How many camera bags can one try and is this the final solution to my needs?, A couple of questions I asked myself after handing over £200 to Aspen of Hereford.
I was going to Florida in 5 days, for a 3 week vacation and had already re-packed my Magnum AW a dozen times. Should I leave the EF 70-200, the 480EX and other bits and pieces behind. Ah but, I want to take my MP3 player, I need my battery chargers and still wanted to add my passport, tickets, a book and a jacket to my carry-on luggage capability. So I decided to order a Lowepro Dryzone 200.
Aspen of Hereford got it to me within two days and it came in box that was huge. Oh dear (I thought) is this going to be too big?. I opened the package, inside was a Grey and Black Dryzone 200 and loads of air bags.
I didn’t fancy the yellow one, as it just screams large bag with lots photography gear to anyone you walk past. Although for what they are designed for, the brightly coloured version would be useful if climbing Everest. I’m unlikely to go there and if I did, grey would have to do!
The first thing you notice about this bag is it’s weight. This thing is ~3kg before you put any gear in it. The Lowepro website say its “airline carry-on friendly”, but fully loaded it well exceeds the 10kg limit. imposed by most carriers.
The bag has an ingenious fully waterproof design and measures 30.5 x 15 x 43cm. The main compartment is made out of semi rigid water proof plastic coated nylon and wouldn’t look out of place on a river rafting expedition. If the dinghy sprung a leak your photographic gear wouldn’t get wet, but you’d also have some suitable material to patch the hole with.
The main compartment is fully lined with high density mix ‘n’ match foam inserts and it has two closures. The first zip seals the bag with a foam / nylon cover, while the outer shell is secured by a Tzip. This is similar to what is found on dry suits. Unfortunately this Tzip doesn’t fully open and the lower 1/4 of the bag is difficult to access. Also during my 3 week trip, the Tzip opened at both ends and I thought it was broken. A quick read of the manual stated that you must lubricate the zip with silicon grease (provided) at regular intervals. A quick lube and it was fixed and operating fine. In fact other reviewers have commented on the Tzip stiffness, again regular lubrication sorts this problem out..
So how much does it hold?, well I got everything bar the kitchen sink in it. Two dSLR bodies (one with BG), five lenses (incl. EF300 and EF70-200), two flashguns, two tele-converters, six camera batteries, twelve AAs, 3 chargers, X-drive, numerous power leads, 6 filters, cleaning stuff, Sony HD MP3 player, headphones and two FM walkie-talkies. And that’s all in the main waterproof compartment.
Lowepro have been clever, they have wrapped a backpack harness and outer compartment around the main waterproof compartment which can subsequently be removed for cleaning.
The outer nylon compartment is self contained an has 4 inner zippable mesh pockets. It is large enough to put a fleece or shell jacket in, along with a paperback, medication and documents. Although it is only shower proof. If that’s not enough room, you can easily add up to four pouches on the external sliplock loops.
The total weight of this backpack when fully loaded is 16kg (35lb) and a large rubberised handle is placed on top for easy lifting. Bear in mind, this is no lightweight to be lugging around all day. In fact, I borrowed and used a small toploader for those rest days in the theme parks.
The outside of the backpack has another ingeniously designed hidden tripod holder along with bungee straps, two mesh pockets (big enough for can of beer in each), reinforced tie down points and a really comfortable harness.
The harness is fully adjustable and houses yet another ingenious design! It comes with a large plastic “pack jack” which is used to extend the harness for shoulder to hip size adjustment. The “pack jack” enables you to unhook the velcro in a slicing action (rather than pull it apart) and it also stores behind the harness (out of the way).
I found this adjustment tool invaluable as I’m long in the body and to get a comfortable fit it looked overly large, so I collapsed the harness when carrying on aircraft. It still looked big mind and I do wonder whether the bright yellow version may have met with a different reception from those AirCanada boarding staff.
Is it waterproof?, I didn’t have the heart to throw the bag in the swamps of the Everglades, through fear of it being eaten by Alligators. But on the couple of off days when torrential rain came down, nothing in the main compartment got wet. Nor did any sand enter it on those nature trails by the beach.
Conclusion
I absolutely love it, its extremely rugged, more so than most ballistic nylon bags.. The main shell is very durable and it would without doubt take more knocks than anything bar a rigid case. Its cavernous by most backpack standards and it should house everything I’m likely to need.
Its comfortable but heavy (you notice it after 3 or 4 hours), possibly a little overpriced but consider this, If you going to put £1000s worth of camera gear in a pillow case, are you really going to protect your investment.
It probably wouldn’t suit most people as it’s a little cumbersome to get your camera in an out of, although you don’t need to close the Tzip as it has a separate quick release buckle strap fastener which when used in conjunction with the inner shell offers secure and easier access.
All said and done, I would thoroughly recommend this to the weekend city traveller, wannabee explorer, nature photographer or white water rafting specialist. Seriously though, its a damn fine product and will probably be my last camera bag…all I need now is a few more session down the gym!
