Veteran Member Registered: September, 2010 Location: Somewhere in the Southern US Posts: 12,285 | Review Date: December 3, 2011 | Recommended | Price: None indicated
| Rating: 8 |
Pros: | Design, Security, Quality of materials, Size | Cons: | Design, oddball front zipper | | I was given this bag for Christmas last year by my children. Its a very well made bag with lots of features and plenty of room for a K-x/r + flash + 4 lenses in the main compartment.
The top compartment is domed shaped and larger than many of the other bags of this size and type. There is a zippered mesh pouch on the strap near the base of the bag for small items. There are also two flat compartments on the side opposite the opening to the main camera area. One is zippered and about 4inx4in with a slightly curved zippered opening. The other is 4in x 7-8in and made of a spandex-type material. The straps are very well padded top and bottom with loops to help keep them in place when not being used. There is a side strap for extra security that can be stored in a small opening in the back of the bag.
The bottom is flat enough for the bag to stand most of the time and made of a denser more impermeable material. Zippers all have nice storage areas. The interior is international orange so its easy to find items that may have come loose. There is a mesh pocket inside the domed storage compartment as well. It has a separate zippered compartment in the back of the bag for the rain cover to be stored.
The main compartment is fully reconfigurable with velcro dividers and each interior wall accepts the velcro making it easy to change the size and placement of the interior compartments. The opening is differently configured from most sling bags that I have seen. It is not one that is opened partway for use in accessing the camera and more fully for loading and unloading the lenses and other materials. The camera access opening serves only that purpose, to access the other stored items there is a separate opening in the back of the bag that is heavily cushioned. The camera opening is different in several other respects as well - it has 3 closures including zippers, velcro, and male-female plastic snap-in. The flap to the camera opening also has a padded handle that when all the closures are in place allows you to carry the bad sideways rather easily.
Accessing the main compartment for changing the configuration or getting at all the items means opening the main flap on the back of the bag via a 3/4 zipper that stores in nice rubber receptacles that keep them from flapping and rattling. The back has some of the most serious cushioning, including a lumbar pad, of any bag I have used. The back flap will not fully open and extend but is instead limited to about 60 degrees by elastic mesh that is intended to keep items from falling out when the back is opened and the bag is in the upright position. In addition to the standard dividers that we have all seen making 4 lens openings, there is a velcro strap about 2in in width that makes the space on top of the lens attached to the camera that is inserted into the compartment another long flat compartment of its own perfect for a flash.
Overall, very stylish with lots to recommend it. The only thing missing is some way to carry a tripod. The Cons for me are two main ones: the unique main storage area configuration is nice in lots of ways but makes accessing a 2nd lens much harder than it is in the more traditional sling bags that allow you to open the camera opening more fully, and the straps are very wide and comfortable but a wee bit short for me at 6'2". | |