Pixiq

Disclaimer: I am sponsored by LowePro. Even though I have bought a fair number of their bags at full price I have also received quite a few of their bags as part of our working relationship. If you are looking for a comparison of all the camera bags on the market this isn’t it. I have been using LowePro bags long before I was sponsored by them and even back when I was paying for camera bags I tried them all and found LowePro bags to be the best built and most useful for my needs. I received both the LowePro x200 and Street and Field system from LowePro at no charge and I have supplied them with detailed feedback. 

This is an excerpt from my Spring 2011 Newsletter. My Newsletter is a free publication that goes out quarterly to over 6,000 photo enthusiasts, art buyers and photo editors around the world and includes articles on my latest work and assignments as well as equipment reviews, workshop announcements and editorial articles. If you would like to read the entire Newsletter you can download it here. If you would like to download back issues of the Newsletter click here. And finally if you would like to subscribe to the Newsletter send me an email. 

Also, I previously wrote a blog post here on Pixiq.com about my favorite camera bags which you can read here if this topic interests you. 

In the Fall 2010 issue of the Newsletter I wrote an article about my favorite camera bags and how I transport my photo equipment for various assignments. That article was also published on Pixiq.com. Since then I have had the opportunity to try out two new bags from LowePro: the Pro Roller x200 and the newly redesigned Street and Field (S&F) System. Because these bags are so well made and have become a mainstay in my basic kit I thought I would write another article discussing these two excellent offerings here in the Newsletter. I have been using both the Pro Roller x200 and the S&F series bags quite a bit since I got them and I have to say they have changed how I pack for assignments considerably. Using these two bags in combination with each other is the key and I’ll outline here how I pack these bags.

Let’s start with the Pro Roller bag. I have to say the Pro Roller series of bags are one of the best products LowePro makes bar none. As the name suggests, this camera bag is a rolling case. It is very well made, looks sleek and is a great size for any photographer that needs to move and protect a large amount of gear, especially when flying. As an adventure guy, I don’t normally roll my gear that far but I have had a slew of assignments lately that were quite a bit tamer than normal and I have been using the Pro Roller x200 a lot. It is a fantastic and incredibly durable camera bag, especially for how light it is. And it doesn’t really look like a camera bag at all. It looks like the average overhead carry-on that everyone else takes on a plane. Only the LowePro logo on the front gives it away. 

In fact, I have not been using the Pro Roller as a camera bag at all. I have been using it mostly to carry my lighting gear. It works great as a camera bag too, but for my work the S&F system works better for me in that respect to carry actual camera gear. For lighting gear though the x200 is much lighter than my 1610 Pelican cases (reviewed in the Fall 2010 Newsletter) and it protects the lighting gear very well — not as securely as the Pelican cases but it is robust enough that I would trust it to protect lighting gear as checked baggage and that is saying a lot. In fact there is very little that separates this bag from the Tenba Air Cases when it comes to durability. 

I have packed (see image above) two full Elinchrom Ranger Quadra RX setups into this bag with a host of lighting accessories and attachments and there is still room to spare. I have also packed the larger and much heavier Elinchrom Ranger RX Speed AS pack and head system into this bag and it does very well, though it might be a better candidate for the larger x300 version of this bag. In fact I am so enamoured with this bag I will probably pick up the bigger x300 and move all of my lighting gear into these bags permanently, only using the Pelican cases when the weather conditions absolutely call for them. 

The x200 has a removable backpack as well as many other well thought out features like a kickstand, a tripod socket on the top of the extendable handle and a padded laptop compartment in the top lid. I will say that the backpack is a minimalist design (as one would expect) and it isn’t designed to carry gear long distances but it will work in a pinch. Of note, you can remove the backpack and still use the rest of the bag as a normal rolling carry-on type bag which is very handy for those times when you need an extra bag. 

The construction and padding in this bag is also better than that found in any other LowePro bag that I have seen. Each of the main padding inserts has a stiffener in it so that every section is very well protected. The bag itself is also very stiff and I have applied extreme pressure to the bag to see how it would hold up to abuse while fully loaded. The upshot is it would be very difficult to deform the bag. This last discovery is what gave me the confidence to pack it with thousands of dollars worth of fragile lighting gear and check it to my destination when flying to recent assignments. So far the lighting gear, and the bag as well, have been unscathed. This is going to be a bag I use a lot and I am amazed it took me so long to try the Pro Roller bags. Do yourself a favor and check these out as they are stand out products and I say that as someone who is very critical of gear, especially camera bags. 

If you read the article in the Fall 2010 issue of the Newsletter, then you know I am a big fan of LowePro’s modular Street and Field camera bag system. I take the Toploader Pro 75 AW, the S&F Deluxe Waist belt and a few lens cases with me on just about every assignment. Hence, when LowePro announced the new Street and Field (S&F) Transport Duffle and a host of new modular S&F camera bags to go into it, I requested those bags right away. I will admit that I was doubtful as to how useful this system would be, mostly because it isn’t the most comfortable backpack to carry. There is no suspension built into the duffle and there is no waist belt. It is just a duffle with a padded flap and shoulder straps and the flap opens on the side with the shoulder straps. But when you load the Transport Duffle with padded camera and lens cases they stiffen up the duffle and it actually carries better than you would think. It could definitely still use a waist belt attachment but as is it works fairly well. 

Where this really works for me though is on those outdoor “adventure” shoots where I will need to break down my bear into a climbing pack or into smaller segments. I shot ice climbing recently and this system allowed me to quickly and easily tailor the camera gear I needed just by picking those items out of the duffle and dropping them into the climbing pack along with all of my ice axes, crampons, climbing gear and ropes. When I travel on assignment I normally take a backpack like the LowePro Vertex 300 AW with all of my camera gear and then pack the Toploader Pro 75 AW and several  lens cases into my other checked baggage. Now with the S&F Transport Duffle I consolidate all of that camera gear into the duffle and have less to cart around with me while on assignment. 

One addition that would improve the transport duffle would be to add a waist belt, even if it is a lightweight rig. An even better option would be to put a padded flap of material that accepted the S&F Deluxe Technical Belt or the lighter S&F Light Utility Belt. That way you don’t have to add any weight to the backpack and still have the modular system working together. Adding the waist belt option would also make this an easier pack to take on flights and longer trips because standing with the pack fully loaded at the airport or when traveling gets pretty tiresome with all that weight on your shoulders. 

All of the new lens pouches and such work great as well. I feel like I can get more gear into a pack like the LowePro Vertex 300 AW but that isn’t the point, having it all broken up and modular is really useful for a lot of assignments. On one of my last assignments I also found out that with the Transport Duffle fully loaded it will fit perfectly into the overhead compartments of regional jets. That is a huge deal for me as there are precious few camera backpacks (none that I have found so far save for this one) that will fit into the overhead compartments on regional jets. This fact alone will make this my go to bag since it seems I find myself on regional jets quite often flying in and out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and many other smaller regional airports.

The final realization with this combo of bags was that I can carry both onto a flight. The Transport Duffle acts as my “personal bag” and the Pro Roller acts as my carry on. Thus I can carry a lot more gear, more securely than I was able to in the past. And if I have to gate check one of the bags I can hand over the Pro Roller knowing that it can stand up to a fair bit of abuse. Hence, this is a great combo that will get a lot of use because they are such versatile camera bags.

If you’d like to get more information on these innovative camera bags visit the brand new LowePro website at www.lowepro.com. Now that I have written more about camera bags than I ever thought I ever would I’ll lay off this topic for a while.