My dream camera bag to my knowledge doesn’t exist. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Think Tank Retrospective 5 and use it every day and have no complaints but it’s not the right bag for every occasion. It’s not a great bag for hiking/taking long walks for example. I’m looking for a backpack or sling bag that my micro four thirds lenses won’t swim in and I have yet to find one. The mirrorless systems have grown rapidly in popularity and it’s time camera bag manufacturers start tailoring to the smaller camera systems.
I will say I really like the little Olympus Mini backpack that I got with my E-PM1 for the Pen Ready project. It is WAY smaller than a regular camera bag. I can guarantee no DSLR would fit in that bag. It was made specifically for micro four thirds and we need more bags like that. The OMD just barely fits in it with the grip on but the battery part of the grip would need to be kept somewhere else in the bag. In addition to the body it holds 2-4 lenses. The two Lumix zooms will fit but you won’t be able to fit a 3rd lens with those hogging up all the room. I have taken it on hikes and used it as a lens bag while I carried my camera. I was able to fit up to 5 lenses in it that way.
Olympus OMD + 75-300mm, 60mm macro, 45mm and Lumix 20mm
Ideally I’d like a bag that has the following features:
- will hold the OMD, the two Lumix zooms, and 3-4 additional lenses
- the compartments would need to be 3-3.5″ deep and not much more than that
- small pockets on the sides to hold batteries, memory cards, business cards etc.
- a pocket on the back for slightly larger items like a cell phone, flash,
- a pocket or two inside the bag for stuff like a color checker, gray card and/or small light diffuser/reflector
I’ve asked for recommendations in a few forums and I’ve gotten some feedback but nothing that really met what I was looking for. Several people said they had resorted to using a regular backpack and converting it into a camera backpack and that may be the way to go, at least for now.
