bgorum Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I'm searching for a newer, larger backpack to carry my gear. I'm currently using an F-stop Loka, with a large pro ICU, but I've kind of outgrown it. What I'm carrying is a Nikon D500, D750, 20 1.8, 24-85vr, 70-180 micro, 200-500vr, 2 Flashpoint zoom Li-on flashes, R2 transmitter, Wimberly macro bracket, and other odds and ends. The camera and lenses fit, (sort of), in the ICU and all the flash gear goes into an F-stop Harney pouch that lives on top of the ICU, accessed via the top opening of the pack. I took a quick picture with my cell phone and posted it below.
20170526_071148 by Bill Gorum, on Flickr
My 20mm lens only fits if I keep it in a pouch, (to protect from scratches), and lay it loosely on top of the 70-180 micro attached to the D750. You can also see at the top of the picture how the Harney pouch's weight is pushing down onto the ICU. It really pushes it down even more if I remove the D500 and 200-500. In the future I plan to upgrade the 20 to a 14-24 and the 24-85 to a 24-70 2.8, which will make fitting everything in even more difficult.
So I need a bigger bag. My first thought was an F-stop Sukha with my current large pro ICU and a small pro ICU on top of that. The problem is that the opening in the back of the Sukha appears to be the same size as on the Loka, (about 18 inches), and the large ICU pretty much occupies that entire opening. This means I would not have access to equipment in the small ICU from the back panel, but would have to access it through the top, (what f-stop calls hatch backing). I thought also that perhaps I could put the small ICU on the bottom of the pack, and the large ICU on top, with the last few inches hidden behind the pack material. I would then keep my longest lenses at the top of the large ICU and just slip the front of the lenses back underneath the part of the pack that is not open. Not sure how well that would work.
I also did a search on this forum and found the Mammut Trion Pro 50 and Gregory Targhee 45 backpacks that have a similar access design to f-stop, but the openings don't look any bigger than f-stop's and both those packs are smaller than the Sukha, perhaps too small for what I want to carry.
So I guess I'm looking for advice from anyone with experience carrying the amount of gear I'm trying to carry in a comfortable backpack. Incidentally, I often hike all day with the Loka and find it fairly comfortable to do so. Certainly more so than any of the Lowepro and Tamrac backpacks I've owned before.
Thanks in advance for your suggestions and sorry this is so long winded!
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