I've been through a lot of backpacks. I've owned peak design's every day, think tank's shape shifter, goruck GR2, thule covert, brevite, ospreys... all of them have their positives and negatives, this pack has amazingly taken many of the good qualities from all of these bags and wrapped them into one. I needed a bag that could hold all my camera gear for video shoots, but I also wanted something that I could travel with and throw in some clothes. I cannot believe how much I can cram into this bag without it feeling like it's huge and keeping everything neat and compartmentalized. I love the tripod holders on the side (many of the bags i've owned have really annoying tripod holding mechanisms, or none at all)
Positives:
- Size is perfect, doesn't feel too big but can still hold a lot
- love the origami folder for when I want to carry my drone or a bigger lens
- Material quality is top notch
- Incredible amount of storage thanks to stretchy material on the front, can hold anything. I put my DJI ronin-s in the front section and it's well protected.
- Tripod / drink holsters are the best I've used
- Camera dividers are the best I've used, shape really nicely around your stuff and keeps it well protected
- I personally love that this bag isn't too deep like some other camera bags, it means certain lenses won't go in upright but most lenses for my Sony cameras fit fine.
- Love the expanding pockets on the hip belt, great for keeping a lens handy.
- Love that the hip belt is removable
- Love having the access panel on the back of the bag, I hate side entry bags - they seem like a good idea in theory but it just makes your gear really hard to access unless you're just carrying one camera with the lens attached.
- I like the minimal design overall
- Love the company and I like supporting smaller companies with a good ethos
- Price is high, but I think it's fair for a smaller company, and still a lot cheaper a Goruck but fits my needs better.
Criticisms:
- Don't like the yellow color version at all, the black looks good overall but could probably be classed up a little bit more since it's such a premium bag.
- Better shoulder straps with a little more padding/comfort and maybe some kind of phone holster built in - Think Tank are the kings of straps in my opinion. Shimoda has a cool phone holster.
- The laptop sleeve works great, but when the bag is fully loaded it's kind of a pain in the butt to get it out so when traveling and pulling it out for TSA this could be slightly irritating. If there was some way to have a dedicated zipper to get quick access to your laptop I think that'd be awesome.
- I wouldn't mind having a few more little organizational pockets and slots for things like pens, remotes, cables etc. The pockets are good but some of them can get messy/cluttered.