Discount Billingham 503301-01 Hadley Small camera bag (Black/Black)

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $264.00
Sale Price: $232.95
Today's Bonus: 12% Off

Bag appeared a bit smaller than I expected, would like it to be a tad wider. Though it's enough for D7000 + 50mm 1.8D and a couple of lenses. Black material catches dust and cats fur easily so if you don't mind other colors I would choose khaki or tan colors.

Otherwise it's a great bag, quality is top notch.

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I'm picky when it comes to bags, but this one met my requirements. I needed a small-ish bag to bring with me on a trip to Iceland. I usually use a Bleu de Chauffe Louise Plumber leather bag, but since I was traveling I wanted to bring an extra camera, and the Bleu de Chauffe 1) was too small to fit both my Leica & Fuji X100 comfortably, and 2) it's leather, and I was worried about Iceland's unpredictable weather ruining the bag.

I'd heard good things about Billingham for years, so I decided to give one a try. As a way to carry and protect your camera gear, it's perfectly fine. It fit everything I wanted to fit (Leica M6 w/ 50mm lens, Fuji X100, small tabletop tripod, light meter, Kindle, and a few filters and batteries).

My criticisms are aesthetic ones.

* I wish it were available in more colors. I don't like the way the green looks (too bright), and the khaki isn't really my style, so black was my only reasonable option. I wish it was available in grey/charcoal (perhaps with oxblood/reddish leather), or a dull camel waxed canvas. Even a darker green with darker brown leather would have been better.

* The lining is green. This would make sense if the bag itself were green, but it's not. Black or grey would have been much better and more consistent with the look of the bag.

* The insert material seems cheap. I'm sure it's fine and will hold up for a while, but it cheapens the look and feel of the bag. Also, it's the same green as the lining, which is ugly inside a black bag.

* I'd prefer a removable strap, or even one that connected to the bag through a loop of some sort so that I could cut it off and replace it. Unfortunately the strap is entirely sewn in to the bag, so I'm unable to replace it if I were so inclined.

Otherwise, the structure of the bag is great. I love that I can fit my iPad or a book or Kindle into the back perfectly (behind the insert).