My quick review of the Kata 3n1 25 PL - Fantastic bag

I just switched to the Kata 3n1 25 PL from a Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW. I mainly use it as a day bag and for when I am traveling. I carry a Nikon D90 with grip, 70-300 mm lens, 11-16 mm lens, sb-700 flash, chargers, and other accessories inside with tons of room to spare.

Storage: The Kata and Lowepro have similar camera compartment capacities, but the Kata bag seems to have just a little more needed room. For me, the big draw was the top accessories compartment. You could barely fit a flash in the Lowepro, but I can easily fit a flash, sunglasses, hard drives, phone, wallet, and more in the Kata's accessory compartment. The Kata also has a great zippered compartment for a netbook, which I can easily fit with its charger cables and still have more room to spare.

Build: Build quality is excellent on the Kata. I like the Kata's material much more than the Lowepro, as it seems to me to be a bit water resistant. The bag also stands upright on its own, which is a very welcome upgrade from the Lowepro.

Straps: As my first "3n1" bag, I was pretty excited to see what it could do. I really like the fact that I can wear it as a normal backpack, as carting around a sling-only bag all day tends to get a bit sort. The padding on the straps is excellent. I love the sling and backpack positions, but I think the "X-position" needs a bit of improvement. The straps can get a little "chokey" when in X-position - a little to tight around my neck. Maybe I'm just not adjusting the straps properly, but that's what I found. Also, when you want to sling the bag to the front from x-position, you end up with your unclipped strap dangling around. Not the best for quick action. It's still a useable position, I guess it will just take more getting used to.

Accessories: The Lowepro and Kata both come with raincovers. I was a little put-off at first that the Kata's raincover was not integrated, but I realized that because it is not it can cover more of the bag. And let me tell you....I got this bag SOAKING wet. I was coming back from shooting in the mountains north of Taipei, Taiwan when it started POURING rain. I was driving a scooter, with my wife sat behind me and the bag on the platform on my feet. I had already put the rain cover on because of the mist at altitude, so I didn't need to stop to put it on again. I was really worried everything was going to get ruined. We were wearing ponchos and our clothes, socks, and shoes were still soaked. We also were getting splashed by cars passing through giant floods in the road. We got back and I took off the rain cover......and it was COMPLETELY dry. No dampness whatsoever. So Thank you very much to Kata for keeping my gear dry!

The Kata also comes with a tripod holder which I haven't tried yet as I don't have a tripod to use with it. I imagine you wouldn't really be able to use it very well in sling or x-position, only in the backpack position.

Bottom line: The Kata 3n1 25 PL is an EXCELLENT bag for daytrips. If you have a full-frame camera and a bunch of big lenses, it's probably not the bag for you (maybe the 35 pl?). But for someone who carries 3 or 4 normal size lenses, it would be perfect. It is well worth the upgrade from the Lowepro 200 AW and I highly recommend it.

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-Tom
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomintaipei/