A tracker for camera bag kit and hire equipment

What actually happens to camera kit

Very little of it is stolen dramatically. The usual stories are duller and more preventable.

A bag left under a table at a wedding while you photograph the speeches. A boot break-in in a retail park car park between the shoot and the drive home. A pelicase that goes missing between the loading bay and the van on a busy multi-camera day. Hire kit that comes back one lens short and nobody can say which of six freelancers had it. A rucksack put down on a train seat and picked up two stops later by someone else.

Two categories, and they need different responses. Losses want a locator. Thefts want a record.

What to look for in a tracker for camera bag use

The specifications that matter here are not the ones on the front of the box.

Thin, so it can hide. A tag that has to sit in a pouch is a tag a thief finds in ten seconds. What you want is something flat enough to slide under a foam divider or into the base panel of a rucksack.

Loud, because studios are noisy. Finding a black bag in a room full of black bags is a job for a speaker, not a map. Somewhere in the 80–100 dB range is the sensible floor.

Sealed, because kit lives outdoors. Anything that goes on location gets rained on eventually. IP67 is the baseline.

A replaceable coin cell. Hire businesses in particular do not want a fleet of sealed tags all expiring in the same quarter. A CR2032 you change yourself makes each tag a decade-long asset.

On a network with real density. A private tracking network is only as good as the number of people carrying it. The Find My network uses other people's Apple devices, which in a British city means the map keeps updating without anyone choosing to help.

Where to hide one

Ranked roughly by how long it would take a thief to find.

1. Under the foam. Cut a slot in the bottom layer of a divider set. Invisible, protected, and it does not move when the case is opened.
2. Inside a base or laptop panel. Most decent camera rucksacks have a stiffened panel with a gap behind it.
3. Sewn into a lining seam. Ten minutes with a needle. Effectively undiscoverable without cutting the bag apart.
4. In a lens pouch you never use. Fine for loss, weak for theft.
5. Clipped to the outside on a key ring. Only worth doing for the thing you keep losing rather than the thing you fear losing.

For hire fleets, tag the case rather than the item, and record which tag is in which case. A tag whose name is a stock number is worth ten tags called "Camera".

Being clear about the limits

This is where honesty pays for itself later.

There is no live trail. Positions arrive when a passing Apple device happens to overhear the tag, so you get a series of confirmed sightings with timestamps rather than a moving dot. In a busy area that can be minutes apart. In a rural yard it can be nothing for a day.

There is no arrow. Ultra Wideband Precision Finding, which walks you in with a direction and a distance, is not present in tags at this price. You get a map and a sound.

And there is no self-help clause. If a tag shows your stolen kit at an address, that information goes to the police, along with the crime reference number you will need for the insurance claim anyway. Turning up at the door yourself is how a property crime becomes something much worse. Insurers want the crime reference; the tag data supports the report, it does not replace it.

Building it into a working routine

• Tag every case, not every item, and keep a one-line register of which is which.
• Photograph serial numbers and store them with the register. Recovered kit gets returned to whoever can prove ownership.
• Use the left-behind alert on the bags you carry personally, it catches the wedding-table scenario before it becomes a story.
• Share the location of hire cases with whoever is running the job, so the producer can check without ringing you mid-take.
• Check tag batteries at the same time you check camera batteries, quarterly.

How the Locata Tag suits working kit

The Locata Tag measures 36.3 mm across and 9 mm deep, which is the practical reason it goes where you want it, under a foam layer, behind a panel, in a seam, rather than dangling off a zip announcing itself. It is IP67 rated for the location work, and the CR2032 inside runs up to two years before a ten-second swap, which is what makes a fleet of them affordable to maintain.

It is an MFi certified accessory for the Find My network, so it shows up in Apple's own app under Items with encrypted location reporting, no subscription and no third-party account for a freelancer to lose the password to. Within about 60 m, Play Sound will bring 80–100 dB out of it, which is how you find the right case backstage. iPhone and iPad only, on iOS 14.5 or later.

Since kit travels in pairs, so do the tags: two in a box with two key rings, free UK delivery. Have a look at a box.