Think Tank Retrospective 5 Shoulder Bag - Pinestone Reviews

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I confess to being obsessed by camera bags. I typically buy about 2 cameras a year -typically the "latest and greatest -and se;; the displaced cameras on eBay. Since size, weight and suitability for "street shooting" candids are of the most concern, right now my "kit" consists of a Fuji X100 and Canon S95. About 75% of my shots are taken on cruises where the ship typically visits several countries and at least 10 ports, with the remainder being taken mostly on race committee boats from which I photograph sailboat races.

Unfortunately I usually don't sell off the bags that I buy for each combination of cameras and this has left me with about a dozen bags ranging from a rolling case for my late DSLRs with their multiple lenses, to waist packs that can only handle one small camera plus a spare battery and card. Until my Retrospective 5 purchase, my last favorite was a Tamrac bag able to handle these two cameras along with a decent number of accessories plus an Apple iPad 2. However, this is a bit too bulky for outings when I can leave the iPad at home or in the cabin of a cruise ship, so this hasn't proven to be as easily handled as I wanted it to be. Besides I've found that the iPad2 is less than ideal for photo storage , organization and editing; and therefore it is being replaced on my next few cruises by my good old Dell laptop that doesn't fit in the Tamrac.

Enter the Think Tank Rerospective 5: This is -hands down -the best made and most thoughtfully designed bag for a person carrying 1 or 2 small cameras and some extra gear. I keep the cameras and the most essential accessories (e.g., spare batteries, memory cards and the 2 battery chargers and the Fuji manual)in the main compartment, and then put the less-essential accessories in a zippered mesh bag that I place in the front compartment. That way my whole kit is together when I travel so that all I have to do is put the Retro 5 into a corner of my carry-on bag when I'm flying, and remove the mesh bag and the chargers from the bag when I go out shooting. Without the mesh bag and chargers, the entire kit weighs slightly less than 5 pounds, and when I fly the weight including the accessories still comes in under 6 pounsd.

The Retro 5 is superbly built and organized. Everything can have its own place as there are probably close to 20 compartments and padded separators. The only (minor) problem is that to get to some of the smallest compartments, you may have to go by feel into some of the smaller and more obscure compartments, or temporarily remove a larger item from an adjacent compartment. However this is preferable (to me at least) to having a jumble of small items sharing a few compartments and having to dump many things out to find and get to the smallest ones. This is the direct opposite of the philosophy behind the similiarly-sized and priced Domke bag which is probably the closest competitor to this bag in terms of cost, quality and appearance, but which has a bare minimum of compartments to add to its flexabilty.

The best feature of the bag is the Velco fasteners that secure not only the flap enclosing the entire bag, but smaller tabs that close off some of the larger compartments as well. The fasteners assure that the bag is securely closed, but at the same time they can be opened in a fraction of a second even by someone wearing gloves or with some loss of strength in their fingers; which is again very different from the Domke bag which has fasteners that are very difficult to manipulate by most people who are wearing gloves or on Social Security.

Finally I really like the weather-proof bag which will protect your gear in a downpour. And ... in typical Thinktank style ... you have at least 3-4 compartments to choose from in deciding where to store the waterproof bag.

Is ANY small bag worth $135? That as much money as I have typically spent on 2-3 of my other small bags. My answer is YES; this is a bag that I anticipate using with an entire generation of new cameras that I can choose from this year including the Sony Nex7, the Fuji X10, the Olympus and Panasonic 4/3 cameras,the tiny Pentax, and the fabled mirrorless Nikon pro camera. In short, DSLRs are losing ground to lighter and smaller gear, and it's only a matter of time until bags that weigh more than about 8 pounds fully loaded will be considered as cruel & unusual punishment for anyone that is not getting paid big bucks to shlep everything around!

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I had been wanting to get this bag for a while, and finally took the plunge. It is a very well built bag, perfectly constructed, not a loose thread anywhere, clearly new but not shiny-new. But after checking it out for a few days, I felt it was not for me, and returned it. Here is a quick run-down of the pros and cons and the reasons for my ultimate decision. As usual, YMMV.

Pros:

1. Fantastic construction. Top notch materials all through.

2. Tons of pockets, small and large, including small pockets within larger pockets

3. Easy to open flap to get at contents

4. Very nice interior for making adjustments the entire inside is velcro-compatible

5. Great shoulder pad and excellent shoulder strap material

Cons:

1. A surfeit of pockets compared to the size of the bag. Even if one does not use all pockets (Which was perhaps the designer's intent), it is easy to misplace things.

2. Some pockets are, for me, of extremely limited use, like the ones on the outside left and right side. You can put in something flat such as a small notepad, but nothing else despite the product description which suggests one can put in a small water bottle.

