Reviews for Nikon D70 / D100 / D200 / D300 / D700
Review #1
This is the new Speed Demon from Think Tank Photo. This is the first Think Tank Photo bag that I bought. I was so impressed with the Speed Demon that I have since bought many of their other products including the Speed Racer and most of the Modulus Speed System. Let me point out that I am not easily impressed. I have over 30 camera bags.
The quality of Think Tank Photo’s products is absolutely amazing! It turns out that the President of Think Tank Photo, Doug Murdoch, was the lead product designer at Lowepro for 9 years.
In addition to making the most amazing camera carry system that I have ever found, their customer service is also the best in the industry. It is not uncommon for the company president to personally respond to emails. They go above and beyond the call of duty with customer service.
Another interesting fact about Think Tank Photo is that they use working professional photographers as their focus groups for product development. Check out the story at www.thinktankphoto.com
Here is the front of the Speed Demon. It is a waist pack that also has a shoulder strap should you decide to use it in addition to the waist belt.
The Speed Demon has the best waist belt that I have ever found! It also has a detachable shoulder strap should you decide to use it in addition to the waist belt
The Speed Demon comes with an attached rain cover much like the Lowepro bags.
When carrying the Speed Demon as a shoulder bag, you can tuck the waist belt into the back of the bag. It is actually very easy to do.
The inside of the Speed Demon has three large compartments. The dividers can be moved very easily.
In the left compartment is a Nikon SB-800. The right pocket has a Nikon 50mm f/1.4.
The Nikon D70s is nose down with a kit lens on it.
The waistbelt is the most amazing that I have ever seen. It is also very comfortable. It has a great way for attaching other Think Tank Photo components to the belt. In fact, if I need to carry my Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 I use the Lens Changer 75.
The Speed Demon comes with an attachment called a Pixel Pocket for storing memory cards. This is a great way to keep you from misplacing them.
You can also take your flash out of the bag and place it on the belt in this compartment called a Lightning Fast. It even has its own built in rain cover.
I can also attach this to my Speed Racer and my Modulus Speed Belt
This is the Lens Changer 75. I use it to attach my Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8 to the belt. It has a drawstring top and a built in rain cover as well.
thanks to Mark Frolick for pics / comments
Review #2
(Added 19th August 2010)
Equipment list in bag:
Nikon D700
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR micro
I’ve had this cute little modular belt pack for several years, but I ignored it because it seemed like “too much” … something clinging to me, wrapped around my hips, making me look, well, hippy.
My last review was supposed to be my “IT” bag. The Crumper 7 Million Dollar Home. Well. I loaded up the Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home recently and went to a street festival. What this experience taught me? Carry less and shoot more—that’s my new motto.
The Crumpler bag weighed going on 15 lbs with much of my gear in it. It seemed a shame not to fill this large sized bag with my goodies. I changed lenses multiple times, but didn’t take too many photos because I was walking among crowds with a friend and feeling oppressed by the weight and size of it all. And I felt very unprofessional. Pros go with less. Less is more. You can have the whole kit and caboodle at home, but if you lug it all around with you, the wrong lens will always be on the camera and you’ll be spending time second-guessing yourself instead of making great photos.
So I am sorry to say that I sent the Crumpler back.
The day after the street festival experience with the loaded Crumpler bag, I met friends for a Herbie Hancock concert. I wanted to bring my gear, but a smaller bag must now be pressed into service—to this concert we were also hauling picnic stuff—blankets, coolers, bags of food…
Sighing heavily, I got online again and just went straight to Ken Rockwell’s web site. To see what he had to say about bags. And he had a lot to say—or, not really a lot, but loudly—the best camera bag is no bag at all. But if a bag he must carry, a belt pack it would be, and the belt pack he liked was the same one that was collecting dust in the bedroom closet.
The Speed Demon.
After it was dusted off, the Demon amiably took on the D700 with 50mm mounted and the 105mm tucked on the side. My lip balm, wallet, iPhone and other small necessities went into its marvelously expandable front pocket… and off I was. We stopped at a market on the way, and wearing this bag—well, it just never got in the way, and wasn’t conspicuous at all. Even during much ado at the pastry counter and on through the checkout.
At the concert, the Demon sat on our picnic blanket unzipped and the camera ready for action, which it got. In the venue, it tucked neatly under my seat, undisturbed by people climbing over me. Out it came during the encore—I loaded the 105 and left the Demon under the seat, walked up to the stage and got some great shots!
You know what? I didn’t miss the gear I left behind. I didn’t even think about it. Instead, I was thinking about the pictures I wanted and getting them.
What will fit in the Speed Demon:
In the Speed Demon I could only squeeze the D700 with the 50mm attached and one other lens. I tried all of them except the 70-200mm which is too tall for this very petite belt pack. However, each of these lenses by themselves would fit in the bag beside the D700-50mm combo, no problem.
Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G
Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED
Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR micro
So they can take turns riding shotgun.
