Quest for the Perfect Bag
I want one bag which will hold all my junk for the day. I'm not going to find this bag, but here's trying.
Needs:
Wants:
Having one bag for all one's carrying needs is perhaps a bit ambitious.
You may have noticed I don't want my perfect bag to fit my laptop. I use an old Apple laptop bag (from the days of the PowerBook 1400 -- god, those had marvelous keyboards...) for my TiBook. It barely fits. It probably doesn't offer much protection on the end where it sticks out. I don't care. I just don't carry it around enough to. Now, if I ever get a 12" PowerBook, I will get this pretty laptop sleeve by booq. There's a huge wait on the things. So good thing I don't have a 12"er, I guess.
Crumpler has potential, too. Their bags (and website) fit the "cool" (or "inanely junior high" for the more mature readers) criterion. I've never seen one IRL, though; maybe they're crap.
For completeness' sake, I'll mention that my cameras (an EOS 10D for stills and a Canon Optura Pi for video) usually travel haphazardly tossed on top of some "soft things" (dance shoes, usually) in my REI Whitney backpack. Sometimes I pack the whole shebang into a LowePro case, but the thing is a pain to carry. Its strap threatens to bisect my colar bone while paradoxically almost slipping off my shoulder at all times. The bag doesn't even fit that much equipment: with the miniDV camera, a digital SLR with a 17-35, a prime 50, and a large flash it's full. If I want to carry a power adapter or (god forbid) a film body, I need a second bag. So I should probably get a new camera bag.
This camera backpack seems pretty nice, but it's a) a backpack and b) made by Kata, which makes random stuff for the Israeli military. Boo. Evil company...they do have some nifty photo bags, though. The diagonal sling thing looks like it could be idiotically useful.
Crumpler (see above for cheap shot at their site's humour) has some promising photo bags, too.
That'd be for commuting from Menlo Park to Palo Alto, a whopping 5 miles, half of it across a university campus, and most of the year with a brightly glowing sun. I have a Timbuk2 DeeDog messenger bag from back when the company was still fun enough to give their bags silly names. (Ballistic nylon, gold-gold-gold, bottom boot, compression straps, strap pad, right-handed, center divider, inner lining -- though half those options have disappeared, so if you're trying to be like me you're in for a tough time.) It's a bit scraped up from the two bike accidents I've been in in the past three four years, but works fine.
Apparently, if you are a real messenger, you want a bag made by Erik Zo of San Francisco. According to various online sources (what, you think I research this stuff in person in the real world? get real...) Erik is impossible to get a hold of, and not easily convinced to make you a bag.
Can't get enough messenger bags? Here's a list of manufacturers at messengers.org. There's also this very useful post on the MacRumors product recommendation and review forum. It mentions Erik Zo and both the bad-assness of his bags and the imposibility of obtaining one -- so you see, I don't make this stuff up.
Jack Spade makes a promising bag. Incidentally, I love this toiletries bag of theirs -- but it costs $110.
Anyway, what I want is more or less a messenger bag with lots of pockets. With that in mind:
Bagaboo of Budapest (how cool is that?) has a messenger bag and a mini messenger bag ("teenage dirt bag") which look like they could be quite excellent. Lumpy items like a Nalgene bottle or the 10D will probably end up poking me in the back and rattling against each other, but hey, what do you want? It's an imperfect world. But wait! They can put in an extra pocket with a removable piece of foam to protect your spine from your impossibly heavy SLR. Wiley Hungarians! They also make a wallet out of truck tarp. Rock on! I need one of those.
PushTheEnvelope makes a messenger bag which has enough pockets to amuse.
Needs:
- Holds:
- EOS 10D + 17-35 lens attached
- iPod
- cell phone
- 0.5 liter Nalgene bottle
- diary/notebook thingy
- ...with room to spare for random junk
- EOS 10D + 17-35 lens attached
- Waterproof
- Easily accesible while I'm walking or biking -- so no backpack. I like my REI backpack. I just don't need another one.
