Think Tank Retrospective 5 - New Bag

goffer

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This one looks interesting... smaller than the 10 and tailored towards 4/3rd and rangefinder users.

Comes in black or pinestone for ~$130

think-tank-photo-retrospective-5.jpg


http://www.thinktankphoto.com/products/retrospective-5-pinestone.aspx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X32rUV0GYk&feature=player_embedded
 
I was checking this bag out a few days ago in a local camera shop. It looks to be a bit over-padded for my liking, making it a lot more bulky that it should be.

For a RF bag I much prefer a regular non-camera shoulder bag with a small thin insert, or just a few soft pouches for lenses.

But, if I plan on dropping my gear down a few flights of stairs, this may be the bag for me. ;P
 
This looks like a nice bag. To me in only misses a small divider in the main compartment that would allow to carry a book or iPad or similar. My experience with the outer pockets that are on the body side is, that whatever flat is put inside will not stay flat for long.

But the size is obviously designed for cameras smaller than average DSLR - from the video it seems that the fit is tight with DSLR.

Still - I would like to see a bag that would fall somewhere between the ultra light BBB and this one (1kg is not that little for a bag this small).
 
I was hoping this wasn't the case :(

This seems to be a trend - either special low light bags with no padding at all or over-padded cases designed to transport biological weapons in glass syringes.

I have yet to find a camera bag that is just lightly padded, but equipped with some stiffening in the outer part such that it partially keeps the shape and makes the access easy and fast (I do like my soft messenger bag, but there are different uses to different bags - just ask my wife ;))
 
This seems to be a trend - either special low light bags with no padding at all or over-padded cases designed to transport biological weapons in glass syringes.

I use a Chrome backpack (the Yalta) with a Camaroo Compact III insert, which can hold two M bodies with lenses, and an extra lens. The Camaroo inserts let you make any bag a camera bag, and come in a few sizes.

It fits the backpack perfectly. The pack is a little deep, so it's not ideal getting the cameras out, but it's completely waterproof and pretty rugged.
 
If you want a non-padded bag, just get a courier/messenger bag from any one of a number of bag makers. You can get them real cheap or nicer custom ones. My main bag is a Timbuk2 medium bag. My small bag is a Lowepro sliplock pouch 50 - fits just a camera with lens mounted. Hopefully this TTR-5 bag will be somewhere in between. Lots of pockets and pouches for stuff, but not too big. I could give a crap if people think it looks like a purse.

It would stink if they made the pocket big enough for an ipad and I bought it too early for that change.
 
looks a bit like a domke 5xb...i buy microfibre cloths at the dollar store...they make great padding in a bag (just folded) and they can clean your camera or dry it if it gets wet. they also work great on my own glasses if caught in the rain or snow.
and as lens wraps too!
 
It comes in black :)

Retrospective-5-Black-1.jpg


Ahhh....not bad at all. I wouldn't worry about an iPad...looks like the bag will outlast the current iPad size and the next iPad (a year away?) may well be smaller anyway. Who knows? But, this does look like a nice bag alternative.:)
 
looks a bit like a domke 5xb...i buy microfibre cloths at the dollar store...they make great padding in a bag (just folded) and they can clean your camera or dry it if it gets wet. they also work great on my own glasses if caught in the rain or snow and as lens wraps too!

Another user of these cloths and I too use them in my Domke (an F-803) for padding - they are good allround value and if they need it, into the washing machine and as good as new.
 
I have one, and it's a nice, compact, low-profile bag. The material looks like the Swiss (or maybe it was Belgian) Army medic's bag that I used back in the day. It holds a M body with lens, an extra lens and sometimes an extra body and is easy to work out of with that gear. The outside pocket will hold a lot of film, or a pair of binos if I take it to a ball game. The Velcro silencers are a nice feature, and can be reversed--there are some places where you want to hear that stuff tearing open, as it means someone is trying to prowl your bag.

I don't think it's overpadded, except maybe on the back. It's loaded up with a few things I don't use, but I didn't have to attack it with a sharp knife to do that--the carrying handle just needed to be unthreaded. I couldn't figure out the rain cover, and it looked like it would make the bag difficult to work out of it I did figure it out, so that came off, too. I wish I could lose the zipper on the back pocket--I usually just shove a newspaper or magazine in there, and the zipper restricts what I can stuff into it.
 
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