The harness system offers a huge amount of stability to the bag and to me. I often find myself clambering over fallen trees or walking along ridges by the river so having the backpack harnessed means I'm not worrying about it slipping causing me to lose my balance which basic backpacks can do. I love that you're not restricted to the waist and chest harness but can have one strap across body and fastened with the chest harness. This lets me whip the bag across my front to access the side panel to get my camera out quickly rather than having to take the whole bag off to take it out the top.
If I'm not using the bag for the camera I can easily take the padded camera insert out. This in itself isn't heavy but does take up a lot of space. The bag then loses its shape from the front with just the stiffer back to keep its tall shape. If I'm going on a trip I have found myself using this bag more than my regular backpack just for its comfort and streamline design. You do lose the ability to find things easily as you're piling everything on top of each other rather than having the wideness of a suitcase but I find it far more practical.
If there was something I had to change about the bag it would be the inside pocket. Although it's not that deep (which isn't a huge problem) I would have preferred a zip closure rather than just the elasticised band. This is where I'm most likely to keep valuables such as my purse, keys, spare change, phone etc if out walking rather than having these in my clothing pockets but tipping the bag would easily cause anything to fall out and it would have given that little extra safety precaution if out travelling. Someone could far too easily open the external front zip pocket without me noticing, the side opening doesn't open into a pocket and then you're only left with the mesh pocket on the other side. The top loading zip could of course also easily be opened without me noticing but it would then take a thief far more effort to then unzip the inside pocket than just reach in. Thankfully this isn't something I've had to worry about or have experience of but it is something I have to consider when out and about. At least the bag is inconspicuous so it's not obvious the camera is in it.
If I'm not using the bag for the camera I can easily take the padded camera insert out. This in itself isn't heavy but does take up a lot of space. The bag then loses its shape from the front with just the stiffer back to keep its tall shape. If I'm going on a trip I have found myself using this bag more than my regular backpack just for its comfort and streamline design. You do lose the ability to find things easily as you're piling everything on top of each other rather than having the wideness of a suitcase but I find it far more practical.
If there was something I had to change about the bag it would be the inside pocket. Although it's not that deep (which isn't a huge problem) I would have preferred a zip closure rather than just the elasticised band. This is where I'm most likely to keep valuables such as my purse, keys, spare change, phone etc if out walking rather than having these in my clothing pockets but tipping the bag would easily cause anything to fall out and it would have given that little extra safety precaution if out travelling. Someone could far too easily open the external front zip pocket without me noticing, the side opening doesn't open into a pocket and then you're only left with the mesh pocket on the other side. The top loading zip could of course also easily be opened without me noticing but it would then take a thief far more effort to then unzip the inside pocket than just reach in. Thankfully this isn't something I've had to worry about or have experience of but it is something I have to consider when out and about. At least the bag is inconspicuous so it's not obvious the camera is in it.
