John Camp
Well-known
I have hopeless bag GAS (or GAS/bag) and recently converted a briefcase/backpack for rangefinder use. That, however, was mostly a briefcase, with room for only one camera and a couple of lenses. Now I've acquired a LowePro Classic Mini-Trekker (as opposed to the All-Weather Mini-Trekker.) For those interested in small bags that are not too obviously camera bags, this one would carry two Leica-sized rangefinders with lenses attached, and have room for six additional lenses. That space, of course, could be used for two, three or four lenses, plus a flash, an Epson 2000 if you're digital, extra film if you're not, etc. The good thing about this bag, is that it has two additional full-height full-width pockets on the front of the bag, and with a full load of cameras and lenses, you can still fit in a 17-inch Mac laptop, a couple of legal pads, pens, pencils, cell phone, etc. That's not common to a lot of these bags. It also has nearly invisible loops on the bottom which would carry a light tripod or a jacket, one loop on each side to attach Lowe-Pro add-on pockets, which I haven't tried, but which can carry a water bottle or other stuff. If you really loaded it up, cameras, lenses, laptop, earphones, etc., it'd be heavy, but still small enough to take on a plane. The backstraps aren't the best -- they're like what you'd see on an inexpensive school bag. It does have a waist belt and a sternum strap. I threw the sternum strap away, because I'll never use it, and neatly tied up the waist belt in case I need it, which I probably won't. Anyway, it'll carry about as much of a Leica system as you'd likely need for a major trip, while at the same time looking something like a college student's backpack. There's a plastic Lowe-Pro label on the front panel of the bag, just where it could easily be read from behind, and identified as a camera bag. It was just sewn on, so I snipped it off; it left behind a white oval (marking soap?) which is okay with me, it makes the bag look used. With some inoffensive sticker on the back (a sports team or something) I think it would be pretty invisible as a theft target. For me, when I'm traveling by air with the R-D1, I can really load it up with the high-value stuff, then unload it at the hotel and use the bag to walk around town, with maybe a lens or two or three, a sweater, a bottle of water. I have no connection with LowePro, etc., but the bag is functional and I thought I'd mention it.
JC
JC
