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Can you help me find a backpack or bag for my upcoming trip?

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Retzius

Retzius

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Hello all.

I will be visiting Maui in August and need a new bag to carry my gear. I currently have a small shoulder bag and working out of it with my gear is a jumbled disaster.

I will be bringing:

Nikon D7000

Nikon 10-24

Nikon 16-85

Nikon 70-300

Nikon 35 1.8

Nikon SB-700

Bogen tripod and ball head

Miscellaneous stuff (filters, batteries, etc. etc.)

I am thinking I should get a backpack, possibly with another section to carry my daily necessities like water, food, parka, etc.

I will be traveling with my family (wife and two young kids) so I need to be able to walk with it and access it rather easily. I would rather not have to lay the bag down on the ground and fumble through things while the family is becoming impatient.

Any suggestions on how to carry this gear would be helpful.

Thanks!
 
How about a 'normal' camera holster type bag for the camera and your most used lens, and a backpack for whatever else you want to take with you?

Personally I prefer to take no more than two lenses with me on a day trip, picked in advance for the expected conditions. I might have a sub-optimal choice if I'm unlucky, but I don't have to cart extra weight around, and can enjoy my day out more.
 
I use a Lowepro backpack to transport everything I'm bringing on the plane. Then, like Bunjo, I use a small bag, in my case a now-discontinued small Lowepro messenger bag for my daily use. Carry very little, make do with what you bring. Work with what ya got.

As for your family's impatience, well, judging by your gear list, I can see that will be a problem regardless. For me, I've found that there are "photo trips" and "family trips" and rarely do the twain meet. I try to get up early while others are sleeping, catch the early light, spend the family time later, then maybe peel off for the late light. But, that's just one opinion.

And sorry for giving unsolicited advice...
 
Retzius said:
Hello all.

I will be visiting Maui in August and need a new bag to carry my gear. I currently have a small shoulder bag and working out of it with my gear is a jumbled disaster.

I will be bringing:

Nikon D7000

Nikon 10-24

Nikon 16-85

Nikon 70-300

Nikon 35 1.8

Nikon SB-700

Bogen tripod and ball head

Miscellaneous stuff (filters, batteries, etc. etc.)

I am thinking I should get a backpack, possibly with another section to carry my daily necessities like water, food, parka, etc.

I will be traveling with my family (wife and two young kids) so I need to be able to walk with it and access it rather easily. I would rather not have to lay the bag down on the ground and fumble through things while the family is becoming impatient.

Any suggestions on how to carry this gear would be helpful.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Your equipment list is very large. It amounts to about 10-12 liters of equipment not including the tripod, and perhaps 10-12 lbs of weight. I would recommend that you not carry everything everywhere, but rather select the lenses and accessories for the day's activities. I used a ThinkTank ChangeUp V2 waist/shoulder bag for a recent RTW trip to carry a D7100/18-105/70-300/10-20, but didn't carry much else than a rolled up jacket and a small tablet for a guide book in most areas. My favorite bag, but you have to be judicious...and when I was out and about, I carried only one other lens than what was on the camera. The 70-300 is really only for wildlife shots in special situations. For most purposes an 18-105 or 16-85 covers it.

In one part of the trip, I used a 27L hiking bag with a side entry door and a custom camera equipment insert. That was because I had to carry about 15-20L of backcountry essentials for a 2 week trek in addition to the camera with my 18-105 and a 10-20. That bag became my carry-on bag, but in the checked luggage the ChangeUp lay waiting, folded flat, for the day's activities in more urban areas.

For what you are doing you should strongly consider something like the MindShiftGear Panorama 22L, which has a decent size waistbag that easily rotates to the front, plus another 17L of storage in the backpack. Describing it here would be a waste of time; go to their website to see the bag in action. As long as you are carrying only a couple of small zooms, the Panorama's waistbag lets you easily work and change lenses without removing the bag, and the bag carries dang comfortably. You can also get an insert for the backpack that will allow you to carry your entire kit from location to location, but if you want to carry many personal items the insert, with your extra equipment, will need to stay in your hotel room.

Beyond that, you will need to consider a bag somewhere around 30L. MindshiftGear just introduced the Horizon, which is a 34L bag with 27L of backpack space and a 7L waistbag which will swallow your entire kit and still leave room for personal effects. It's not small, however.

