Camera bag, which one please?

Amazon have a sale on right now of the wackily named Crumpler bags. You can pick up a Mob Boss in Oatmeal colour for example, for £48 instead of £214

ps - I just ordered a Turkish Shower for £39 because I want a multi-purpose rucksack that I can also carry my camera around in every day so I don't keep missing pictures. Camera gear goes in the bottom and a separate compartment up top takes your other stuff. It doesn't look like a camera bag and even opening it up all you see is books / packets of crisps or whatever, if you don't know about the lower compartment. So it's quite stealthy! Comes with an extra rain cover too!

For me, the overriding factor when choosing a bag is comfort. I find shoulder bags painful to wear for more than an hour or two.

Even the Lowepro Sling shot 200AW bag I have uses only one sling, so all the weight is on one shoulder.

My preference is therefore a backpack style bag.

I think that's the better idea. I don't want a bag too bulky, something I can whip the camera in an out (shake it all about. Just joking)

Please visit http://s226.beta.photobucket.com/user/LouiseTopp/library/ for more of my work.

Thanks.

From personal experience the ThinkTank retrospective range are comfortable and don't look too much like traditional camera bags (not cheap though) - alternatively there is a range of bags called "Courser" - CamerWorld have then on their web site.

Another well known Chinese brand that make bags similar to those from Domke and Billingham, plus a lot more (at very low prices) !

I'm now using a Lowepro Event Messenger 150 .

My previous bag was a Tamrac Rally which I did like , but when I bought the iPad I wanted to be able to carry that with me in the camera bag when I was on holiday - and though the Tamrac could take it - the pocket for that was external - not a great idea in our weather.

Photomonk had just bought an Event Messenger 250 - but he has more gear than me and heard my grumbles about the bag situation. He told me to look at the Event Messenger and get the smaller 150.

The EM 150 arrived from SRS - fantastic - seems to swallow more than the Tamrac - yet externally they were very alike sizewise. Somehow I seem to be able to configure it more easily to suit me and my bits and pieces. It's a Tardis

Photomonk now has a Pro Messenger bag as well - his Think Tank bags have all gone.

I suspect from his review that the Pro Messenger will be getting a LOT of use .

My Event Messenger will be off to Dublin with me in January - I'm not taking all my gear with me for this trip - but I will be using both the K-x and the Optio P70.

Here's the Photomonk's user review of the ProMessenger - it's had a lot of use since he got it

link

What I'm using now is a bestek backpack CADEN camera bag. I like climbing and I'll take it to load my Canon camera and other personal belongings. I'm not a professional photographer, so I just have one camera and one lens. But the bag is large enough that I can store other things as well.

I use a Lowepro Fast Pack, the only thing giving it away as a camera bag is the Lowepro logo, I'm not worried about anything getting stolen as the things is always attached to me.

I invested in some good quality small combination pad locks to use with the bag if I feel the situation warrants it, for example; I will use the padlocks in Disneyland but not at the local zoo.

The bag itself is great, its an older model so has no AW features or the laptop compartment but the convenience of being able to sling it onto my left shoulder and get the camera out of the side is great.

I've had it about 7 years now, it's been on back from the Grand Canyon to Eiffel Tower and hasn't let me down, I'll definitely be buying Lowepro again when the time comes, maybe in another 7 years!

I use the Billingham Hadley Pro shoulder bag. I love it. It looks more like a normal shoulder bag than anything else. And I also manage to get loads of stuff in there, aside from my camera!