PacSafe camera bag

[jeremyrh]

Like Kevin - maybe like all photographers - I am a bag-oholic, so I read the review with interest. One word of caution:
"The shoulder strap has steel wire running through it."
This means that if anyone tries to snatch it from you, for example a passenger on a motor bike, you will likely lose your head as well as your camera. This type of theft is common in some places, so I would be very careful before using a bag with this "feature".

On a lighter note - what do people do with bags that have been "tested" and found not to be the ultimate camera carrying accessory? Can they be sold (for a sensible price) on e-bay? Or do they just gather dust in a cupboard?

[sbay]

Looks like a good replacement for my think tank urban disguise 35. A little lighter and with a better water bottle holder (I could never fit one in the external sleeve).

[Jeff Griffin]

Over here in the UK we have a company called Billingham.
I still have my shoulder bag from circa 1984 but now use it as storage for my film camera body/ backs & lenses.

Been through a range of bags including Lowepro and Tamrac but now use a the F-stop brand.

[jeremyrh]

This is slightly comical - not so much the bag, as the discussion about what constitutes a "tactical" camera bag:
http://www.dpreview.com/articles/1534923516/lowepro-expands-protactic-lineup-with-four-new-bags

Whenever you think Lula has become too absurd, just take a trip over to dpreview to recalibrate your expectations!

[Kevin Raber]

Like Kevin - maybe like all photographers - I am a bag-oholic, so I read the review with interest. One word of caution:
"The shoulder strap has steel wire running through it."
This means that if anyone tries to snatch it from you, for example a passenger on a motor bike, you will likely lose your head as well as your camera. This type of theft is common in some places, so I would be very careful before using a bag with this "feature".

On a lighter note - what do people do with bags that have been "tested" and found not to be the ultimate camera carrying accessory? Can they be sold (for a sensible price) on e-bay? Or do they just gather dust in a cupboard?

Frankly mine are piled high in my camera storage closet which is pretty big.  One of these days I keep thinking of taking them all outside and piling them up and doing a Rant on how silly it is to have all these bags.  What I shared in the article is what I have been using for sometime now and I am really happy with the set up.  Under certain conditions and when needed I use the F-stop brand of backpacks.  Their inserts are really good.  I'll get around to sharing what I have and what is used and not used sometime in the next few months.

Kevin

[Hans Kruse]

Frankly mine are piled high in my camera storage closet which is pretty big.  One of these days I keep thinking of taking them all outside and piling them up and doing a Rant on how silly it is to have all these bags.  What I shared in the article is what I have been using for sometime now and I am really happy with the set up.  Under certain conditions and when needed I use the F-stop brand of backpacks.  Their inserts are really good.  I'll get around to sharing what I have and what is used and not used sometime in the next few months.

Kevin

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I only have a few bags, but thanks for the mini reviews of assessories should I need another one for my new A7R II

[usathyan]

Good article. Thanks for reviewing it....As photographers, we all tend to be bag hoarders...

For a recent trip to SFO, i was considering a backpack, and having been a previous user of Pacsafe bags for travel (I have a 15L orange backpack, and highly recommend it for a micro 4/3 inconspicuous bag)...i looked into their other offerings.

I ordered both their camsafe Z16 as well as F-Stop Kenti, hoping to try one out and return the other. I ended up keeping the kenti. A really well made bag and worth using/keeping.

I do have a few domke shoulder bags and the ...and will probably never replace them with an another shoulder bag.

my 2 cents.

[Kevin Raber]

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I only have a few bags, but thanks for the mini reviews of assessories should I need another one for my new A7R II

Hans, did you really get a Sony a7r II?

[Jlkphoto]

FYI, Travelsmith shows the Pacsafe V8 as "This product is no longer available"

B&H has it in stock but I have purchased other Pacsafe Camsafe bags via
http://pac.factoryoutletstore.com/  which has the Camsafe V8 in two colors and cheaper than B&H.

I have the Pacsafe Camsafe Z25 backpack which is very nice and has all the security features like the V8.

[Kevin Raber]

Apparently Travelsmith was swamped with orders for the bag.  You can Google it and find it in a number of other places.  Amazon has it  http://www.amazon.com/Pacsafe-Camsafe-Venture-Shoulder-Messenger/dp/B00UMAS5P0/ref=sr_1_67?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1443139967&sr=1-67&nodeID=9479199011&refinements=p_89%3APacsafe

[Paulo Bizarro]

Seems like a good shoulder bag, but not really that much different from what has been available from other brands? As another poster, I still use a Billingham shoulder bag from many years ago. It is the right size to carry an A7 with a couple of lenses, plus bits and bobs, plus a 13" laptop between the canvas and the partition (on the backside).