Personally, I would pare my kit down to a 3-lens essential: 16-85/10-24/35, and only pack the 70-300 if you use it heavily. The 35 is hardly needed for most situations, ditto the flash. Tripods, unless you have endless time on your hands, are a clumsy annoyance. Leave those for the pure photography trip, not a general family vacation.
 
A backpack does not give you easy access to your gear no matter what the bag manufacturers and other people say. The easiest access to gear is a shoulder bag, or perhaps a sling bag.

A decent shoulder bag allows you to open the top and change lens without any problems, the downside is it only fits over one shoulder.

Backpacks by definition go on your bag, try changing a lens with the bag on your back, not possible.

Having said all that a backpack is the best if you're going to lug all your gear around all day. I don't recommend that at all.

Sounds like one of the very many sling bags for you.
 
Retzius said:
Hello all.

I will be visiting Maui in August and need a new bag to carry my gear. I currently have a small shoulder bag and working out of it with my gear is a jumbled disaster.

I will be bringing:

Nikon D7000

Nikon 10-24

Nikon 16-85

Nikon 70-300

Nikon 35 1.8

Nikon SB-700

Bogen tripod and ball head

Miscellaneous stuff (filters, batteries, etc. etc.)

I am thinking I should get a backpack, possibly with another section to carry my daily necessities like water, food, parka, etc.

I will be traveling with my family (wife and two young kids) so I need to be able to walk with it and access it rather easily. I would rather not have to lay the bag down on the ground and fumble through things while the family is becoming impatient.

Any suggestions on how to carry this gear would be helpful.

Thanks!
Click to expand...
It looks like you are looking for those hybrid backpacks where you could put extra things in the top compartment. Problem here is, you have too many equipment too fit in a bottom compartment of such a backpack.

I did research similar backpack last year from my africa trip and I think your best bet is Lowepro Fastpack 350. You can fit the camera + the lenses in the bottom compartment, but you have to put the flash somewhere else. it has a side entry door, so you can access the camera without taking the pack off from your shoulder. The top compartment is also quite big and it has a large laptop compartment also.

Tamrac and few other companies have similar design, but I found Lowepro was most value for money.
 
romfordbluenose said:
A backpack does not give you easy access to your gear no matter what the bag manufacturers and other people say. The easiest access to gear is a shoulder bag, or perhaps a sling bag.

A decent shoulder bag allows you to open the top and change lens without any problems, the downside is it only fits over one shoulder.

Backpacks by definition go on your bag, try changing a lens with the bag on your back, not possible.

Having said all that a backpack is the best if you're going to lug all your gear around all day. I don't recommend that at all.

Sounds like one of the very many sling bags for you.
Click to expand...
Um, ya... that's not true. I use the Lowepro Flipside 400. It goes on my back. I use the waist belt and leave a little slack in it so that all I need to do is flip it off my back, spin it around to my waist, unzip the access compartment and I have access to all my gear. Change lenses or whatever, zip it back up and flip it back up on my back. Easy. It's a great backpack and you can carry a bunch in it. I carry my D810, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 F4, and 14-24 2.8 all together along with some accessories.

If you leave the right amount of slack in the waist belt, it literally lays flat (90 degrees to) off your waist for easy access.
 
Sounds like all you need is a wide zoom and maybe a super zoom. And maybe a macro? The lowepro aw200 should handle all that with ease.
 
romfordbluenose said:
A backpack does not give you easy access to your gear no matter what the bag manufacturers and other people say. The easiest access to gear is a shoulder bag, or perhaps a sling bag.

A decent shoulder bag allows you to open the top and change lens without any problems, the downside is it only fits over one shoulder.

Backpacks by definition go on your bag, try changing a lens with the bag on your back, not possible.

Having said all that a backpack is the best if you're going to lug all your gear around all day. I don't recommend that at all.

Sounds like one of the very many sling bags for you.
Click to expand...
Yes, true. A working bag provides waist-level access at the front of the body. This means a waist belt or a shoulder bag, but preferably a waist belt with direct top access rather than a flip-over flap. A transport bag needs to be comfortable under load but you do not work out of it. Ideal for a backpack.

Side-access or back-access backpacks, most designed to be swung off one or both shoulders, work for moderate loads and need to be fairly shallow to work easily. That being said, my customized hiking bag with a side portal actually worked quite well as a holster...reach back, unclip the closure, pull out the camera...click, put back in, clip the closure. Not a hitch in 200 miles of through-hiking. However, it was swing off one shoulder to change a lens, which was not done very much.

