Lowepro Slingshot 200 All Weather Backpack (Black) by Lowepro
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Digital camera reviews of Lowepro Slingshot 200 All Weather Backpack (Black)
Digital camera Review: Good, high quality, but not perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
My comments specifically regard the Slingshot 200, which I purchased after reading online reviews and checking it out fairly thoroughly in person. The 200 seemed like a fairly ideal bag for my needs, but actual use has revealed a few idiosyncrasies that I didn't see mentioned in other reviews that prospective purchasers might benefit from being made aware of.
First, as other reviews have mentioned, the bag appears to be top notch in terms of construction quality. The zippers all work freely with no hang-ups or catches in their travel and can be easily zipped or un-zipped with a casual tug on their pulls. There are plenty of small pockets for memory cards, cables, spare batteries and the like - as many as a semi-serious amateur like myself would hope for. The size of the bag is ideal, too, for an amateur like myself - big enough for several medium-sized lenses, the camera itself and a flash - and possibly more, although as I will point out the bag is not ideally suited to be used in that way.
The greatest benefit of the Slingshot bags, as I see it, is accessibility. I like the fact that the bag is designed to be worn on the back, making it suitable for hiking and carrying over long distances, while its design also permits it to be rotated to the wearer's front for access to its contents. Not having to put the bag down in the mud or snow to change lenses is an important benefit.
The sling design has its limitations for me, however, in that most of the time I need to access the bag it is not to access the main camera compartment, but to access other compartments in order to change lenses or add or remove an external flash unit. Unfortunately, while access to the camera compartment is easy, access to the lens compartments is a bit problematic. The zipper-limiting buckles need to be released, and they are not quite the best design - they take a little more effort than some to release, seemingly more than should be necessary, and in practice I simply leave them un-buckled most of the time. The zippers then need to be further un-zipped, probably on both sides. The lens compartments can then be accessed, but the lenses will be arranged horizontally, pointing towards the wearer's front and therefore away from him or her. That makes the lenses not easily visible and also could make them prone to falling out, requiring extra care with the bag during this part of the operation. You will need to identify the lens or accessory you're looking for, then do the three-handed remove-one-lens-and-put-on-another drill while watching that the bag itself stays in a favorable orientation, possibly requiring a fourth hand. It can be done, of course, and is probably not quite as difficult as I am making it sound, but it is not quite the ideal effortless process I'd hoped for. Sitting down makes the task easier as the bag can be rotated upwards on your lap, but if you have a good place to sit down then you have obviated part of the benefit of the bag's sling-style accessibility.
The other major flaw the bag has for my use has to do with the very large size of the main camera compartment. In order to make the bag usable for pro DSLRs, this area has to accommodate very wide, tall cameras like the Nikon D3. When it is used with a consumer-sized camera like my D90, there is a great deal of space around the camera that can not efficiently be put to use. The bag is designed to accommodate the camera in such an orientation that the camera's bottom points towards the wearer's back. There is then room for a medium sized lens, mounted on the camera, pointing to the wearer's right. A removable divider forward of the lens - further to the wearer's right - can be positioned to accommodate a lens or flash unit in "front" of the camera. (By moving this divider all the way to the right side of the bag, the compartment for the lens mounted to the camera becomes long enough to accommodate a medium sized lens, like my 16-85mm VR, with its shade fully deployed.)
I find that my D90 actually fits better in the case when I rotate it so that the camera's bottom points towards the bottom of the bag - that is, downwards when the bag is being worn. This lets the camera fit more snugly forward in its space for a better, more protective fit in the bag. This actually leaves enough space around the camera that an additional lens/flash compartment could be made to fit above the camera, and another below it. Unfortunately, the bag is not designed to be used this way and has neither the velcro surfaces nor dividers necessary to configure it in this way, causing these spaces to be effectively wasted. If the bag had been fitted with velcro and dividers that could be configured to make this space usable, it would have much more usable capacity and would meet my needs much better. Not only that, but these additional compartments would be exposed when the main camera compartment of the bag was opened, improving accessibility to two lens/flash spaces, which would also be an improvement in the design.
All the bag's lens compartments are the same depth - the depth of the bag - with no ability to configure any of them for "double-decker" lens/flash storage. While two small lenses could fit in one of these compartments, the user will have to find some method of protecting them from one another to do so. On the other hand, there is no good way to fit even one large lens, which will be an important disadvantage for some. The depth of the lens compartments is about 5", maybe stretchable to 6" or so if you're willing to put up with a tight fit. The only way to carry a lens longer than this is to put the lens in the portion of the bag designed for the camera itself and to position the camera, body-only, elsewhere. While possible, again the dividers are not configured to be used this way - they will not velcro in place in this configuration and will leave large undivided portions in other areas of the bag. I see this configuration shown in some of the product photos above. It is not ideal. It might be possible to carry a slightly larger lens - around 7" length - in the bag's top compartment, although this compartment is not well padded. You will also be giving up the bag's only suitable compartment for carrying large-ish non-camera items - a pair of gloves or a windbreaker, etc.
