Marking Your Kit

sep9001

sep9001

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Kev
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Hi

What is the best way to mark lens and batteries etc without damaging it, if you are going to be using it with out photographer so that it does not get mixed up?

Thank you
 
Thank you all, might have to go with insulation tape for now.
 
The same list of items & serial numbers you have for insurance purposes?

Only go shooting with someone who uses different kit? (Canon v Nikon)
 
Small white stickers that you can write on . Most stationary shops have them
 
I belong to a local club and shoot with friends. On occasion, these friends and I try out pieces of each others gear. I started labeling anything large enough with a square of colored Duck Tape. It's not that I don't trust them. We are close friends. It's to help me identify quickly what is mine and what is not. When it's time to pack up I make certain that nobody has my color in their kits and I don't have any of theirs. They have started doing the same with their kits, but using a different unique color for their gear. Even the handles of canvas camera and light stand bags get my color as a wrap around the handle near the point where they attach to the bag. Lately, I have started adding an additional band or two of colored electrical tape next to my identification band that denotes the type of shooting that the contents of the bag will be used for. This lets me grab and go with every bag needed for a wedding (white), every bag needed for outdoor portrait shooting (Yellow), Etc. Make up your own color code, and give a hard time to anyone and beware of anyone who starts using the same color of your master colored Duck Tape. When applied for a while, it is very hard to quickly remove too. This is not to protect your gear from dishonest people. Just to help identify your gear when friends get together for shoots, and to keep from forgetting an important bag of gear when going somewhere to shoot. Notice that I didn't tell you my primary color. You will know it soon enough if we ever shoot together, which I doubt because of our distant locations.


Charley
 
Paint pen (as mentioned above), metallic Sharpie (other brands of marker pen exist!) or tape/Dymo (again, other brands exist).
 
Thank you all, in the first instance going to try the insulation tape or perm marker option and see how it goes.
 
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Insulation tape, although easy to find in electric hardware, does not tend to stay on well when used in small squares. My main ID color tapes are fabric based and stay well on smooth surfaces when cut into small squares and rectangles of 1/2 to 1" size. On canvas bag handles it does not hold as well, unless it can be wrapped completely around the strap with both ends of the tape overlapping. This way, it sticks to itself for staying in place and becomes a loop/ring around what it is attached to. I also do this to light stands and other round things, sometimes cutting the tape into narrower strips in a length that will completely encircle the item. Reflectors and soft boxes usually get just a square. My ID color is bright, so this helps when packing up in dimly lit areas after a shoot. Black is a great non-reflector and why most photo gear is that color, but it's also a major reason why photo gear gets left behind in the haste of packing up. Permanent metal markers are great, but I chose brightly colored Duck Tape to help me easily see my gear in dimly lit locations. I'm less worried about theft and more worried about accidental loss, so brightly colored marking was my choice. I have luggage tags with my business cards laminated in them on each camera bag for personal property identification. The color squares, etc. are to keep me from leaving things behind and to keep me better organized. It's a near death blow to arrive at and set up for a shoot, only to discover that you have left a critical bag behind in the studio. I'm also a "bag counter". I count how many bags go into my car when going on a photo shoot. I count them again when unloading, and count them again just before setting up, to assure that my help hasn't left anything behind in the elevator, etc. I then repeat the process in reverse to assure that everything arrives back in my studio. My color coding methods are an attempt to prevent accidental loss, if at all possible and not so much a theft control.

Charley
 
The other option is Smart Water the id of which can be read by police under ultra violet light with details entered onto a database held by the providing company such as Slecta DNA. It was provided free to local residents by the police following a spate of burglaries in our area some years ago. It can be used to code mark anything from rings and watches to motor vehicles.
 
Not ideal for someone who just wants to be able to tell his/her kit apart from someone else's while out "in the field".
 
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