Reviews of Clik Elite Contrejour 40 Backpack for Photographers CE610BK

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $339.00
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I love the side access. I love the small zippered and velcro pockets to keep my small stuff organized. I love that this pack includes a place for a 3L water bladder.

It's pretty comfortable to wear. Seems pretty durable. Distributes weight well.

I wish it didn't move around so much while I walk. I have not taken a long hike in this yet, but I'm a bit worried about all the friction. I'll make sure I wear a compression top to reduce the friction on my skin.

The things that need fixing on this bag to make it amazing:

1) The two zippers for the opening through which you access all your camera gear . . . well they get stuck very easily because there is a lot of extra loose fabric. No need for this. Just sloppy assembly.

2) The straps that hold your tripod. The buckles work, BUT the straps that are folded through the buckle loosen quickly and easily on their own.

3) The compartment where you keep all your camera gear is really deep. So while the gear is held in place firmly length and width wise, it falls all over the place because of the depth. I put in my D700 with the 70/200 lens on the side access. In the gear compartment I keep my 24/70 lens my 50 lens, my 910 flash, My filters and a case of 8 AA batteries. Sometimes when I open up the compartment, it's all mixed up. So I've resorted to stuffing in a jacket or something to fill the extra space.

Hope this helps. It's not perfect, but it's the best bag I've found for my needs hands down (long hikes, overnight camping, skiing and snowboarding).

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I purchased the "Blue" version of this pack (on closeout on Amazon a few months ago for $236; I'm pretty sure I got a 2011 version of the bag, for what that is worth), and used it for a 7-day trek in Nepal. For me, it is the perfect travel and back-country pack, and will also get a lot of winter use backcountry skiing and snowboarding. There are only minor "con's" that might give anyone hesitation.

Pro:

1. Perfect size for airline carry-on. In multiple different sized aircraft, it fit in the overhead "bottom first" without having to turn it to take up the entire overhead bin. I almost bought the shorter Contrejour 35 out of fear of overhead bins, and I'm glad I went with the 40.

2. Protects gear very well. There are multiple layers of padding and other gear on almost all sides of the camera stuff. To fully open the camera gear compartment, you lay the bag on its back, which works well to give good access as well as keeping dirt and slop away from my glass. Another review complained about their gear moving around--I have to disagree with that complaint. The compartments are infinitely customizable, and can be made to snugly fit any kit if you are patient.

3. Easy to get my camera out. Unclick the chest strap and belt, swing off my right shoulder, unzip, shoot: 8 seconds without rushing. Unexpected bonus: while shooting with the bag still hanging from my left shoulder, my left elbow rests on the pack and helps to stabilize the camera (it's hard to describe in words, but is immediately obvious when you start shooting in the field).

4. Very comfortable for long hikes with up to about 30 lbs., even in summer-weight clothes. The shoulder straps have two adjustments each, and the belt is comfortable and intuitive/easy to adjust 1-handed as you go.

5. Holds a lot of other stuff. The internal compartments can hold quite a bit of non-camera gear inside the pack. The external attachment points allow the addition of a LOT of extra stuff.

6. Extremely well thought-out and well built. There are a lot of examples of this: the hydration compartment that drains past (not into) the camera gear compartment, well designed rain cover (large enough to fit over a full pack including an external tripod), the customizable gear compartment, the zipper holders, the large/durable/weather-sealed zippers, the accessory attachment points on the belt and shoulder straps, and the easily accessible webbed pouch on the right side (big enough for an oversized 1.5l water bottle; accessible without contorting your right arm).

Con:

1. Hydration bladder compartment is a little too small to fit a full 100 oz. (3l) bladder. It is possible to fit it, but it juts into your back a little bit. It is not unbearably uncomfortable, but I would probably only plan on having 50-70 oz in that location. As noted above, the webbed pouch is well-placed so that you can easily grab a water bottle from there with your right hand (with the pack on your back), and is large enough for an over-sized water bottle.

2. As noted in other reviews, the zipper used to access the camera is a bit stiff, at least on my bag. The stiffness lessened with repeated use, and was never bad enough that I actually tried to add any WD-40--it was just a minor inconvenience that is probably due to the extensive weather-sealing.

3. Limited to about 30 lbs for all-day summer use, maybe 40 lbs in the winter while wearing a few layers of clothes as waist padding. It can certainly carry a *lot* more weight; but, it doesn't have lumbar support or much padding on the belt, which would make it uncomfortable after a couple of hours. (I loaded it with almost 50 lbs for a 2-hour summer hike--I wasn't crying or bleeding at the end, but also knew that another 6 hours would have started to hurt.)

Overall, great travel and backcountry pack, big and comfortable enough for extended multi-day adventures.

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I've bought and tested many bags for long (multiple days and nights) backpacking trips into the wilderness. The trick is to be able to carry all you photography gear, protect it, and still manage to carry all your must have camping gear. That said, I've always had to sacrifice on how many lens I can take and I've always had the lightest and smallest camping gear but never has a company come so close to making a bag able to carry so much. I give this four stars because Clik almost made it with this bag. I'm a big guy and carry a lot, so I wish they made a bigger version... then it would be 5 stars. The camera compartment is great, although when you cram a lot into the gear section, the gear does compress the camera section and even makes the velcro of the top section come loose. You can fit lots of clothes and even a small, super compressed sleeping back and tent into the out side gear pocket. Then I had to use an additional, large compression sack to place all my remaining gear then attached that large compression sack to the outside of the pack and used outside ski straps of the back to secure the compression sack. It did work, and worked quite well. However it did keep lots of the weight higher on the bag. My wish for the bag: two strong straps at the bottom of the bag to secure gear and for the bag itself to be taller and wider and to have a much larger gear section. All that said, I carry a lot of gear and food and once I figured out how to rig it, the bag did one hell of a job staying strong and getting me through a week in the CO high country. I highly recommend this bag!

Honest reviews on Clik Elite Contrejour 40 Backpack for Photographers CE610BK

I had the Obscura before this. That was a perfect bag in every way except that I had trouble fitting my Canon 5D mark ii through the camera inlet. This bag is quite big, and fits everything nicely. Even with my 10-400mm lens on, I can fit the camera easily. There is lots of space for one more small dslr, three lenses of medium size. You can put the filter wallet easily and also store your laptop/ultrabook easily with clothes. Its great build quality. There is nothing to not like. If you want a bag this big, look no further.