- A little padding -- to keep that 10D from banging a hole in my back.
Wants:
- Light or bright interior (yellow ideal) -- so I can find little black things, like, say, the inhabitants of my ant colony, easily.
- Protects my digital junk.
- Secure closure for travel which doesn't get in the way when I don't need it.
- Fits dance shoes and a sweater in addition to above, but it folds down small when I don't need it to be big.
- Dammit, it should look cool!
Having one bag for all one's carrying needs is perhaps a bit ambitious.
Laptops
You may have noticed I don't want my perfect bag to fit my laptop. I use an old Apple laptop bag (from the days of the PowerBook 1400 -- god, those had marvelous keyboards...) for my TiBook. It barely fits. It probably doesn't offer much protection on the end where it sticks out. I don't care. I just don't carry it around enough to. Now, if I ever get a 12" PowerBook, I will get this pretty laptop sleeve by booq. There's a huge wait on the things. So good thing I don't have a 12"er, I guess.
Crumpler has potential, too. Their bags (and website) fit the "cool" (or "inanely junior high" for the more mature readers) criterion. I've never seen one IRL, though; maybe they're crap.
Photo & Video
For completeness' sake, I'll mention that my cameras (an EOS 10D for stills and a Canon Optura Pi for video) usually travel haphazardly tossed on top of some "soft things" (dance shoes, usually) in my REI Whitney backpack. Sometimes I pack the whole shebang into a LowePro case, but the thing is a pain to carry. Its strap threatens to bisect my colar bone while paradoxically almost slipping off my shoulder at all times. The bag doesn't even fit that much equipment: with the miniDV camera, a digital SLR with a 17-35, a prime 50, and a large flash it's full. If I want to carry a power adapter or (god forbid) a film body, I need a second bag. So I should probably get a new camera bag.
This camera backpack seems pretty nice, but it's a) a backpack and b) made by Kata, which makes random stuff for the Israeli military. Boo. Evil company...they do have some nifty photo bags, though. The diagonal sling thing looks like it could be idiotically useful.
Crumpler (see above for cheap shot at their site's humour) has some promising photo bags, too.
Commuting
That'd be for commuting from Menlo Park to Palo Alto, a whopping 5 miles, half of it across a university campus, and most of the year with a brightly glowing sun. I have a Timbuk2 DeeDog messenger bag from back when the company was still fun enough to give their bags silly names. (Ballistic nylon, gold-gold-gold, bottom boot, compression straps, strap pad, right-handed, center divider, inner lining -- though half those options have disappeared, so if you're trying to be like me you're in for a tough time.) It's a bit scraped up from the two bike accidents I've been in in the past three four years, but works fine.
Apparently, if you are a real messenger, you want a bag made by Erik Zo of San Francisco. According to various online sources (what, you think I research this stuff in person in the real world? get real...) Erik is impossible to get a hold of, and not easily convinced to make you a bag.
Can't get enough messenger bags? Here's a list of manufacturers at messengers.org. There's also this very useful post on the MacRumors product recommendation and review forum. It mentions Erik Zo and both the bad-assness of his bags and the imposibility of obtaining one -- so you see, I don't make this stuff up.
Nearly Perfect
Jack Spade makes a promising bag. Incidentally, I love this toiletries bag of theirs -- but it costs $110.
Anyway, what I want is more or less a messenger bag with lots of pockets. With that in mind:
Bagaboo of Budapest (how cool is that?) has a messenger bag and a mini messenger bag ("teenage dirt bag") which look like they could be quite excellent. Lumpy items like a Nalgene bottle or the 10D will probably end up poking me in the back and rattling against each other, but hey, what do you want? It's an imperfect world. But wait! They can put in an extra pocket with a removable piece of foam to protect your spine from your impossibly heavy SLR. Wiley Hungarians! They also make a wallet out of truck tarp. Rock on! I need one of those.
PushTheEnvelope makes a messenger bag which has enough pockets to amuse.
posted by alex. at 01:36
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