Hi, I am shopping for a backpack to use for hiking in the rainforest with my camera gear, tripod + essentials like food, water, change of clothes and accesories.
I searched online and besides the usual tenba, lowpro and tamrac offerings I found this:
http://www.fstopgear.com/now/product/mountain-series/tilopaLooks awesome. Its can be used in several configurations. So it works as a travel bag for clothing or a combination camera / clothing bag. The photo gear fits in another small bag inside the main bag with access from the rear of the bag. If anyone has used a backpack in the woods you know that typical photo backpacks open in the front which means one needs to rest the bag on its back where all the shoulder straps are etc. and it gets filthy and then that filth goes straight to your back when carrying the bag.
The tilopa has access to the camera compartment in the back which is nice. The lowepro primus does that but the camera compartment is rather small. The copuPrimus is larger but the bag is huge and doesnt have as many straps and pockets as the Tilopa. I love the fact that on the tilopa the tripod can be carried on the side. The support system also seems excellent.
The few negatives I find in the fstop bag: the fact that one needs to open another zipper to access the camera bag inside the bag. But that is a positive since water is less likely to get in there. Also, the main compartment is shared so if one opens the top one looks down and see the camera gear bag inside.
I plan on taking my 1Ds mk3, 70-200mm f2.8L IS, 17-40mmL, 24-70mmL and a flash with ext cord + tripod and a few accesories. Besides the camera gear I need to carry on or 2 24oz water bottles, rain jacket, water shoes,small towel, snacks, extra shirt, socks etc.
I could not find much info on the bag. F-stop seems like a small company. The product seems awesome but isnt widely available.
Anyone have more info?
thx
K