The Ultimate Gadget Bag

There are times when I tug along with me a lot of stuff. I mean gadgets. Typical lazy vacations, when I fly away, then rent a car and drive around... I have my fully equipped D-SLR camera, with a number of lenses. It is accompanied by all sorts of accessories - filters, cleaning kits, spare batteries, chargers. I also have a second, small camera for hiking trips or skiing, it has its own set of batteries, filters, a charger. Then there is a laptop. The often mentioned here Lenovo X200s. With own power supply. Then a bunch of laptop accessories - USB cables, wireless modem / Wi-Fi router, USB sticks. This is all delicate and precious, so pack all those items as my carry-on luggage. I have been through many cases, sacks, bigger and bigger as my gadget ballast keeps getting bigger and heavier. Finally I have settled with - what I consider today the ultimate gadget case - the Pelican 1510. It is designed from the ground up to accommodate gadgets. The basic configuration is a sturdy case, with soft padded dividers, aimed at holding the photographic equipment. Quite often it is configured with the Lid Organizer, a set of zipped pouches attached to the lid. Perfect for photographers.

I am not sure for how long the Pelican 1510 has been on the market, but it surely remembers the days of analog photography. Why? Because there is no dedicated compartment for a laptop computer. And laptops today are considered photo equipment. Almost every photographer carries a laptop nowadays. Unfortunately the 1510 cannot be configured to accommodate a laptop. Or can it?

There is another version of the 1510, called the Laptop overnight case, or LOC. It does not have the photo - oriented padded divider, but on the other hand has a lid equipped with a laptop case and a pouch for power supply / cables and other small accessories.

The two variants can be merged. Unfortunately you cannot just go and buy the lid laptop pouch. You have to buy another case, the 1510 LOC, and move the lid to the original 1510. Or better, start with the 1510 LOC and buy a set of padded dividers for it (part number 1515). During my last trip to CES, I was lucky enough to "sell" my story to the marketing team of Pelican Products. They were very kind and shipped me the laptop lid insert. I hope they will make it a standard accessory. Or will even consider offering a preconfigured 1510 case with both padded dividers for cameras / lenses and a lid capable of accommodating a laptop computer. This is now my configuration of choice, and I am very happy with the case. At the moment it allows me to store all the gadget equipment I ever wanted to carry with me. And I really hope the Moore's Law and other general trends in miniaturization will continue looking forward, to balance my ever growing number of gadgets. The airline limits are strict and the 1510 is already the maximum carry on size allowed.