The postman arrived and handed me what I’d been waiting for… my new CaseLogic Camera bag. It arrived not only just in time for a trip back to New York City but also for a studio night I was heading out to that night, that meant I could immediately try it out. The first thing I did was go through it and find all the various pockets and check out the sizes to get an idea what I might shove in them. There is no shortage of pockets that’s for sure. There is one that’s pretty odd shaped and of limited use, however I did find a use for that one too.
The main pocket which houses the camera is quite interesting in that most of the time your camera either rests directly on the end of the lens or on the back of the camera. This bag provides what they call the “SLR Suspension System”. The lens is inserted through a 3 way opening with the front of the camera body coming to rest in the cradle that’s formed from the suspension system. This, BTW, is simply a flap of soft elasticated material that is fixed on one side and Velcro fixed on the other. This allows you to adjust the position of the flap or simply move it out of the way entirely.
Check out these pics of the SLR Suspension System. (click to see slideshow)
When I arrived in NYC I gutted my Deeko Rucksack and loaded up the the CaseLogic sling bag. (click to see slideshow & contents descriptions)
When the bag is slung I found it easy to carry. The first day in NYC I walked over 9km with the bag on the entire time. Never once did I feel tired with it slung over my shoulder. I normally use a rucksack. While I can carry a lot more in the rucksack, that’s actually it’s downside, I tend to put way too much in it and thus it’s heavy and does get tiring. The CaseLogic is smaller and more compact, it will prevent me from overloading it. It wasn’t completely a pleasure to carry though. I was constantly fiddling with the strap as it kept rubbing the left side of my neck. Finding a comfortable place to put it was hard. It could really do some softer material where it’s going to rub on your neck. The waist strap would have helped to stabilize the bag and keep it from moving around while walking however there are 2 problems with the waist strap. 1) it’s a bit short. I can do it up but it’s a touch tight and 2) when it is done up you can’t actually spin the bag in front of you as it needs to rotate so the pockets go from vertical on your back to horizontal in front of you so you can access the contents without them tipping out.
That brings me to a plus of this sort of bag. When you want to get something from a pocket, you simply rotate the bag around your body so it’s in front of you. When you do this, all the pockets go from vertical to horizontal and means you can access them without much worry of stuff falling out, especially the main pocket that contains the expensive camera you’re carrying.
The back of the bag has tons of padding as well, they’ve not cheaped out on this
Pros:
Large main DSLR pocket
SLR suspension system
Secondary large pocket for lens
Sling style
Can carry my Nexus 7
Cons:
Waist strap a bit short
Some padding or soft fleece like material would be nice where the shoulder strap meets the neck
Overall, for the price of this camera bag I’d highly recommend it! Sure you can get one of those big brand named ones for a heck of a lot more but I don’t really see the point.
Here are all the photos in place.