3. The length of the shoulder strap is fine as long as you want to carry it that way. If you want to carry the bag cross-shoulder, the strap runs short, and you cannot unclip the factory strap to put in a longer one.

4. There is no zipper to close up the bag, just the velcro flap. If by chance I have the velcro silencers on, there is nothing to keep the flap held in place, and then if the bag flops open accidents do happen the contents of the bag will spill. Not good, and for me, the dealbreaker. I've seen it happen often enough with womens' handbags to risk it with my camera gear.

I truly wanted to like the bag and there is a lot to like. Great material, great feel, beautiful workmanship. But the bottom line for me was safety of contents if I forgot to un-silence the velcro, and more issues as enumerated above. For my own specific needs, it does not work. Then there was the issue of stuff missing it was supposed to come with a set of spare partitions that were not there.

All in all, in my opinion, a lovely bag, somewhat over-designed in some use-cases and under-designed in others (mainly secure closure missing for main compartment), that does not work for me. (I even asked myself what would make me keep it? If there was a good closure like a zipper, and the factory sent me the missing parts, I could probably live with the other shortcomings).

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This is my second Think Tank bag and I was expecting lots of features and great quality and somehow this bag exceeded my expectations.

The material is durable cloth that looks new and used at the same time. The padding is enough to protect against bumps but not overboard to make the bag bulkier than it needs to be.

The features I really like, beyond the ample capacity for a "smallish" bag, are the numerous pockets, a very comfortable, well padded, and generously long shoulder strap, and the ability to "tune" the velcro strap closure. You can adjuct it from a very firm grip (which of course makes noise when you open it) to not holding at all (and the flap still stays closed thanks to it's weight and the flexibility of the material.

So, what does it hold for me on a typical day, you ask?

Nikon D90 12.3MP Digital SLR Camera (Body Only) with a Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G AF-S ED VR II Nikkor Telephoto Zoom Lens for Nikon DX-Format Digital SLR Cameras attached.

Nikon 85mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras and there's room for another prime lens if I choose.

Nikon SB-800 AF Speedlight for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras Old Version with a Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce Diffuser.

Nikon 7072 Lens Pen Cleaning System (for the brush), Nikon 8072 Microfiber Cleaning Cloth, and Purosol All Natural Lens Cleaner 1oz.

TASCAM PR-10 Portable Digital Audio Recorder (Black) for example, background audio can be a nice addition to slide shows.

Manfrotto 035RL Super Clamp with 2908 Standard Stud Replaces 2900 (Black) The world is your tripod.

PicPac II 11-in-1 High Speed Memory Card Reader and 250 GB Storage Device 7625

Spare batteries for the camera, flash, and recorder, a few extra memory cards. A small flashlight.

Business cards, notepad, and pens

Even with all that, it doesn't feel heavy or look stuffed.

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I hate carrying around a big bag with a lot of gear, so I wanted the smallest that would take my D7000 and 2-3 lenses. The Retrospective 5 is exceptionally well made and well-thought out, but there are 2 issues that made me return it:

1) The interior is cluttered up with far too may pockets and zips, etc. And they take up valuable room and may scratch the camera or lens.

2) It's not waterproof or water-resistant. They provide a somewhat clumsy cover that takes up space in a pocket. Why can't they make it from some waterproof material like the Billingham bags? And this problem is compounded by the main compartment not being secured with a zip; you close the big flap and find the ends of the main compartment are open to the elements.

So I ended up with a Billingham Hadley Pro. Much more expensive, but it fulfills my needs better.

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In fact I like them so much I bought two an R5 and R30. My "old" favorite was a Think Tank UD 40 used as my primary camera bag for a couple years, but I found continuously getting equipment in and out through the top zipper to be more difficult and tedious than I cared for. TT has now solved this problem with the Retrospective line. And like all TT products, these bags just exude quality!

This R5 is perfect for a "day bag" holding my 5DII with 24-105 and a 16-35, plus a couple filters, battery, etc, while the R30 is perfect for my "main bag" to hold all of my gear. Also, if I hand carry the camera, the R5 makes a perfect "lens changer" bag for a couple lenses including a 70-200 f/2.8 or a 100-400. The R5 can also double as the "main bag" for my complete Canon G12 "system" camera, batteries, charger, filters, adapters, teleconverters, etc. And someday should I ever get a micro four-thirds camera, this would be perfect for that as well.

All in a bag that is a perfect size, not too big, and looks great! Up until now I had always preferred the black balistic nylon material, but I can now say I really like the Pinestone cloth and color MUCH better. What else could one ask for!