New Member Registered: June, 2012 Location: Beijing, China Posts: 7 | | Review Date: December 14, 2012 | Recommended | Price: $80.00
| Rating: 9 |
| Pros: | Dimension, built quality, comfortable | | Cons: | no rain cover, no tripod holder | |
I bought this backpack beacause I need something small to carry my gear everytime I go for shooting and also when I gor for travelling. It is small, the comfort on teh shoulder is great. The upper part can be used to carry some personal stuff (to give you an idea it can contain something like 5 cans of coke). In the lower part I usually carry the K-5 without the battery grip, the DA 55-300, the DA 18-55, the DA 40 limited the M50 f1.7, the nice thing is that the DA 55-300 attached with the K5 perfectly fit inside the backpack.
You can slip the backpack on your shoulder for a fast acces to the gear (you don't have to remove the backup completely), the zip are perfectly cover to protect you to loos your gear and protect your gear from pickpocket.
The main drawnback is the lack of the rain cover and the lack of tripod holder (I had to set up one by myself)
In conclusion I can only reccomend this backpack, it perfect for the purpose for which it has been design
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Veteran Member Registered: April, 2007 Location: Gainesville Posts: 347
1 user found this helpful
| | Review Date: December 13, 2010 | Recommended | Price: $75.00
| Rating: 8 |
| Pros: | Very Portable, Accessibility, Capacity | | Cons: | Comfort, Capacity, No AW Cover | |
This bag is my first real camera backpack. It combines some of the benefits of a sling pack with the support of a backpack Lets go into some details now.
Strengths
Accessibility:
This bag is small enough that you can just slip one shoulder strap off and swing it around to your front to have quick and easy access to your gear in the bottom compartment. This means you don't need to carry your camera on your neck all day as well since you can grab it pretty quickly from the pack. It is almost more of a sling bag than a backpack in this sense.
Capacity:
This is both a strength and a weakness. It's small size makes it great to wear all day, as it doesn't get too heavy and forces you to really choose what you want. The room above the gear compartment is great for holding anything you might need on a shoot (model releases, business cards, etc.) or perfect for holding a few extra things not relating to photography. The water bottle pocket on the side is nice as well, especially since Florida can get awful hot in the summer.
Weaknesses
Comfort:
This bag is not the most comfortable bag on the market. Extra padding on the shoulder straps would have been nice. After a while, these can start to feel like they have no padding a all, something even my college book-bag manages to pull off with huge textbooks inside. Luckily, since it is small, the weight is never unbearable, but I can't imagine a bigger version being comfortable.
Capacity:
While this bag is great mostly because of its convenient size, it can only carry a camera with a lens attached (my Tamron 75-300mm f/4-5.6 fits fine) and an additional lens. There is some wasted space next to the camera body though, so I usually put my 50mm f/1.7 in that area, but there is no padding against the body. This lack of space for lenses is great for travel, but you would think they would have made the top compartment larger to accommodate the day to day things a traveler would need. You can't fit a water bottle standing up in the top compartment to give you an idea of size. I don't recommend buying this bag if you plan on "growing into" it, as there is not much room to grow into.
No AW Cover:
This is a relatively minor complaint, but not having an rain cover for this pack was a bad decision by Lowepro. Especially since one of the benefits of the pack is you can take it anywhere, it should be able to cope with some weather. The description says the material used is water resistant, but in my experience it gets soggy after a slight sprinkling of rain. I have resorted to using Zip-Loc Bags on my gear when it gets wet out, but this is hardly convenient.
Conclusion:
This bag is great for it's purpose. The only grievances I have are the lack of padding by the camera body, where there is no reason not to have it, the lack of space in the top, and the lack of padding on the straps. By the same token, this lack of space makes it incredibly convenient to carry around all day. The flaps over the zipper compartment also prevent you from dumping your gear and help eliminate pickpockets from easily getting to your stuff. I recommend this bag as a great pack for street photography, light hiking, travel photography and for day-trips. I would not recommend it for anything where there is a large risk of dropping your pack (ie, skiing, dirt biking, mountain biking, etc.) as the padding doesn't seem like it would handle that well. This is a pack for a purpose, and it serves that purpose well.
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