That large top compartment will, however, comfortably hold a D90-sized camera body with cap, which suggests another configuration for the bag. By storing the body in the top compartment, more and larger lenses could be stored in the bag's main compartment, some of which could be accessed very easily in use. You could store the camera until you reach your shooting site, choose a lens, and switch among your most-used lenses very easily while shooting. The only problem with this possibility is that - again - the main compartment is not designed to be subdivided in this way. Those lenses not stored in dedicated compartments would need to be kept in some sort of protective bag or container of their own, which you would need to fiddle with during access, and they would be free to bang around and move around inside the bag while it was being carried. Perhaps one could custom-install some additional dividers, but without velcro to attach them to in this part of the bag it would not be a trivial undertaking.
Finally, there is no good provision for attaching a tripod or monopod to the outside of the bag. It would have been easy enough to provide a couple of loop straps on the right side of the bag for this purpose, but it would probably have increased the cost and maybe would have been a somewhat awkward solution due to the bag's modest size. Nevertheless, I would have found it welcome. As it is, the bag for me is suitable strictly for occasions when additional camera support will not be required. There are three rubber loops provided on the outside of the bag for attaching additional items, and these will accommodate things that are designed to fit on a belt, such as perhaps a GPS case or cell-phone case. They are not stretchable and I don't see any way to use them to attach larger or more varied items.
The bag is a good design for somebody comfortable with these limitations and I can recommend it highly for those people. It is a fairly innovative, high quality piece of gear and may be the best solution available for those who require its features and are not bothered by its limitations.
Digital camera Review: ***UPDATED*** Great For Traveling Light
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased the Slingshot 200 as a replacement for my Lowepro Rover AW. My main motivation was the size the SS 200 offered and the fact that I never really found the Rover AW to be very easy to use...it just never worked the way I wanted it to.
This bag is much closer to want I have wanted. It is a good size for air travel, is fairly lightweight, and has enough storage space for most of the essential gear I need for a trip. The bag fits my Canon 50D w/ EF 28-135mm lens with hood (reversed for storage in the bag) as well as a couple other lenses and spare batteries, charger, etc. (I can see how a larger zoom would be a problem though so I would check one out at a store before buying online if you have a concern.)
There are a few drawbacks that I have found:
I use the BG-E2N battery grip on the Canon 50D and while it does fit, it is very tight and the camera entry in and out of the bag when shouldered (and "slung around") is somewhat cumbersome. I doubt they designed it with battery grips in mind, but it does work and I am finding it easier to get the camera in and out as the bag continues to break in with use.
Also, while the slingbag side entry is great for accessing the camera on the go...once you want to change lenses, get to a flash, etc., you have to take the bag off completely, undo the safety clasps, and open the whole compartment to get to them. After all of that, you have basically lost the unique benefits that the slingbag design offers. In other words, if you are changing gear frequently you probably can find a more convenient bag.
All in all though, I am giving this bag 4 stars because the design and build are top notch and I have truly felt it was a good purchase...I am just not convinced this is that elusive "perfect bag".
***UPDATE 7/21/09*** (Original review was not edited)
Since my original review and after seven months of using this bag I have decided to replace it with the Lowepro Fastpack 350. My main reasons are that the SS 200 is just not big enough, I ran out of space for gear and I felt that what I did have was packed too tightly and was actually a risk to the equipment. The top storage area is not big enough to be functional all. One last comment, the single strap sling design is not as easy to use as I thought it would be and after several months I actually felt it was inconvenient. It is cumbersome, clumsy, and taking the bag all the way off was not as easy as a conventional backpack two strap design. I am hopeful that the Fastpack will be a better fit for me.
Digital camera Review: Lowepro Slingshot 200
Summary: 4 Stars
After three years of extremely light use. The zipper came loose from the fabric. Now it is impossible to use the bag.
Other than that, I love the bag.
Digital camera Review: Surprisingly useless bag
Summary: 2 Stars
I really like Lowepro and this bag is well put together and uses good material and my Nikon D80 with 18-200 lens fits in easily with a lens hood. In fact all aspects of the design of this bag were well thought out to store all of the bits and pieces for a camera. So why am I rating it so low, you may ask?
The simple truth is that it fails in its purpose for anything other than a novelty. The one strap design focusses all of the weight in a way that quickly becomes extrememly uncomfortable even with a light rig. Then there is the key feature why someone would be drawn to this design in the first place-the ability to swivel from your back to your front for easy accessibility of your camera. This also falls very short since the needed strap length to wear it is far too short to actually access your camera. The result is constant tightening and loosening of the straps. This gets old very fast.
So long story short, LowePro gets an A for effort but a D in execution on this model. Instead, I would recommend a waist pack like the Off Road model (also by LowePro). This model is very comfortable for long trips, holds all of the same things as the Slingshot and is always accessible without any adjustments.
Happy Shooting!
Digital camera Review: Not quite a custom fit but workable
Summary: 4 Stars
I have a Pentax 10D with 2 lenses and some filters. While it holds everything and should hold a flash also, it is a bit difficult to customize the interior to snuggly hold the gear. I may be nit-picking here but I don't like my equipment to jostle around while on the move. Worth what I paid but the Pentax version of this item would have probably been a better deal.