Every photographer knows this problem: Due to changes of equipment or shooting style different bags are needed over time and sooner than you might like you will end up with a pile of bags that suit very different purpouses.
Due to the fact that I find myself in many different shooting situations ranging from trips that are of photographic nature to all day long walks at local happenings I rely on a few different types of bags. I only use Lowepro bags because I never had a problem with them and I feel quite comfortable using them. The only drawbag with theese bags is that they look like a photographers bag and everybody sees instantly that photo equipment is stored in them. However, there are certainly different approaches to deal with that:
Backpack: Lowepro CompuTrekker AW
The most needed bag of a photographer is a good backpack. I was looking for a backpack that still fits into the size limits for on-board luggage while still offering enough room for at least a camera body, one midrange lens, a macro lens, two tele lenses like a 80-200mm 2,8 and 300mm 4,0 and a flash.
The CompuTrekker AW offers enough space to hold all the above listed items and a bit more. It is strongly related to the MiniTrekker AW offering an additional compartment for carrying a (not too big) notebook. As nice as the notebook compartment is: My old Thinkpad with 15" 4:3 screen does not fit. Instead I sometimes carry magazines or other paperwork in there. The capability to attach a tripod via strings to the back of the backpack is nice but not recommended for tripods that exceed a weight of 3 kg total.
Waistbelt-bag: Lowepro Offtrail 2
This waistbelt bag is a very important part of my kit. In situations where I know that I will have to walk a long distance or that I am "on the road" for the whole day this bag comes along. After a short period of time I don't even know that the bag is even there; the weight distribution around the hip makes carrying a heavy zoom kit much easier.
The bag consists of a central portion which is shaped like the regular Lowepro Toploader bags. It has enough room for a D200 with attached battery grip and a mounted AF-S 28-70mm 2,8 (hood reversed). If aou have smaller lenses like a Tamron 17-50mm 2,8 mounted there is the chance that you can fit an additional lens like a Sigma 10-20mm in the bottom portion of the bag. I usually separate the camera/lens combo from the lens at the bottom through a divider taken out of my backpoack. At both sides of the central bag there are loops where additional lenscases can be attached. Lowepro delivers two lenscases with the bag which roughly equate to the size of a Lenscase 2. They fit either two primes stacked on top of each other or a zoom up to a size of a 80-200mm 4,0 AI-S. Wide angle lenses with a filter diameter of 77mm will not fit. Therefore I got an additional Lenscase 3 which is considerably larger and has enough room to hold a 80-200mm 2,8 with tripod mount or two wideangle zooms stacked.
Small bits and pieces like an additional battery, lenspen and a couple CF cards can be packed into two small compartments included in the top latch of the main bag.
The only downside of the Lowepro Offtrail 2 is the limited space available which in no way compares to a backpack. Nevertheless in the configuration as described above it is possible to carry the bulky zoom combo Sigma 10-20mm, 28-70mm 2,8, 80-200mm 2,8. When you replace the second Lenscase 2 with either a second Lenscase 3 or a Lenscase 1w made for wideangles it is even possible to carry the combo 14-24mm 2,8, 28-70mm 2,8, 80-200mm 2,8 together with the D200 with MB-D200.
Shoulder-bag: Lowepro Commercial AW
Quite a classic in the range of Lowepro bags and available for quite some time. The Commercial AW is the biggest shoulder bag the company offers and it comes in at least two different versions. One is intended for medium format photographers and the other one for 35mm camera owners. The bag itself is the same in both cases, just the included internal divider sets have different shapes and sizes.
My sample is an older "medium format" bag and at first I was a little disappointed because the divider set is really made for the bigger equipment with fewer but bigger compartments. I solved the problem by buying a second divider set - once again for medium format - and now I have enough dividers to work with.
It is very difficult to run out of room in this bag. The size allows to carry a huge amount of gear from A to B. It is not a bag meant to be lugged around even on medium distances. It is a bag that you pack at home, put in into your trunk and get it out once on location. Many different divider configurations are possible and therefore it would be fruitless to quote any sample configurations. I managed to pack 4 speedlights, 11 lenses from a small Micro Nikkor to a 80-200mm 2,8 and a D200 into this monstrum. A tripod can be attached to the top of the bag.
Lenscases
Review coming soon
Smaller bags of different types
Reviews coming soon