For the safety of your stuff, either:

1) Zip up the bag completely
2) leave the cover wide open if it's unzipped.

Leaving the camera bag unzipped, with the flap covered is dangerous.

If someone decides to pick up the bag without checking the zipper, your stuff has a good chance of falling out. If you have a backpack or any other side-flap bag, it's almost guaranteed your stuff will fall out.

This has happened to me twice. The first time my stuff fell out and landed on carpet. The second time happened over concrete . The flap fell open but my stuff didn't fall out (luckily the 'helper' froze once the flap fell open, and didn't tilt the bag any more).

Luckily my camera bag looks like it weighs about 200 pounds so people don't usually go trying to pick it up. But still, be careful.

- Frank

 

Did that with my backpack once. Once.

Luckily nothing actually fell out of the bag as it was only unzipped about 2/3 of the way down the sides. Now it's automatic. Either the bag is zipped back up or the flap is left completely flipped open.

 

I learned that lesson when I left my fishing tackle box unlatched one day and proceeded to empty the contents on my carpeted floor. It wasn't such a big deal, I just picked up all the lures and threw them back in the box. However, a pain in the ass turned into a pain in the foot the following day... I managed to impale my foot on a treble hook and was stuck on the carpet for an hour or so until someone could pass me some wire cutters to cut the hook.

To this day, bags or boxes are never left in a semi-closed position. They're either obviously open or closed shut.

 

+1

although this has happened to me with my smaller S1 IS camera and the mini camera bag i used with it. needless to say the camera is perfect except for a scuff on one edge.

 

Yes, I've worried about the same thing. My LowePro has a clip on each side of the backpack that I make sure to connect if I leave the bag unzipped. This ensures it will not open up and dump out the contents. but as a general rule, I follow the same as you and either leave it completely zipped or all the way open.

 

I almost did this one time, but stopped myself in the nick of time. I'm pretty obsessive about zipping my Tamrac backpack now, but this is very good advice. Dan's advice about leaving it obviously open or zipped is sound and should prevent mishaps. Dumping a $2000+ SLR rig on the ground should be motivation enough.

They just don't bounce too well