Mountainsmith Parallax -- I just purchased it a few weeks before my annual trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. I had been using a Gregory regular backpackers pack and I had been afraid to switch to some of these dedicated camera packs for fear it wouldn't carry the weight as well. That fear was unfounded and the Parallax is the most convenient pack of any kind I've ever used.
On this particular trip, it carried:
*istDS body with kit lens
MX body with 24mm lens
F70-210 lens
A50/1.7 lens
lunch = sandwich, chips, nuts and cookies
raingear
Manfrotto magfiber tripod with ball head
2 Nalgene water bottles
filters
cable release for MX
gloves
hat
And there was room to SPARE! Specifically, I probably could've fit 2 more mid-sized lenses with all of that or perhaps 3 smallish ones.
It has a built-in rainfly which is nearly perfect except that it doesn't cover adequately if the tripod is mounted on the back of the pack. However, the access to the main interior compartments is through the back of the pack so if the rainfly is up and you want in there, it can still be done without removing the rainfly. The rainfly is removable for washing.
All straps can be hidden. I added a tamarac backpack strap to the shoulder straps so I could keep my DS body handy.
There is a small waist pouch that can be removed, but is ideal for filters, remotes, bubble levels, kleenex (I get sniffley sometimes), or memory cards.
It has a padded laptop sleeve (which I didn't use, but I probably will this weekend).
I tried it side-by-side with about half a dozen packs at Central Camera in Chicago. The runner-up was a Lowepro, but I didn't like the tripod mount, and the beefier padding on the straps seemed like overkill. The only advantage I felt the Lowepro had was that it carried all of the wieght closer to the body--in other words, the Mountainsmith sticks-out pretty far which might be better for someone with a bad back or weak shoulders. This is especially true if you mount the tripod to the holder on the back. My pod has a very convenient handle, so I frequently carried it instead. But the Lowepro's tripod mount was more clunky to me and it doesn't appear to have nearly the capacity or convenience overall. I am a 130lb 5' 9" weakling and I carried it full of the above items for hikes of up to 9.2 miles with a couple thousand feet elevation gain while it was raining, so I think most people would be very comfortable with this pack.
Trying hard to find additional faults, I might prefer some extra different-sized foam inserts for customizing the main interior a little more, but the standard ones definately served the purpose.
In retrospect, I only have one regret: that I didn't buy this pack several years ago.
Happy packing!
Steve
