I've seen lots of references to "which camera" and touring, but I don't see this question discussed..soo..

I have a Panasonic FZ200 camera..shown here with some hands to give a sense of scale. It's a bridge-style camera, fairly small, Leica optics, huge capabilities, takes great photos...I don't want to damage it



My question...I'm thinking of adding a handlebar bag to my bike and dedicating it mainly to carrying the camera. I'd probably add some padding beyond what the bag already has. I'm thinking the Topeak Tourguide is about the right size (5L)..big enough and not too big.



Any idea how cameras like this hold up to the vibration and occasional shock of a hitting a rut in the road..while tucked away in a w-e-l-l padded handlebar bag? I know of one guy that carries this & similar cameras on his bike via a three-strap sling so it hangs from his chest while riding. He says it protects the camera well & it's readily available for a quick photo..but..I don't want to ride with it hanging off my chest..I don't think..though could if I had to.

My phone camera pic-quality pales in comparison to what the FZ200 can do..I'd really like to take the camera with me on an upcoming tour, but if I trash the camera in the process...very sad..

My cameras only last one year with the bike riding I do.

As a serious photographer, and a recent convert to biking, I was also curious about this. I normally shoot with a very large/heavy full-frame Nikon D810 or D800, which I have carried many miles in my backpack to get places you can't get by car (nature/landscape is where I make my money with my camera, hate portrait work). I also do a lot of kayaking, always worry about my $$$$ camera falling in the water, so I bought a much cheaper Nikon D3200 a few years ago to shoot while out on the water. I had the same concerns about vibrations on the bike so started carrying my D3200 in that very same Topeak HB while biking, several thousand miles later I have never had an issue. I tossed a few micro-fiber towels in the bag with it, some for cushion and also to keep my hands clean. Salty sweat from your hands will do more damage than vibrations.

Most modern cameras are tougher than you think, lack of use kills more of them than abuse. If you think about putting your camera in a backpack that gets set in the back of your vehicle it gets a lot of vibrations, as well as airplanes and just walking. I may eventually destroy this camera from vibrations but I would rather do that than leave it at home. A camera is only a camera when out shooting photos, otherwise it's just a paperweight at home.

The moisture ruined most of mine.

'Tis true...sigh..I just don't want to be buying this camera several times..I'm a buy something decent once..take care of it..use it for a long time type of guy. I agree..pristine paperweights are fairly useless.

Moisture is a concern, but it's manageable I think..the bag has a rain hood, and I have small dry bags from my kayak gear to offer additional protection..I know the type of unexpected jolts I can get on a bike though. Though..granted..my touring bike is a much cushier ride than my road bike..I'd only take the camera while touring.

padded bag schemes , and even a harness to carry the camera bag on your chest are made.

examples: https://www.ortlieb.com/en/fototasche/


Pelican cases https://www.pelican.com/us/en/ not only water tight but some are Airtight
and so have a Pressure equalization valve
so if you try to open them at a lower altitude than the last time, the air pressure difference wont work against you.

If you Justify that front rack You can make a Mount for it.

Ortlieb handlebar bar bags are showerproof , with water coming from above , But In a Flood-Stream crossing & your bike falls in,
Otherwise , immersion, it will let water in.



./.

I rate my Ortlieb Ultimate bar bag as waterproof with the caveat of not chucking it into rivers, seas, ponds etc.

A camera liner is an optional extra.

https://www.ortlieb.com/en/ultimate_camerainsert/

Having determined my bag is not going to soak my gear, I'll be hauling my Nikon next tour.

I've just got to work out what to do with all the crap I normally put into the bar bag which I don't want bouncing around scratching my camera or lenses.

I use an Arkel large bar bag with the Ortlieb camera insert. Fits perfectly. My camera is the Fuji XT-1, which is a bit larger than your Panasonic. Prior to this camera I toured for years with the same setup and a Panasonic G3.

No problems with damage so far.

The camera insert fits a DSLR sized camera and one extra lens. If your camera does not use interchangeable lenses or you choose not to bring an extra lens, you can fit a pair of sunglasses, a wallet, a phone, and a couple of energy bars in the extra space, but not much more. I've settled on a short telephoto for touring. I find changing lenses too much of a hassle while bike touring. I've been having great success with this focal length for travel photography.

My wife and I both use Sony A6000 mirrorless cameras, and have carried them in our Ortlieb bar bags for over 4000(mine) and +6000(her's) miles since we started using them. We don't want the weight or bulk of our DSLRs. My point is not trying to sell mirrorless, but to illustrate how well cameras can hold up carrying them in a padded bar bag. However, the A6000 does some things better than my Nikon, and with the large sensor the picture quality is excellent.

I agree with wished; my camera is a tool, and if it does not hold up under the conditions I use it for, I don't want it.

I recommend the Ortlieb bar bags because they are really waterproof.

Ortlieb looks to have some great solutions..could be "it". Thanks to all on the "no issues so far..after thousands of miles.." as that makes it pretty much a go for me to take the camera on the tour. Cool.

The FZ200 is a single lens 28-600mm F2.8 zoom..that's one reason I like it..a one size fits all (mostly), auto focus, fully auto to fully manual with numerous partially auto steps in between. Covers about all the bases I need covered in one small package. Invaluable tool for me while wandering down some road or trail.

Thanks folks!!

I am not sure what a bridge style camera is, this is the first I have heard that term.

I carried a Pentax X90 superzoom type camera on several bike trips in the handlebar bag, no problem. But on one fully supported trip where the tour company provided the bikes with small handlebar bags, the bikes had skinny high pressure tires and when I hit the cobble stones in some of the smaller European villages, I was quite concerned about my camera and vibration. I had a nylon webbing strap, about 3 to 4 feet long and a small drybag about 5 liters. After the first day I started to carry the camera in the drybag and used the nylon strap as a shoulder strap. That way it was not exposed to the vibration.

That said, a handlebar bag usually has enough flexibility in the mounting, that it is pretty effective at reducing shock and vibration from the contents as long as your road surface is reasonably smooth. Thus, I usually just carried the camera in the handlebar bag.

For my last two tours I left my better cameras at home and only carried a Pentax WG-3 camera. It is a point and shoot, waterproof, labeled as shockproof - crush proof - cold proof, and <insert chuckle here> labeled as "adventure proof." I stopped worrying about camera damage from being in a handlebar bag.

The WG-3 is no longer sold under the Pentax name, now sold as the Ricoh WG-4 or WG-5. At only a 4X zoom, not very good for wild life but otherwise serves all my bike touring needs. And I certainly like the waterproof feature.

My experience from years of transporting camera cases and bags in cars and on equipment trollys is that if you are going to carry a dslr in a handlebar bag, it is really in your best interests to add in good vibration absorbing material under the camera, as I would consider a bike to expose a camera to much more vibratation effect than any of the shooting on location transportation we used to do. Tire widths, pressures, and road surfaces are varying factors, but I would err on the side of caution with putting foam, bubble wrap, whatever, under your camera given that it is a fair amount heavier than the point and shoots that I have carried in handlebar bags over the years.
I've never carried full film or digi bodies on bike tours, partly because I didnt want the weight, partly because I didnt want to think about or worry about them, and partly to just have the freedom of a point and shoot. I have done lots of travelling with professional bodies from 35mm to 4x5, and it very much comes down to using some common sense with padding, but just keep in mind that 4, 5, 6 hours a day on a bike going over roads with all kinds of vibrations is a heck of a lot more than travelling to a job, but it is fairly easy to make up some good vibration absorbing surrounding material, if you really want to go the route of taking your camera.
I just never could be bothered myself, even back in the film days, took point and shoots.

Couple of thoughts after reading posts from others . . . moisture is bigger problem probably than vibration in my experience as a photographer and photography teacher. I do have that Topeak bag you mentioned, nice bag but NOT waterproof. I probably have carried my DSLR in that bag maybe 1500 miles without any real concern. My solution if it started raining I would stick it inside a gallon freezer Ziplock bag, much more waterproof than their standard storage bags. I would not leave it in there unless it was actually raining, otherwise it just sat in my bag, usually with a couple of micro-fiber towels for cushion. Just picked up my new Surly DT yesterday as my new travel bike, and added an Ortleib handlebar bag in the purchase to avoid the rain concerns of the much cheaper Topeak bag.

Handlebar bags don't vibrate as much as panniers from watching the bags as I ride, have no real proof of that other than observation.

