
If there’s one thing I can never have enough of, it’s camera bags. Although I tend to use a LowePro Min Trekker (which I think turned into Pro Runner 450AW) if I am out for the day, if I am heading up to the hills, I don’t take this. Typically for a day in the hills safety is more important than camera gear, so I tend to take a backpack full of extra clothing, food and other useful things. I also want to keep it light as I’m not as young as I used to be. Gone are the days of climbing mountains with a Pentax 67 medium format outfit on my back.
When out walking I typically take a single all-purpose camera or lens such as the Sony RX10. When I was shooting more with a Micro 43 I could take the body, three lenses, batteries and filters in a small LowePro 130 shoulder bag. Now with the move to shooting mainly Fuji, the LowePro 130 isn’t large enough.
My solution had been to take the LowePro Apex AW120 which is slightly deeper and fits the Fuji with a slightly larger lens attached. There is though only room for the single lens attached to the camera, so I have tended to use the Fuji 18-135.
Despite having all these bags (and quite a few more besides) none was right for the Fuji X-T2. What I wanted was a shoulder bag that would accommodate the X-T2 body together with three lenses; the 10-24mm 16-50mm and 55-200mm. I didn’t want the bag to be too bulky because I would carry it in addition to my backpack and I wanted a weather proof cover.
Knowing bags tend to be quite cheap second hand, I had a look on e-Bay. Sure enough someone was selling a used LowePro Nova AW160 for £12 as buy it now; so I did. It arrived this morning and it’s like new. Whilst slightly bulkier than my other bag, it’s still small enough to carry as well as a backpack. It’s also the ideal size for the camera body and lenses I mentioned. What a great bargain.
If anyone has any recommendations for a mid sized backpack (slightly larger than the Mini Trekker) I would be grateful. It does need to be very comfortable though as my back still plays up a lot. I do have a Tamrac Expedition X7 backpack which carries loads, but it’s bulky and heavy.