I'm considering the switch in the near future. How much relative room is there? I need to haul quite a bit of photo gear.

 

Hey Joep...where are youuuuuuuuu????

 

My wife is also a photographer and brings her gear (lights, backdrops, etc., etc., etc.) in the Clubman. We switched from a VW Passat wagon. The Clubman works great overall.

The only difficulty we're currently having is with her backdrops - we had intended to use some custom tubes on the roof rack, but the Clubman roof rack is backordered due to engineering issues with the Mini rack. There are tons of posts in this forum about it. While Mini sorts out the issue, she tucks the backdrops into the back diagonally into the passenger seat. A little clumsy, but it works.

 

Sorry I was telling Noah that we didn't need a lift yet! Damn TS Fay!

To the question at hand. I had an Element - an EX. There is a big difference between the two vehicles. The Element is a big car and the clubman is a MINI and the room is very different. Element has two sets of dual doors so getting stuff out of the side is fairly easy, but you know that. The Clubman has the one so it's somewhat limited from the side. Plus you have the potential of floor to ceiling storage in the Element. There are seats in the Clubman so you lose some space.

Let me ask this - what type of gear are we talking? Lighting, cameras, what? I used to free lance some (small some) so I can carry my gear, but I have jsut the basic stuff. Definitely multiple cameras, tripods, and probably some lighting gear but not a huge production.

Head down to your MINI dealership and drop the back seats down and you'll see that their is good room.

As a sidenote - I was getting about 21 mpg in my Element and I'm topping that by 8 to 12 mpg. Just something to add to the equation. And the fun factor is pretty nice.

Good luck and let me know what you decide to do....

 

can you fit a bike back there with seats down and front wheel off bike?

 

I have an entire mobile studio (backdrop, 3 monolights, stands, controller, camera, unipod, posing bench, etc.) that I carry for my day job (school portraits) but travel lighter for the pet photography gigs. The backdrop is in a tube that is about 7' and everything else, with the exception of the posing bench, is in 6 suitcases.