Photography would be much simpler if you just had a camera and a lens, but inevitably there’s an array of cables and accessories that need to be carried as well. Every time I add a new kind of photography to my repertoire (macro, panoramic, underwater, flash.. etc.), there’s a whole new collection of widgets, trinkets and thingamabobs that need to be remembered when I pack my bag.
Over the years I have tried out several different cable and accessory bags, but recently I finally found what I was looking for: The Think Tank Cable Management series.
Think Tank Cable Management Series
The Cable Management (v2) series features three different sizes of the lightweight accessory organizer, and each one comes with three elasticated cable ties. If you find you want more of these Red Whip cable ties, Think Tank sell them on their own in packs of ten for $10.
I’ve used a ton of different organizers over the years but what has brought me back to the Cable Management series is how lightweight they are. Each one weighs just about 100g (0.2lb) and frankly, I’ll take any weight saving I can get when I’m carrying a bag full of gear.
There are some great photography organizers out there from other companies such as Lowepro and Peak Design, but all of them are several times heavier and there’s just no need for it when the content doesn’t need padded protection. All I’m keeping in these bags is cables and non-breakable items!
Use Multiple Bags
The way I like to do things is to keep all the necessary items for one type of photography in their own bag. I have many of the small Cable Management 10 bags for things like remote camera triggers, microphones and GoPro gear, and a larger Cable Management 20 that holds all the bits and pieces for my underwater camera housing. A first Cable Management 30 holds my laptop charger, memory card readers and hard drive cables, whilst a second one holds my flash, flash cables, flash gels, grids and the TTL flash trigger.
Having things organized in these different bags means I rarely forget anything, even when I’m packing hundreds of small items on bigger trips! If I’m packing things in a hurry, it’s super fast for me to pick my tiny kit bags and get out of the door with the right gear in just a couple of minutes. To keep things further organized, I use the business card holder on the back of each bag to label the content of each kit.
The Size and Shape Is Perfect
Another thing I love is that the smallest Cable Management 10 bag is sized perfectly to fit into lens slots in camera bags. It’s super easy to fit them into your existing camera bag layout! The Cable Management 20 also fits well in most top pockets of hiking packs and many outdoor photo packs. I have experimented with all kinds of cable bags from companies like Peak Design, MindShift Gear, Lowepro and Think Tank but none of their solutions has a size and shape that is quite so convenient.
Where to buy + Get a free gift!
As always, I really appreciate it when you guys use the links on my pages to buy your gear. I may make a small commission when you do that, but it doesn’t cost you a penny more, and it’s how I fun the time and effort that goes into all this content.
US Customers spending over $50 in Think Tank Photo’s online store can get a free gift at checkout after following one of the links to the store from this review–like this one. If you have any issues, please follow the instructions on this page.
If you’re shopping outside of the USA, where sadly Think Tank will not ship to, you can use the links below to find the products on B&H Photo and Amazon. Living in Canada as I do, I shop internationally from B&H all the time and it’s an absolute breeze because I can pre-pay all the tax and duties so there’s no surprises!