backpacks

I don't have a lot of photography gear--SLR body, 2 lenses (1 80mm and 1 300mm), a hood, a few filters--but I needed a good way to haul all of it around. This is a wonderful bag to do that. It is built very well and I believe that it will protect my equipment from injury should an accident ever arise. I still have room to add a few more lenses before I outgrow this bag. I am a petite person and was able to adjust the shoulder straps small enough to be comfortable on my back--a big plus. (Only downside is that I suspect adding my tripod to the mix may be a little awkward, but nonetheless I believe I will be able to lash it somehow to the outside of the bag with minimal trouble since I don't take my tripod along very often.) All-in-all, if you need a convenient and safe way to haul "the basics" in camera equipment around, this is a great, sturdy bag for it.

I work for a private school as the official photographer. We have two Olympus digital cameras--the E-10 and the E-20. We were using a shoulder strap bag for the E-10, but when we bought the E-20, I decided to look for better bags for both of them. A photo backpack seemed much more comfortable than a shoulder strap bag (which I can't stand). Contrary to what people think, schools like the one I work at don't have a big stash of money sitting around, so I needed to find a relatively {inexpensive} bag and I ended up buying two of these bags. I found them to be great, especially during the summer, when I took the camera on a couple camping and hiking trips. When we went on hiking trips, I was responsible for a group of kids in the range of 10 to 12 years of age. Naturally, they didn't bring enough water, but I was fortunate to be able to pack five small water bottles in the backpack along with the camera and an extra lens. At one point I also had a small bag of trail mix. Now, remember that I had a digital camera that required no film. The camera is about the same size as a regular SLR camera, maybe a bit larger. The only other accessories I had were some extra sets of batteries. There a couple of zippered pouches that I used for this. When I'm not going on these hiking trips, I've had plenty of room for the camera, two extra lenses (a telephoto and a wide-angle), a charger and a water bottle or two. So unless you are planning on bringing a bunch of extra lenses, this is a great bag, especially for the price.

I returned this item because it was just not big enough for my SLR. I have two lenses, neither is huge. I tried to fit the camera with one lens on and another off, plus flash and a few other gizmos. Everything was too tight. There were several pockets inside the flap allegedly for accessories (they mentioned filters), but my filters, my notebook, my lens tissue -- none fit! They make some dubous claim about strapping on a tripod, but they don't mean a professional tripod, I guess.

I'll try the larger model and see if things are better.