it on her lap, which is quite necessary on all those rough roads.  Often her upper legs are actually bruised from having that heavy lens and lens plate bouncing on her lap.  And when we’re not actually photographing, say on better roads between shooting destinations, she’s in the front seat so she had to rig up a way to secure her lens to the seat belt in the back.  Not the best of solutions…

 

 

So, I recently built her a lens caddy for the back seat.  It works almost the same as mine, with several minor differences.  Hers is wider, to prevent any side to side wobbling (unnecessary with mine on the relatively hard console).   In front of the camera rest you’ll see a piece of wood with a slot in it just wide enough for the seat belt, which cinches up and holds the caddy in place.  There’s also a bungey cord that comes from under the seat (you can’t see it in this view) and hooks into a small hole in front of the curved lens rest.  This bungey cord holds the front of the caddy down securely.

For times when we’re both in the front seat I attached another small bungey cord that she can use to strap the lens down because she’s too far away from it to hold it down with her hand if we hit a particularly nasty bump.

 

 

Here you see the camera and lens strapped in place, though we only strap it in place when she’s up front.  Mia absolutely loves her new caddy!  No more bruises and now her hands are free so she can drink her coffee, harrass me from behind (as she often does) and eat her morning chocolate donut, which we’re both addicted to (Mia’s kind of a sloppy eater – you can see some of her donut ground into the seat in front of the caddy…).

If you shoot a long lens from a vehicle you might want to try something like this.  I’ve modified my caddy to fit three different vehicles now and they’re really not all that difficult to make, though they do take some time and some figuring.  I would never be without mine while I’m in the field and now Mia feels the same.

Ron