After long time of research, comparisons etc I finally decided to place an order for a new photo backpack.
I had the following requirements:
- Has to hold my essential camera gear: Canon 350D, EF 70-200 f 2.8 IS, EF 17-40 f 4 plus miscellaneous small stuff
- Has to hold additional travel stuff like essential spare clothing etc
- Has to be airline carry-on size
- Has to be a backpack
- Has to hold my Dell Precision M65 laptop when traveling (dimensions 36,2cm x 26,3cm x 4cm, that's roughly 14,3 x 10,4 x 1,6 inches)
The backpack will have two primary use cases:
- Be my primary camera bag when not traveling far away (no laptop etc attached, but virtually all of my camera gear)
- Be my primary bag when traveling (minimal camera gear + laptop + essential spare clothing etc)
I looked at several options for achieving these goals:
It turned out that the laptop size requirement was a hard one, it ruled out many options:
- CompuTrekker, not quite big enough but very close
- Kata R-103, did not get a chance of physically test it but seemed likely that it was too small
- National Geographic Earth Explorer NG5162 Medium Backpack, also did not get a chance to physically test it but based on some community feedback it would need to be tweaked to fit the laptop
It was really a pity that I had to forget both Kata and NG, both of them seem really professional bags. In Kata the obvious sturdiness and the additional zippered opening appealed to me and in NG the non-camera oriented looks was a very strong argument.
So, it was a choice between two big Lowepros and a couple of Think Tanks. The problem with both Lowepros is that they feel too big (from outside) for my purposes. Additionally, Lowepro Compurover does not adequately hold 350D with 70-200 attached plus additional essential camera gear. Both would fit even 17" laptop, which is a bit too much dedicated laptop space for my purposes. Think Tank Airport Acceleration seemed also a bit overkill in size, so these factors eventually drove me to purchasing Think Tank Airport Antidote:
- Fits my laptop just nicely in the separate Artificial Intelligence 15 laptop sleeve. It is an additional bonus that it can be carried also separately without the bag (comes with a shoulder strap also).
- The AI laptop sleeve has a special place in the bag cover itself, where it fits just nicely almost as an integral part of the main bag. Or, I can just put the laptop by itself (without the sleeve) there.
- It should be acceptable size for airline carry-on
- It holds all of my camera gear when needed
So I decided to purchase Think Tank Airport Antidote, next question was where should I buy it? Unfortunately I did not get a chance of trying it out physically (a problem also with Kata and NG) so I had to order it online. Think Tank does not have a distributor in Finland, so I looked at my optons: either order directly from Think Tank from the US, or buy it from one of their european distributors. After some searching I ended up placing an order to Isarfoto in germany. I placed the order on wednesday evening last week and to my great surprise UPS delivered the bag on friday less than two days from the order. Very smooth and quick experience!
After I gather more experience on actually using the backpack I will write another post about those. So far, it seems like a quality bag and seems to fulfill my expectations.
Oh, by the way, www.cambags.com is an excellent resource if you are wondering about will my gear fit in a specific bag or just get a feeling on different bags before you buy it.