Lowepro LP36421-PWW Flipside Sport 10L AW (Galaxy Blue/Light Grey) Reviews

Customer Ratings:
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I purchased this pack primarily for mountain biking use, with some hiking and trail running occasionally as well. I like the size and ideas behind the pack, but it is definitely not perfect.

My main problem is the size of the actual camera compartment. I use a Nikon D300, and my most-used lenses are a Sigma 10-20 and Nikon 70-300 VR. The fit is very tight for any of these combinations, especially if the hoods are mounted, and almost unusable if I want to take both lenses with me. This body and these lenses are by no means huge, but they are larger than something like a D5100 with the kit 18-55 and 55-200. I think these more compact options would fit great.

I have yet to find a hydration bladder that fits well in the designated area. I also dislike the fact that the water goes on one side of the pack, it tends to make it feel unbalanced. It also shares its space with the one mesh key/accessory pouch, which makes it difficult to access.

Accessing the camera while on the trail is very easy. This is the feature that I most like about this pack. Simply unclip the sternum strap, leave the waist belt on and spin it around in front of you. The only downside is the tight fit of the camera, it tends to get caught up at times.

The removable padded camera compartment seems like an unneeded feature that is bulky and takes up a lot of space. I would rather gain some extra room or a smaller pack by getting rid of it and simply having a pack build as a dedicated camera carrier. I have other hydration packs for when I don't carry a camera, and I have other ways of carrying the camera if I'm not using this pack, so I would rather see a more specialized design that is more compact and efficient.

The pack is built well and with high quality materials, and is fairly comfortable to wear. The only problem I have seen so far is a small kink in the hydration pocket zipper, which happened when I was trying to pack a ton of stuff into the entire pack. I am currently still using the pack on short rides, but I may soon go back to my previous rig, which was a Think Tank Holster rigged as chest pack, which I attached to whatever backpack I was using for the day.

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Since no one is writing about these babies, I will try to help others, even though I only had it for a day.

The cons first:

It has straps and cords all over it, I'm hoping they won't be a bother in the regular day to day use. Lowepro only included elastic bands to secure them on the 2 shoulder straps. For 100+ bucks they could have added a couple more...

The zippers are a possible irritation and, I must say, perhaps it is the fault of us, customers! I remember everybody complained that on the Flipsides the zipper did not come down 100% on the bottom and Lowepro listened to the customers, they fixed that. Now, the problem is that by doing this, the zippers get way more complicated to close, you WILL need both hands, which was not the case with the regular Flipsides. It is a minus point!!!

Now, the Pros:

It is smaller, waay lighter and less bulky than the Flipside 200 or 300 (although the right comparison for the 300 would be the 15L, I guess).

The inside is small, but good enough for, right now:

Nikon D600 with 24-70 2.8 attached

Nikkor 50mm f 1.4

Nikon SB-700 flash

There is extra space to use

So even though it looks small, it actually fits a lot of stuff and I love it for that, I don't want to carry everything I own, it is just for an outing, so that looks like a winner, specially with the overall size, I'll say it again, it is considerably smaller than the regular flipsides on the outside.

The side pocket can fit one or 2 filters, an extra battery, cleaning pen, and other small stuff. It is similar to the one I had on the Flipside 300

The orang color looks really nice and I actually think it will be good, I mean, you can try to steal it, but an orange backpack tends to give you away.

The straps and the whole "sports" side of it seem to be really nice, it feels light on the shoulders and I hope to go hiking with it soon enough, as these features are the main reason I bought these. I sweat a lot and the regular Flipsides were terrible in this aspect, I always ended up with horrible marks on my shirts.

So, overall I gave it 4 stars, but I'll take it on a 2 week trip by the end of October, after which I'll amend this review accordingly to let you all know how it behaved. For now it looks like a winner!

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I really wanted this bag to work, and I admit to overloading it. But hey, 14" CF tripod, 5DII, 70-200/2.8LII. 50/1.2L. .5Liter camel back bladder, 270EXII flash, 4 B+W filter cases I thought it was supposed to fit. I was STUFFING the bladder in, with NO water. So to be realistic, while it all kinda sorta fit, there was no margin at at all (memory cards?, rocket blower? remote trigger?). I know it's an amateur mistake to buy the camera bag that's too small, but I did it again I trusted the specs and the pretty photos that seemed to indicate there's plenty of room. I returned it and I'm waiting for the 15L to arrive today. The 10L is perfect for less gear, like a kit Rebel system from Costco, or a mirror-less system, etc. I do think they over-sold the idea of it holding 1L of water. They should have made the water compartment twice as big

Honest reviews on Lowepro LP36421-PWW Flipside Sport 10L AW (Galaxy Blue/Light Grey)

Let me start off by saying this is the lightest, easiest camera bag I've ever owned. It holds my Manfrotto 190 tripod with no problem, my Canon t3i EOS Rebel, Canon 70-200mm f/4, Canon 18-55mm, and Canon 60mm macro f/2.8 with no problem. I can even carry a few accessories like lens hoods for all 3 of them. Waterproof for those springtime or summertime showers and thunderstorms when out on the trail. Easy to access on spur of the moment to capture anything. All in all a well rounded bag. A little pricey but well worth it in my opinion.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Lowepro LP36421-PWW Flipside Sport 10L AW (Galaxy Blue/Light Grey)

Bought this for my Canon T5I. I received it and packed all my camera gear. I even fit my point and shoot in one of the slots for a lense. This is perfect for traveling because the place where you take the camera out of is against your back so no one can unzip and take your camera out. I'm in the process of purchasing a platypus 1 liter water hydration reservoir for it.