Lowepro Commercial AW or Magnum AW shoulder bag

[grandphage]

i currently have 4 lenses, a flash and a 20D. would the Magnum AW be enought for my equipment? i may add a lens in the near future though, probably a macro. or would purchasing the Commercial AW be a better choice (only a $30 diff at BH)?

[Jim G]

Have you got a local camera store at all that you can go into and physically put stuff into the bags? That usually helps alot..

Also check out www.cambags.com.

[grandphage]

unfortunately no, i guess i'll just check out cambags.com

[Doom1701e]

I cant say anything about the bags you mentioned, but I use a Lowepro Photo Trekker AW II for all the gear in my sig (except I only carry the 5D now, not the others)

[DavidW]

You're getting up into big bag territory here. Another Lowepro option may be the Stealth Reporter D650AW - mine was delivered yesterday. It's slightly less deep than both the bags you mentioned, but it's taller and the width is in-between the two bags you mentioned. You don't have to use the laptop compartment - I believe you can remove it from the bag completely if you wish as it seems to be velcroed in to the insert part.

The design paradigm is slightly different to the other two bags you mentioned, but I find the Stealth Reporter has some nifty features. The ability to open the top of the bag to get to the contents of the main section without having to completely undo the lid is particularly useful.

I used the Stealth Reporter's cable management bag for my laptop cables and chargers, and did away with the Stealth Reporter's card wallet (I have a Lowepro DRes 6 that I prefer). My Kata E-702 got stuffed down the front of the insert, which didn't leave enough room for the card wallet. I later found that my WhiBal fitted in the card wallet hole, with the lanyard attached to the cord and clip intended for the card wallet.

I'm sure I'll discover more of the potential of the Stealth Reporter as I get into using it, but I know some other forum members use them. SkipD has the earlier, non "D" Stealth Reporter 650AW, and smaller Stealth Reporters are mentioned by several people.


What you don't say is what lenses you have. There's a big difference between accommodating four small primes and four big L lenses. If you weren't worried with chargers and cables (or you put them in a Sliplock pouch on the side, as I may eventually do, so that you can leave them behind when you don't need them with you), you'd probably get five lenses and a 20D inside. Basically, you have a central section where your main body goes with a lens attached, and you can usually get a flash in next to it, then two sections that are typically two tubes for a lens or lenses.

At the right I have an EF 16-35mm f/2.8L and a blower in one tube, and an EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS in the other tube. All the lenses have their hoods attached (though the 70-200's hood is reversed, and the 16-35 has an EW-83DII hood as I'm using a 1.6x body) and the 70-200 has its tripod ring attached.

I usually leave my body with my EF 24-70mm f/2.8L on it, though the central section is set to allow me to leave my 70-200 on the camera if I wish.

At the left, both tubes are in use for chargers, cables, memory cards and the like - as I said, I may evict this stuff into a pouch.


You have to be careful loading these bags - they can get so heavy that you just can't lift them. Mine is just over 11kg with 20D, BG-E2, the three lenses I mentioned, 14 inch laptop, hoods, chargers, spare batteries, a couple of filters, cleaning kit and Kata E-702 cover. I wouldn't want to put many more lenses in the bag - another >1kg lens (like an EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS or EF 300mm f/4L IS) and it really would be getting ridiculous.



David