The Quiet Picture

After the trashing I gave to the Lowepro Flipside 300, you’d think I’d never touch a Flipside again. As it turns out, here I am with the 300′s new big brother, Flipside 400 AW (which was released after the Flipside series was introduced, so it wasn’t available the first time around).

The thing is that I’m just having trouble with finding a gear bag that is suitable for me. Every photographer on the move knows that the bag is an essential piece of the kit, so it’s important that you’re comfortable with it or you’ll risk wasting your energy in fighting with the bag instead of concentrating on taking pictures.

I seem to be going thru bags one a year, initially happy but gradually annoyed. After the FS 300 debacle I got myself a new day sack which feels incredibly good on my back, accommodates all the photo gear and has a great option for carrying the tripod. For a bag which is not intended to carry photo gear, that’s pretty good. But then those annoyances. There’s no space for  a water bottle or a thermos, unless I store it together with the camera. No, I don’t think so. Likewise, if I want to pack a lunch sandwich, it is guaranteed to get squashed. And then the gear compartment, although I cut away a strap and a mesh pocket, the camera often seems to get stuck on the way in or out of the bag, tempting me to rip it out with force which one day may have fatal consequences.

So, enter the Lowepro Flipside 400 AW. Having read the specs for just about every photo backpack on the market today, the only one that fit the bill was the Flipside. The closest alternative to it was the Lowepro Nature Trekker AW but it was too big and too heavy. Many other otherwise suitable backpacks dropped out of contention because they had the tripod holder at the bottom and I categorically refuse to carry the tripod at the bottom of a bag.

I had second thoughts, and third thoughts, but based on the experience of the 300 and reading the specs and what other people were saying about the 400, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. And to my delight, I more or less got what I expected. I wasn’t positively surprised (unless not being negatively surprised counts) but I wasn’t disappointed either. The bag is light and well padded and is moderately weather-proof even without the supplied raincover.

Compared to the 300, this is what the 400 fixes:

• Padded waist belt.
• Sternum strap is movable! (I didn’t notice at first that it can be moved, so I started to wonder if the Flipside 300 had a similar movable solution. Because I sure hated the position where it was.)
• No hard edges which would press against my back.
• Roomy enough to carry the gear I need, although once again I can’t figure out for the life of me how Lowepro can fit in all the gear they give in the description (but I was already prepared for this, so no surprises there)
• The side pocket is big enough for a water bottle.

And what doesn’t work quite as well as I’d like:

• Tripod holder. Fair enough, Lowepro specifies that it is suitable for a compact tripod or a monopod, and I thought that my small Gitzo is a compact tripod. It isn’t. This would be a serious deal-breaker, but then I found that I can use the side pocket as a tripod holder – put two tripod legs in the pocket and use a strap to tie the tripod to the bag’s carrying handle. The tripod sits steady like this, the only question is how long the pocket holds because it’s obviously not designed for this use. It seems pretty strong anyway.
• The rain cover is packed at the bottom of the bag, making it bulky and the bag won’t stand up on its own because of this. Not such a big deal though.
• The front compartment could open up a bit more. Now it’s tight spaces.
• Speaking of tight, many other pockets are on the small side. There are three tiny pockets on the main compartment lid intended for memory cards, but certainly not for a CF card in a holder. Maybe a CF without a holder, but I will not put an unprotected card in the bag.
• The main compartment is a little bit hard to get at because the shoulder straps tend to be in the way. Once you get the lid open, you need one hand to keep it open because the zippers don’t go far enough to allow the lid to “hinge” at the bottom. But I reckon Lowepro intended it this way – it reduces nasty accidents in case you forget to zip up the lid before picking up the bag! And now that I was out in snowfall, I found out that it also keeps the weather out of the bag. So it’s just a matter of learning to push the shoulder straps out of the way.
• Despite the generously padded waist belt and movable sternum strap, I still haven’t found a combination which would make the bag as comfortable on my back like my hiker’s backpack. It works fine for short trips, but on a longer hike, I’m worried that my shoulders will suffer. And if my shoulders start aching, then my head starts aching.

Despite these nags, I would still say that the Flipside 400 AW is the best camera backpack I’ve seen so far. There is room for improvement, but in the most important areas – carry capacity and carry comfort – it is quite acceptable. Certainly good enough for me to keep using this bag, time will tell if these small nags turn into major irritations though.

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Based on my experience so far, it seems like my ultimate backpack still doesn’t exist. Tradional backpacks made for hiking have superior harness systems while not ideal for photo gear. And photo backpacks, while keeping the gear safe, are not comfortable on my back. I think the problem is that photo bag makers like Lowepro use the photography aspect as the starting point, so the ergonomics needed for hiking are sacrificed, even when they claim otherwise. If only Lowepro (or any photo bag maker) could get together with an outdoors gear manufacturer (e.g. Haglöfs)… The outdoors company could provide the frame of a hiking sack and Lowepro fix the gear storage. It would make an expensive pack, but at this point I’d be willing to pay!