Meet the Mastodon, an off-road wheelie backpack
This goes on the list of weirder things I’ve done, but here it is anyway: an off-road wheelie backpack. Anyone who’s ever tried to lug a large format camera around for any amount of time knows about exhaustion and back pain. Over the years, I’ve been through a string of ever more complicated and expensive camera backpacks, trying to find one that wasn’t terrible. They all are. Earlier this year, I switched to an inexpensive frame backpack, which is more comfortable than any camera backpack I’ve ever tried.
Even a pack like this starts to feel very heavy after a couple of hours, though, so I decided that I needed a little extra help. I bought a jogging stroller on Craigslist and cannibalized the rear axle and wheels for this beast, which I have dubbed the Mastodon. It’s hard to tell from the picture, but it stands about four feet tall, and it’s surprisingly light. It’s a little top-heavy with the tripod hitched to the side like that, and it still needs some sort of kickstand so it can stand up by itself, but for a prototype I think it’s a pretty good start.
December 12, 2009