for Canon 300D / 10D / 20D / 30D / 40D / 50D / 5D / 7D
Review #1
(added 28th March 2007)
Equipment list in bag :
Canon EOS 350D
50mm mkII
old telezoom
Peleng 8mm
Slik Mini tripod
filters
spare battery, charger
cardreader, random cables, Palm organiser
(Note: I'm from Europe, and Crumpler's range of bags available here differs wildly from the Australian range.) I was looking for a new shoulder-type camera-bag after the zippers of my Samsonite started to fail from heavy use (I had been cramming way too much junk in the bag). I like Crumpler's style (laid-back, not-too serious), and the way they make bags with a less rectangular shape. This does however tend to show in the amount of space inside. The bag I originally went for, the largest of the Pretty Boy-series (the Maxi XXXL), which, according to the (brilliant) catalogue, should be able to house 2 bodies and 4-6 lenses. In the shop, however, I quickly discovered this wasn't very accurate. Slightly disappointing (also because of the lack of extra pockets for full/empty cards, batteries, pens, food, etc.)..
Anyway, I didn't find the Daily series very appealing on paper, but in the shop they were a nice surprise. The series consists of 6 sizes, divided in 3 'small' bags and 3 bags one can also carry a laptop computer in. Since I don't want to haul my laptop around on vacation, the first 3 were the most interesting. After a bit of fiddling around with the velcro dividers, I made my decision: the 370 (largest of the 3 'small' bags) was the way to go.
The padding is thick and the bag is deep (my mini-tripod fits easily). The photo-pouch is easily dividable using velcro, it's a pity though there is no way of dividing it vertically without raiding another / your old bag. There's more than enough room for the stuff I carry around at the moment, and the things I'm planning to aquire in the somewhat near future (70-300mm IS telezoom, wide-angle prime, battery grip, flash) will probably fill the rest of the currently available space.
The photo-pouch is removable, so the bag doubles as a rather nice shoulder-bag (with 3 inside pockets). When the main compartment is filled with photo-stuff, the front-pocket is a bit of a tight fit, but it should be more than enough for a bunch of pens, paper, a book from Pratchett's Discworld-series and a bunch of CF-cards.
The material is very waterproof, but the design is a bit less so. Your gear should be perfectly OK in your average heavy rain shower, but I wouldn't want to walk it trough the monsoon.
Likes about the bag:
Thick padding (your gear will love this) | Wide, comfy shoulder-strap | Very sturdy | Lots of compartments | Doubles as a nice shoulder-bag | Looks nice ;)
Dislikes about the bag:
Thick padding (does tend to take up a lot of space ;)) | Not extremely water-proof | Front compartment is a bit of a tight fit | No vertical dividers supplied
Thanks to Niels Hordijk for review