This is why the Rotation 180 series bags are a very interesting development...they combine the comfortable carry of a backpack with waist-level front-of-body access to your camera and additional lenses. And they work. They're not cheap, but they work, well.

Personally, my jury is still out with the Rotation series. There is a slight volumetric and weight price to pay in the structure needed to provide the rotating waist bag, and MindShift hasn't quite dialed in the correct dimensions for a true hiking bag yet (tall, slim, thin), but they're getting closer with the Horizon 34L. I just wonder why most bag manufacturers think most photographers have VERY short torsos....

Sling Bags? Except for very light kits, they're neither fish nor fowl and smell worse than both as far as my body is concerned.
 
Chris D7k said:
romfordbluenose said:
A backpack does not give you easy access to your gear no matter what the bag manufacturers and other people say. The easiest access to gear is a shoulder bag, or perhaps a sling bag.

A decent shoulder bag allows you to open the top and change lens without any problems, the downside is it only fits over one shoulder.

Backpacks by definition go on your bag, try changing a lens with the bag on your back, not possible.

Having said all that a backpack is the best if you're going to lug all your gear around all day. I don't recommend that at all.

Sounds like one of the very many sling bags for you.
Click to expand...
Um, ya... that's not true. I use the Lowepro Flipside 400. It goes on my back. I use the waist belt and leave a little slack in it so that all I need to do is flip it off my back, spin it around to my waist, unzip the access compartment and I have access to all my gear. Change lenses or whatever, zip it back up and flip it back up on my back. Easy. It's a great backpack and you can carry a bunch in it. I carry my D810, 24-70 2.8, 70-200 F4, and 14-24 2.8 all together along with some accessories.

If you leave the right amount of slack in the waist belt, it literally lays flat (90 degrees to) off your waist for easy access.
Click to expand...
Yes, I've got a flipside. Yes you can do as you say but it gets a bit of a bind when you want to keep changing lens. I use it when I'm taking out a lot of gear but I still prefer something over my shoulder so the change is a lot faster when needed.

And as I said you can't change your lens with it on your back.
 
That's a lot of stuff to be hauling, but I have done worse.

I have a Kata backpack, lots of room for your gear plus tripod. The model is a 476i. Has a rain coat so you can protect against light showers etc. Top compartment good for raincoat, extras. Three more pockets for smaller items like batteries and keys. Laptop pocket. Now, the do not make it anymore but they have other models available. Easy to get to stuff.

The second option would be to get a lowepro AW 202, sling bag. All your phot gear will go into the bottom. Top is available for extras and a front (back) pocket for filters, batteries etc. I like sling bags because I can simply rotate the bag to the front pull out my camera and be shooting in 30 sec or less, and put it away right after. Alternatively carry the pack and sling bag in opposite directions cross wise. I have a Lowepro 102 and it fits everything but my big lenses, 80-200 f/2.8 for example. The 70-300 will fit no problem in a 202.

Good luck.
 
I always usually Buy +1 Size to what I need.I bought a Lowepro 500AW Flipside after much research and am very happy with it.

It can fit my 150-600 with lens hood and on body, as well as a lot more lenses and equipment, a a a 10.1" tablet etc.

Plenty of room and completely configurable internals for whatever your need be. I don't load it up with all the gear I have (plenty of free space) and yet still have a good fit and protection.

It's much safer as only opens from inside however if you are changing between 1-2 lenses at the location, as advised it can be cumbersome, however adding a lens carrying case/pouch that you can attach to the bag/belt for quick swaps works great.

Loading…

store.lowepro.com
 
Carrying the tripod makes the decision harder. I'm not sure if you can find a backpack with easy access while a tripod is attached. I use Thinktank bags and think the design and build quality is outstanding. A Thinktank Streetwalker pack would work well however you would need to lay down to remove equipment .
 
BillyBobSenna said:
Carrying the tripod makes the decision harder. I'm not sure if you can find a backpack with easy access while a tripod is attached. I use Thinktank bags and think the design and build quality is outstanding. A Thinktank Streetwalker pack would work well however you would need to lay down to remove equipment .
Click to expand...
 
Wow that is quite a backpack system. Too complex for my taste. For my uses, I take the backpack on and off a lot. I think it would be a pain to take this system on and off a lot. Looks like this system is mainly for hikers.
 
BillyBobSenna said:
Wow that is quite a backpack system. Too complex for my taste. For my uses, I take the backpack on and off a lot. I think it would be a pain to take this system on and off a lot. Looks like this system is mainly for hikers.
Click to expand...
 
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