Mounted on the D700 none of them will fit quick draw fashion—the combos are too tall. But if I only wanted to carry the D700 with one of these lenses attached and nothing else, I would take the dividers out and lay that one combo in this bag horizontally. The Demon is only about 6.5 inches tall inside. There are other iterations of this bag in larger sizes if you have longer lenses or want more room (Speed Freak and Speed Racer) but those bags are bulky, at least on me. The Demon is an excellent fit for my frame. And where I once thought it made me look big, it actually makes me look tiny and very efficient.
The Demon rides on a wide and comfortable modular belt to which you can attach other Think Tank components like Lens Changers to hold individual lenses, or the Lightening Fast to hold your Speedlight.
Demon Details:
The Demon has one slip pocket at the back that is too thin for my inch-thick wallet. But a Moleskin notebook and a pen could slip in there with no difficulty. There is even a penholder to keep it in quick draw position. You wouldn’t want to stuff much in there anyway as that is the portion of the bag that rides on your hip or waist.
The front of the bag has a zippered pocket that when open can pull far enough away from the bag to be able to see the contents therein completely. This pocket has dividers and slots for pens, cards, batteries, what have you.
I find the larger dividers useful—the small dedicated ones annoy me… my stuff doesn’t usually fit these pre-configured arrangements. But some organization is appreciated. This pocket is big enough to hold my fat wallet. (Not fat with money—fat with junk.) Most of the other bags fail on this front—no extra space to store your miscellany. Not even on the big bags! This pocket on the Demon opens wide and swallows a lot effortlessly.
On the front of this large pocket is a small zippered pocket where you might slot a passport or a ticket (a small ticket), some quick loot for coffee on the run, or other equally thin small thing.
It was extremely comfortable to carry and very balanced. It’s also small, or rather, small on the outside but big on the inside. The padding is adequate but not overwhelming. Think Tank mentions this on their web site and says it’s all the protection your gear really needs, and that other manufacturers use far too much padding, making bulky bags that make getting at your gear difficult.
I wear it low on my hips and I wear the shoulder strap—which is thick and cushy and extremely comfy—diagonally across my torso to help distribute the weight even more, but just two fixed lenses and the D700 really didn’t weigh all that much anyway.
I remember thinking the zipper around the whole top of the bag was very “unprofessional” and for a long time I favored big flaps instead, but the beauty of the Speed Demon and the other Speed bags is that you can unzip and grab your camera and then close the top—zipping it back up should really only be necessary if you are moving around a lot and worried about the other lens falling out. Or you could just zip it back up a little. It’s a great bag to work from—you swing it around to the front (if it’s not already there—I like to wear it on my backside) unzip and yank—need to swap lenses? Take the one off, set it down in the bag, take the other and put it on—working over the open bag. This bag is like a small shelf or table when working with it on your hip.
It was such a breeze to walk around in, did not look ridiculously enormous on me, and was small enough to force me to choose just the 50mm and one other lens.
It’s been hard to find a bag that will swallow the 70-200 VR II. All the bags that do accommodate that lens are just too big for everything else—if you put just a few things in to keep the weight down, there is too much leftover room. If you load up these bags, they become like the proverbial albatross.
The best solution is really a dedicated bag for this lens only, which I can attach to the Demon’s belt. I ordered the Lens Changer 75 Pop Down from Think Tank—this is going to be the most efficient and “small” way I can cart around this big lens comfortably. This Lens Changer is specifically designed for the 70-200, but has a nifty little expanding section. When you zip that closed, it will become a smaller component that will fit a mid-range zoom—or the 105—just great. When expanded, it will be a perfect fit for the 70-200. And I also picked up the R U Thirsty—because a little water is often nice—and an energy bar will fit on the side of that. This will also occasionally be attached to the Demon’s belt. And I do confess, my appreciation for Think Tank gear has increased—for those times when I am actively shooting, I just got—and man, I love this—the Change Up belt/harness bag and the Digital Holster 20—this is a package that is made for shooting without taking anything off or setting anything down. And truly, the most comfortable way to haul more gear than the Demon. And thinness can’t be overrated—the Change Up has a slim profile… I’ll review this incredible harness system very soon!
For every day though, the bag that I thought was “too much” and that made me look hippy turns out to be the best bag of all. And I had it all along. This small belt pack is really going to be the most streamlined way for me to carry some of my favorite gear… but again, not all of it. The Speed Demon is great way to carry a small daily kit along with your personal stuff—wallet, phone, sunscreen.
My few meager complaints about this bag are the large loopy handle on the front—this could be smaller and more discrete. Also across the bag’s top is another zipper—I don’t know what this is for—it does not open wide enough to access your gear. The real zipper rides the outside edge along the top of the bag—they could ditch the straight zipper across the top middle.
One other little thing about Think Tank bags that I’m quite keen on—all the mesh on the outsides of their bags and Lens Changers—because where do you stick that lens cap, that extra battery, or if you are me, that lip balm? Think Tank. They thought of that!
Waist belt buckle
Hidden rain jacket
Likes about the bag:
Thoughtful touches, durable fabric and design, attention to ergonomics
Dislikes about the bag:
Straight zipper on top is useless—too skinny to get camera out that way
Thanks to NikonJunkieGirl for review.
