Roberts Raw!

› posts tagged ‘million dollar home’

Crumpler Mornings and Walkabout Evenings

So, before we all go and forget I’m a Crumpler fan, this was a rather Crumpler morning as I swung up onto my bike, through my 7 Million Dollar Home full of this evening’s kit over my shoulder, and dangled a lightweight Crumpler tote full of essentials (water and food, so, literally essentials for once) off the handlebars and put some pedal action in to catch a ride with Nick (remember kiddies, carpooling is good for everyone, and the environment.)

Which leads us to the evening plans. Whatever idiocy and confused dates Nick mentioned in the last post, tonight is the next photo walkabout. That’ll be going down at 6:45pm at Coxhall Park in Carmel, Indiana. Grab a camera, grab a buddy, share a ride and come up and see us. Spend some time. Take some pictures. Feel free to show up early. Explore. Make mistakes. Take some winners.

So, if you’re reading this in the Indy area, make it out. Come on, make our day.



Spring Expo 2009: Crumpler

As Mr Henry across the room is enjoying his just-arrived today 6 Million Dollar Home (the Black / Gunmetal / Lime Green variant, for those of you sporting too much curiosity [and which we don't stock but will happily special order for you]), as well as a couple Headaitch totes, I figure now’s probably the right time to break out the shortest and… strangest… Expo interview we did. It’s… no, you know what? Just watch:



Keep on keepin’ on.

Alright boys and girls, step right up, bring yourselves, bring your cameras, bring hot shoe flashes and accessories, bring your friends who wear hot shoes and flashy accessories – we’re doing another Photowalk on Wednesday, April 22nd.

Thanks again to Chris and Tony who came out this week, despite the chill, despite the humidity, despite the overcast, way too evenly diffused lighting.

I ran into a snag, of sorts this week, one which I intend to Crumple next week. The snag? Adding Derek’s Lensbaby 3G to my bag for a few days. Now my handy little Olympus kit bag is bursting with kitted goodness and things are more crowded than a Tokyo subway. Despite my 410′s dinky body, one attached and two floating lenses is more bacon than the pan can handle.

My chosen solution is the Crumpler Six Million Dollar Home. I know you know that D-mart is a Crumpler devotee, and I’m getting convinced myself. They’re heavy duty, water-repellent bags with massive amounts of velcro, fat padding, and are run by guys who will measure the capacity of their bags with six packs. Now if only camera manufacturers would start using jiggers as a metric for bokeh…



Crumpler is Insane, Hilarity Ensues

Crumpler USA

Crumpler USA

Crumpler is nuts. As eye-raising as certain ThinkTank bag names can be (“Whip It Out”, “Streetwalker”), Crumpler doesn’t just stride past them, they apparently do cartwheels and back-handsprings past them while laughing reminiscently of Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker.

Once a year they sell bags for pre-determined amounts of beer. They have color by number toilet paper. They sold me the best bottle opener I’ve ever owned. They have bags with names like “Dreadful Embarrassment”, “Salary Sacrifice”, “Thirsty Al”, and “Cork and Fork.”

And, apparently, they have product descriptions that throw up red flags in our site’s spam detection system.

Yes, yes, this is good . . . I like the view . . . And do you like my sharks in the pool? Yes, hmmm, they don’t seem to like that topless girl . . . Who is she, by the way, dahhhhhling?

With product descriptions like the one above (from the 2 Million Dollar Home) I can’t see why any flags would be thrown up at all. (End sarcasm)

Anyway, it was actually a delightful little mess, and I think we’ve got things tweaked so it won’t happen again. But, if you were trying to search our site for any of our Crumpler stock there for an hour and came up emtpy, well, we thought we owed you an explanation.



2009 Fashions

So, those shiny new Nikon Coolpix digital cameras and Canon PowerShot digital cameras aren’t the only things getting face lifts for the new year, we recently got a bunch of stock on the newly redesigned Crumpler Million Dollar Home series bags.

Crumpler, famous for its off-the-wall attitudes (at their New York store they’ve had annual “buy bags for beer” events before, and you can get collector’s toilet paper from them. No, seriously.), are also known for making bright, stylish bags that don’t skimp on the quality, either.

The Million Dollar Homes are their photographic messenger-style shoulder bags, and range from just big enough for the EOS Rebel with its kit lens to big enough to house my entire personal camera kit, including battery charger.

Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home

read more



7 Million Dollar Home: Video Review

Alright, in honor of my bag upgrade we’re going to start a specialized segment of Roberts Raw for bag capacities. We’re going to kick it off with my own personal kit (actually, there was some space left so I borrow a few extra products from our display rack to pad it out) and a Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home to show you about what you can expect it to hold. Because, let’s face it, if you’re anything like me you read the interior dimensions of a bag and go “that’s great, now how much is that in equipment?”

You can watch the video below, no frills, just quick bag packing, to see how much equipment this particular bag can swallow. If you want to see a specific ag you’ve been eyeing packed, hit us up in the comments or email me at dmartin@robertsimaging.com. We’ll select two bags a month and pack different types of kits–Canon digital SLR cameras, Nikon flashes, Sony lenses, compact camcorders, you name it–all specifically chosen to give you a good visual estimate of how much you’ll be able to squeeze in.

This particular bag held all this equipment: Olympus E-3, Olympus 50-200mm, Olympus 18-180mm, Olympus 12-60mm, Olympus Zuiko 50mm, Lensbaby 3G, Nikon SB-25, Metz 58 AF-1, Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom, Induro SA-0, Roberts card wallet, miscelleneous small bits and accessories.



Waiting for a New Bag

7 Million Dollar Home So, I tok the dive and decided to upgrade my bag. This is a big step in a man’s life, maybe not as important as his first date or his first cup of coffee, but important nonetheless. Dozens, maybe hundreds, of variables have to be carefully weighed and examined before a choice can be made. What equipment do I have? What equipment will I have? How much do I want to carry day-to-day? What style? What color? These days there’s a dizzying, near-infinite combination as answers and a different bag for each (here at Roberts alone we have around 800 different style/color options available).

So, I sat down, and I thought about my “tackle.” An Olympus digital camera, mid-sized. A fairly chunky but not huge telephoto zoom. A standard zoom. A Lensbaby 3G. A very tiny Zuiko prime from the 70s. An aging but still excellent SB-25 (found in the Nikon flashes down in our used store). I’ll be adding a Metz 58 AF-1OP as soon as the funds come up next year. I’ve got a Gorillapod SLR-Zoom with an Induro SA-0 on it (a nice substitute for camera tripods, useful for remote flash work.) A slew of the usual digital camera accessories: an extra battery, some cables, the aperture for the Lensbaby, a spare compact flash memory card or two.

In the future there might be another lens or two, and I might start carrying around a back-up body, so I need a bag with a lot of space and a bit more I can milk out of it.

But I hate those monolithic black ballistic nylon backback bags. Don’t get me wrong, companies like ThinkTank Photo make some very slick offerings in that style. But it’s not for me.

So I have a Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home on its way, in the tasty brown/oatmeal/green (they’ve apparently done away with the brown/green/blue version) color combo. Expect some pictures to come as I attempt to fit everything inside it.



By the Way, I Love Crumpler

7 Million Dollar Home
“This is just luxury, sweetie, I can see the Pyramids from the top balcony. And the one they’re building in our front yard. For me, is it, sweetie, for when I die? That’s lovely . . . What did you just stir into my drink? Oh”

Sorry. Couldn’t help myself, but, I also could not make that description up. That’s straight from Crumpler’s site, and they make this mighty fine bag up there (it’s called “The 7 Million Dollar Home“, which I also can’t make up). a bag which I’ve been eyeing for a while and, to my surprise, just found out we now carry. So, after a moment of glee and looking like an idiot, I snagged one to give it a look over and began moving my kit over to see how it would fit. Four lenses, two flashes, an extra battery and some accessories later, I was impressed. It esaily fit my trusty E-3 with 50-200mm attached on one side (the closest size comparison I can think of in Canon lenses or Nikon lenses would be the 100-400 for Canon and the 80-400 for Nikon), and I could fit another standard zoom beside that, once again with the camera attached if I wanted. The inside flap is a giant mesh net, which lets me stash some filters and flash modifiers easily, and the front pocket holds smaller things like my batteries, manuals, and flash memory cards.6 Million Dollar Home

Overall, it easily swallowed thousands of dollar in equipment without sacrificing style or quality, it’s tough and every bit as solid as my current Lowepro bag, and it has the advantage of not screaming “I’m full of valuable equipment! Steal me!” while on my shoulder. I think I might be due an upgrade soon…

Not got quite that much gear that needs hauling? In addition to the very roomy 7 Million Dollar Home, we can set you up with the smaller 6, 4, and 2 Million Dollar Homes, and we have a choice of colors in each. Me, I like the oatmeal and green, but give the blue/purple and orange a looksy…




Switch To Mobile Site