Greg Feldman
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 p.1 #1 · F-Stop Messenger Bag Review | |
I bought an F-Stop Maverick bag a couple of weeks ago and have been using it daily ever since. Since some people have been asking, I thought I'd post a quick review. I don't have time to do photos, but you can see quite a few at their site
The Maverick is their large messenger bag. It's similar in size to my Tamrac Messenger 9 but a bit larger. It's basically the cool hipster cousin to the Tamrac's nerdy professional traveler.
I chose the Maverick over the Bard because it is able to hold a pro body with 70-200 attached, facing down. The Bard is not able to do this.* The Maverick is bigger than I expected. I'm a small-framed guy, and it definitely looks huge on me.
Construction of the bag itself is absolutely first-rate. The materials are top-notch and sewn very well. The photo dividers themselves seem a little less "advanced" than what you might see in a Kata or Tamrac bag, but they nevertheless are functional. You can fit one body facing down in the middle or two bodies facing down at either end. There are no pillowy "cushions" that support either side of the camera, like you'll see in an Urban Disguise or Stealth Reporter.
Construction was the biggest question mark for me before ordering. You can tell a lot about the other aspects of the bag from photos and feature lists, but it's hard to see how well it's built. It's built extremely well.
The Maverick has its fair share of accessory pockets. The outside flap itself has a water-resistant zipper that opens up to let you fill almost the entire flap. Lifting the flap reveals a handful of other pockets--one that closes with Velcro and a mesh one that zips up, along with other niceties like a key holder.
You can zip up the inside flap to keep your bodies extra-safe, or you can attach it with a clever little device to the main flap so that it lifts up when you open the flap. It took me a while to figure this out, since there are no instructions and I'd never seen anything like it before.
The computer slot is inside the bag, behind the camera dividers. This is different from the Tamrac, which has a separate computer pouch on the back of the bag. It makes for a much cleaner look.
If you have specific questions, please post them here. I'll leave off with a list of pros and cons:
Pros
- First-rate construction
- Large size
- Smart, photo-oriented design (not quite Think Tank, but not far behind)
- Holds 15" laptop, possibly 17"
- Holds pro body with large zoom mounted
Cons (Things I'd Change)
- Shoulder strap is pretty long even at smallest length
- Not terribly responsive customer service*
- Large size (it's really quite big)
- No obvious way to attach a pod
*I emailed F-Stop asking something along the lines of "It looks like the Maverick can hold a pro body with 70-200 attached; can the Bard do this?" I was told something along the lines of "You cant do that, since it would be bad for the lens mount." I replied about two weeks ago to ask if they were referring only to the Bard, or if they were saying that you shouldn't do that even in the Maverick, which seems like it was custom-made for that. I never heard back.
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