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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · ergonomic photo backpack - Show us photos of your backpacks, bags | |
I don't have the aforementioned Ospreys, but I have other Osprey packs and love their stuff. They make great backpacks, probably better than any camera pack. The trouble (for me) is that general purpose backpacks aren't great camera bags -- none I've yet seen, anyway. If you don't need on-the-fly camera access, however, you don't really need a camera bag, so save your back and your money and get an Osprey or some such.
I also love Peak Design's stuff, and I own a sampling of most of their product line at this point. The Peak Design backpack looks absolutely stellar at gear access. It was not available when I bought my Lowepro Photo Sport 200. Based solely on the product video and my positive past experiences with Peak Design, I fully expect that to be a great option...Except for that hip belt. I've never, ever seen a straight fabric hip belt like that that did anything more than a token amount of load bearing. For a backpack to carry a heavy load well without fatigue, the hip belt has to be structural, and seat belt ribbons just aren't. You also need some kind of frame-like rigidity that's attached to that hip belt, as was just pointed out. The Lowepro doesn't have an internal hard frame, but it does have very dense foam in the back plate that does the same thing -- you couldn't 'frame' a 60 liter expedition pack with that stuff, but it's stiff enough for this job.
I'm able to carry my a7rii, 2470GM, a6300, Batis 85, 10-18, 70-300G, skinny laptop (in the dromedary compartment where it actually *aids* structural rigidity), a small tablet, chargers/ wires/ batteries/ accessories, and non-camera incidentals, all on my hips with loose shoulder straps that simply keep the pack from flopping over backwards away from my body (that's for airplane travel; it'd be a miserable load to schlep daily, and nothing would be easily accessible).
One of my nits is that the hip belt is not repositionable along the vertical axis. That's why I gave you my body height -- it fits me great, but it might not fit you. Relatedly, the hip belt isn't removable. When I'm carrying lighter loads and/or swinging the bag around to switch gear a lot, I don't want to fasten the hip belt, and it becomes extraneous. I'd love a Peak Design pack for days like that -- gear access looks absolutely great. (Thanks a helluva lot for the GAS, gang; yeah, I really needed that!...)
Now I'm worried that I'm overselling the Lowepro, so I'll include what I don't like below. It reads like a lot, because I've had a lot of backpacks and have a lot of opinions about them, but in my mind these are all just nitpick compared to load-bearing capability.
Good luck in your lifelong quest for the perfect bag!
Desired Improvements:
1) Detachable/repositionable hip belt and mesh back plate (but what they did works ok).
2) Top pocket should be larger, and I can hardly get my hand inside the zippered opening to fish stuff out. Interior side pocket is too small, and it's also so skinny it's hard to fit in anything much thicker than a filter box - the mesh there needs slack. Add a second, opposing interior pouch (dorsal interior).
3) Dromedary bag pocket is too slim/doesn't expand /puts pressure on the bag /would increase likelihood of a leak /only accepts a small water bag, anyway. Make it wider, and it's a better laptop compartment, anyway. External pouch pocket is also too narrow for a water bottle, and it's insufficiently elasticated (it'll hold only a 500-750ml bottle, depending on shape).
4) Buckles, straps, and cinches are a bit over engineered - it's not a heavy pack, so it's not really a problem, but some elements seem extraneous. Relatedly, there's a 4 buckle exterior suspensioning / top cover system that seemingly could have been done with 2 buckles. But, using 4, they did a smart thing with some buckles and made them orange (others black) to make it easier to find the right buckle - except that only the male buckles were made orange and every other buckle is black instead of orange-to-orange and black-to-black, so the color ends up being no help at all. Also, invert one set of buckles so the only way it's even possible to connect them is the right way. Or, just do it with 2 buckles plus straps.
5) Main compartment has a way for little things to get lost deep at the bottom - the upside to that design is that you might be able to put a skinny tripod or something tall entirely inside (if you don't use the exterior pouch). Seal off the upper compartment and close it via velcro - best of both worlds. This will also take central compartment load off the camera box, which sometimes gets squeezed, making it harder to get your camera out. Also, the camera box compression bungee really doesn't seem to do anything useful in real life.
6) Camera compartment interior needs to be all felt so you can put the partition anywhere. As it is, there's only a narrow band you can stick the thing.
7) "Lowepro" is permanently and prominently stamped on the bag. Stitch it on so I can cut off the big "steal me" sign.
[Hope Lowepro reads this.]
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