I have considered going mirrorless for travel but right now can't see the expense when consumer-grade DSLR is cheaper and works fine for now. When this one dies I may reconsider, it's just a matter of expense of going to a new system when the current works fine for me. I have carried my professional DSLR some, but for weight and cost-concern I use a consumer DSLR on the bike for most trips.

Today's smartphones actually take photos as good as most point & shoots. I have taught Advanced Placement Photography the last 7 years with a pass rate way above national average, probably 95% or more of my students achieved a passing score on a university-level art class with their smartphones. Personally I still love my DSLR but have starting shooting more and more with my iPhone. The biggest secret to decent smartphone photos is to ditch the phone app that comes with it, download/purchase a better app and it's amazing what it can do. It's not a DSLR but it's pretty good for the average photo shooter.

I think rear panniers are also forgiving when comes to vibration and jarring.

We have carried our disc drive net-book in our rear panniers for a bunch of miles without any problems.

I agree, moisture is the biggest problem. I use a UV filter to protect the lens, and leave the lens cap at home. It allows me to get quick shots even in a moderate shower. When the filter gets scratched, it is replaced. I consider the filter an expendable item.

I have carried my Olympus OM-D EM-1 and a 17mm Olympus lens in a top-tube bag, an Alpkit Fuel Pod. I haven't tried it with my 14-150mm lens but it might be a goer, just has to be disconnected when riding. I have blogged on it as in my write-up of my Bacchetta Giro. Just do a search on the page for the section if interested.



I have however found the OM-E- EM-1 really too big for bikepacking and touring purposes I have now decided to purchase a second-hand Olympus OM-D EM-5 II which will be my second boby and hopefully my touring camera.

I haven't had any issues carrying the camera in the top-tube bag or in my handlebar bag in the past.

My smartphone is a Galaxy S3. Under the right conditions it can take a very nice picture, but as soon as the conditions get a little more challenging(lower light, any kind of contrast)..it fades to mediocre really fast. And the zoom is minimal.

I know DSLR's have been around for many years now..though I have to say..the last 'real' camera I bought(beyond simple point and shoots) was a Nikon F2AS..still have it (as well as a 4x5). The one I have now(FZ200) I picked up in a good package deal for $200 after discounts.

I went to school for photography in the '70's and nearly made it my career..though life happened..and now it's now. It's rather stunning how easy it is to do things with the FZ200 that took a fair amount of skill & lots of time to master 40 years back. Fun camera.

The Ortleib bags sound like the way to go. With some extra padding and care..it sounds like the FZ200 is going touring..very cool.

Thanks again to everyone..this is exactly the info I was looking for..

While not a good shot, it is one that would be very difficult to get with a smart phone. An eye level viewfinder really helps. Actually, the picture is much sharper than what is shown after reducing the size and inserting here.

I was riding next to my daughter, and took my camera out the bar bag and took several pictures of her as we rode along. Many of my pictures of fellow riders are taken while riding. The point is: if you do this kind of picture taking, it is desireable to have a bar bag that is easy to access and secure while on the move.

Something to think about when buying a bar bag.

My wife riding along taking a picture of me riding beside her taking a picture of her Notice that her bar bag has been opened on the fly and camera removed with one hand.

Am I the only one that carries a waterproof and shockproof camera?

it would appear so!
But while I don't keep track of new cameras much anymore, my impression is that there are numerous really good waterproof/shockproof ones out there by numerous companies, lots more than just a few years ago.
They would certainly make a great travel camera--in the past they used to have limited zoom capabilities because of the flat front and non extending lens, but perhaps that has changed for the better. Cost of course might be more, but worth it for them not getting sand problems or whatever over time.

Thousands of people tour, Never Reading this forum, And Manage figuring out things for themselves.

So you have been counting them?

We See Hundreds Passing thru Astoria, touring the west coast every summer, from many Countries of Origin.

Only A few avail the services of the Local Shop.. We go thru a case of the ODOT Free Coast route maps every Year.

My cameras all survived. Some have a few thousand km, including a few hundreds km on gravel. All except a "rugged" camera that's been dropped on pavement too many times while riding.

I usually take my D810, a couple lenses and a big tripod. I do fine with a couple of those foam inserts for backpacks and further wrapping the lenses /body with neoprene sleeves.

If anything is going to kill the camera and lenses, it'll be either the weather, or a major crash that'll probably kill me too.