When I don't carry the laptop, I have a Think Tank Retrospective 5.

For my "full kit" (2 cameras and 3 lenses:) I have a Think Tank mirrorless backpack.

These are not cheap bags, so I guess when I manage to buy one, I keep it for a long time!

[jeremyrh]

Hans, did you really get a Sony a7r II?

I'm guessing that was a joke. You know that beneath his brusque exterior Hans has a devilish sense of humour :-)

[jeremyrh]

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I only have a few bags, but thanks for the mini reviews of assessories should I need another one for my new A7R II

That does sort of mark you down as a non-serious photographer, but if I remember correctly you have a Crumpler and also TWO Gura-gear bags, so you make up for in extravagance what you lack in volume! However, you should bear in mind Stalin's words - "quantity has a quality all of its own" :-)

[Hans Kruse]

Hans, did you really get a Sony a7r II?

Just kidding, but maybe next year

[Kevin Raber]

Just kidding, but maybe next year

Ahhh. . .  the Danish sarcasm and humor.  After working with Danes for 13 plus years you'd think I have it figured out.  You'd better buy a bag now though, they seem to be selling fast.

[ashaughnessy]

I've never owned a proper camera bag and now feel distinctly inferior :-(

[pikme]

Kevin,

I'd be interested in hearing how you secure camera/computer gear in your hotel room when traveling? 

I always have extra gear with me that I might not need for that particular morning or evening shoot, but might need tomorrow.  So I want to bring what I need when I go out for a shoot, but leave the extra gear behind until I need it.  Or if I have meetings to attend during the day, I probably do not want to bring any gear with me for several hours or all day.

The in room safes are very small, and I've learned the hard way that hotels are generally protected by law as to not be responsible for theft from the rooms.  Unfortunately, I've experienced a lot of theft in the US and other countries, even (maybe especially) in upscale hotels and resorts.  I've had theft from locked suitcases stored in locked closets.  Theft that includes nonvaluable items - once I had all my shoes stolen from the room while I swam in the hotel pool!

Sometimes I can leave gear with the front desk, but frequently that doesn't appear to be very secure option, either. 

So I'm curious how such a frequent traveler as yourself handles this?

Thanks,

Roberto M.

[johnvr]

Like Kevin - maybe like all photographers - I am a bag-oholic, so I read the review with interest. One word of caution:
"The shoulder strap has steel wire running through it."
This means that if anyone tries to snatch it from you, for example a passenger on a motor bike, you will likely lose your head as well as your camera. This type of theft is common in some places, so I would be very careful before using a bag with this "feature".

Very true. I bought two PacSafe straps and one bag before heading to Barcelona, where apparently pickpocketing is pretty bad, but only after making sure that it's the non-agressive type of pickpocketing (which it is over there). I rather lose my camera than my head...

[Rob C]

This 'bag' is responsible for my posture today. I don't think I can blame it for hair-loss, but it did see me through from early on to the end of my pro life.

Back in the day, collecting airline luggage stickers was a fine art practised by a few of us who got the chance. I stuck so many onto the thing that I could no longer clean it; it saw so many beaches and suffered so much salty air in its working life, taking the strain from the States to Singapore with many stops, very often, in lots of places in-between. That happy wear meant that those tickets would start to peel away, making it look more like a trash can than a camera case.

But disaster was avoided: the swing tickets were all hung onto the strap! God, we were a bunch of poseurs! But hey, when you felt comfortable in purple jeans, paisley pattern shirts and low-slung additional belts, Italian cowboy boots and a black leather coat, what's a decorated bag between friends? (Don't say a hussy.)

Rob C

P.S. The bag/case and I are still together, but it lives in a cupboard. Today, it's one body and lens when I go out to do imaginary battle. No bag.

[Petrus]

In late seventies (after getting rid off the aluminum box camera "bag" we photo students just had to have…) I actually made a few leather camera bags for myself. Hand sewn with waxed cord, plenty of time in the evenings without Internet. That bag above certainly looks familiar, working as staffer in a newspaper 35 years ago.

Now I do not have a big holdall bag at all, ThinkTank Retrospctive 30 is as big as I want to go with Nikons. Retrospective 7 for the smaller Fujifilm X-T1 kit, or just load couple of lenses into a ThinkTank TurnStyle 20 sling bag and leave excess at the office or the truck. Retrospectives do not look too much like a camera bag and the smaller #7 is convenient size for general shoulder bag for travel, which happens to also hide couple of Fuji bodies and lenses at the same time.

Naturally there are half a dozen bags piled up somewhere at home, collecting dust and cobwebs. Domke, Tenba, the usual.