So I had a rummage around in my camera bag for today’s Gear Check post and I pulled out this handy little travel towel called the PackTowl Luxe. PackTowl have been making ultralight towels for backpackers for many years, and I’ve owned several for travel and backpacking purposes. More recently, they came out with the Luxe line of towels, and when I saw one in my local outdoor store I knew I had to have one for my camera bag. I primarily keep it in my bag to dry my camera and lenses off after I’ve been shooting in the rain or snow. Stowing a wet camera in a bag is a surefire way to get condensation issues. What I specifically like about the PackTowl Luxe is that it’s ultra absorbent, and also has a small loop on it for clipping it to the outside of your bag when you want to dry it off. I used to scramble around in all my pockets looking for all the tiny lens cloths I could find when things got wet, but now I just use this little thing. It’s also great for cleaning all the face gunk off the back of your camera, and makes for a handy protective wrap when you want to stack items on top of each other in your camera bag.
Fans of Douglas Adams’ book, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy may remember that “you should always know where your towel is“. Well, mine’s in my camera bag.
The PackTowl Luxe is available in a variety of different sizes, but the small size, for about $13 makes the most sense for one to keep in your camera bag. You probably won’t find much use for such an item if you shoot in a studio or live in a desert, but shooting and living in the mountains, I find it to be a very useful part of my kit!