The ultimate camera bag?

According to Lowepro's latest tweet most photographers have 5 bags for different uses!

So is there such a thing as the perfect camera bag?

For anyone out there who thinks they know what would make the 'ultimate photography bag' - Kata is running a competition called Dream Bag Challenge where you can do exactly that and the winner has their bag hand built by Kata plus wins a professional photo kit worth $5000.

My gear....

I actually own 5 different camera bags which sounds crazy but actually each one of them has a different use depending on what gear I need to carry, what job I may be doing as well as what will be the most convenient for the journey and on location.

My first bag was a small shoulder bag from Calumet which I purchased in the UK to hold my first digital SLR and one 'walkabout' lens (18-70mm) which was very similar to some of the Lowepro products. As my kit grew I needed something more substantial so my love affair with Crumpler began when I picked up a bag called a 'company embarrassment' (crazy names, great bags) which had plenty of room for my SLR, 2 lenses and a flash. I was happy for a few months but found that shoulder bags seem to constantly be getting in my way... so wanting my hands free to concentrate on taking photos I looked around at the many backpacks on offer and picked up another Crumpler bag called 'The Schrinkle' - this backpack answered just about all of my prayers as it held all my gear, was comfy and well padded and had some neat features (It also came in a limited edition colour which was cool and it didn't look like the average camera bag stuffed full of expensive gear!
When I moved to Australia a year later I wanted to downsize again and find a bag that enabled me to go out with just an SLR and single lens. Again Crumpler was my choice and I picked up a 'Four million dollar home' which has been my most used bag when traveling light is important.
Fast-forward another year and my latest purchase is a belt and bag system from Think Tank Photo who are a team of designers and working pro-photographers who simply design great, functional bags for photographers. The system I purchased consists of a padded belt and various 'skin components' which are like mini-bags designed to hold individual items. So I have a component that will hold a flash, one for an SLR body, one for a mid range zoom, one for my 70-200mm plus extras for items such as filters, leads, memory cards and other stuff. The 'Skin set' is certainly worth checking out and is now also available in Australia from Photo Continental.

So what will be my next bag....?

Well for now I think I'm very happy with the selection I have! - I have certainly been very impressed with the range of bags from Think Tank especially the 'Shapeshifter' backpack so who knows... I may even have a go and enter the Kata competition and if I'm lucky finally get the bag of my dreams!!