Over the past couple years I have collected quite a bit of camera equipment. I have outgrown my bags and a couple drawers. Has anyone found a nice looking, practical storage shelf or unit? If so and its not too much trouble can you post a pic?
Thanks
I store my boxes in my closet on a shelf and store most of my gear in its bags. the bigger stuff I put in a corner of the closet and some other stuff I just keep out on my kitchen counter so that I have everything easily accessible to set up my kit depending on what sport or event I'm shooting.
I think you may be best off with some Pelican stuff. They make very large boxes that are also rollers that can hold stuff safely and securely.
It really depends on how much gear you have. If you have multiple Super Telephoto Fast Primes then you'd obviously need more storage capacity. I checked in your profile but couldn't find what gear you have. I know that most of my gear (not including lighting and grip stuff) would fit in that Pelican case.
My cameras, lenses, and accessories reside in Think Tank bags that I leave lined up on the floor along the wall in the kitchen/dining room. The tripods live in Kinesis bags along the wall. But, I'm looking for an armoire to put in the same place where I'll store the equipment when not in use.
I keep my stuff in Pelican cases. 1610 for the camera, and 1650 for the lights. I also have a hard shell golf case for the light stands. I could probably use another golf case for softboxes. All the Sunbounce gear lives in the large rolling Sunbounce bag.
I highly recommend the Pelicans. I wish I could find a gun safe that would hold the 1650!
I keep my camera gear in a couple different backpacks. A larger one that will hold just about everything (body and lenses and flashes), and a smaller one for everyday use. But when I purchased my Epson 3800, I needed a printer stand that could handle it and, hopefully, one that was wide enough to have my Epson 2400 sit beside it. To fit them both, I needed something about 4.5 feet wide. Unfortunately, everything I found in traditional furniture stores was VERY expensive and/or way too big or way too small. Then I remembered Ikea. At Ikea I spent about an hour in their modular cabinet department known as BestA components. For very little money, you can build just about anything you want. I ended up purchasing this BestA basic cabinet with four adjustable shelves for $80:
It measures 47 1/4" wide x 15 3/4" deep x 25 1/4" high.
Since one end of the cabinet would be placed such that there would be a rather limited amount of room in front of it (too small of a home office with too much crap jammed into it), rather than putting two doors on the front of the base cabinet, I opted for a single door on a slider rack. The slider assembly attaches to pre-drilled holes on the base cabinet:
The back of the door is pre-drilled to take the roller wheels that come with the slider rack. When assembled, the door will slide to one side or the other, allowing you full access to the uncovered side. Of course, those with more room immediately in front of the cabinet could opt for two traditional hinged doors to help keep out dust.
Lastly, I purchased legs for the bottom of the cabinet. I got the tallest ones available (about 6 inches) so I could store some things like umbrellas or whatnot under the cabinet.
Total cost was about $120 or so. The cabinet was about 6 inches too short to hold both the 3800 and 2400 side-by-side so I put a piece of 2' shelving under the 2400 so it could hang off the end a bit. Worked a charm! Plus, that piece of shelf hanging off the end gave me a spot to clamp the base of my 5500 K florescent light I use to view prints.
Also, I found some very inexpensive open shelves at Target (on sale for $25):
I stacked two of those on top of each other, creating a 4-shelf unit that was long and narrow. I positioned it immediately behind the Ikea cabinet. That's where I put my various light stand bags, On-Site backdrop bag, umbrellas, soft boxes, etc.
Here are a few quick photos taken with my happy snappy:
From the end showing the Target shelves behind the Ikea cabinet:
WOW thanks everyone...sometimes the solution can be right under your nose. I found a old gun safe my grandfather made. I took the 2 side units off, stacked them on top of each other, bolted them to the beam...tada..a free stuff holder that should work well for a while...I also found some of his really old camera gear!
For the past few years I've been using inexpensive Hakuba aluminum cases for storing gear. While I would not recommend using them for shipping or harsh, outdoor environmental conditions, they do serve their purpose for indoor use. B&H carries them and that's where I bought mine.
They come in 4 or 5 sizes and you can customize the interiors unsing the included dividers. I've also customized a few using foam inserts. I generally toss a few containers of silica gel into each to absorb any moisture that may creep in. These cases do not have rubber seals and, while they do a good job of keeping out dust, moisture could be an issue in humid environments.
These cases don't compare to Pelican, but do serve the purpose for indoor storage.
