At first, I thought that I would have a difficult time fitting all the contents in my camera bag and old backpack inside this. However, it was no sweat. I was able to fit my Canon 50D with 28-135mm attached w/ lens hood, plus my 50mm 1.8, my 430 EX II flash, the camera's battery charger, my 15" Unibody Macbook Pro, the laptop charger, portable external hard drive, various cables, and some adapters. I've still got room for at least 3 more lenses, a tripod, and a water bottle!
Some notable things:
1) Only thin laptops (like Apple's line of notebooks) or laptops smaller than 15" will fit in the sleeve without trouble. In fact, my macbook pro snuggly fit after I removed the neoprene sleeve that protected it before.
2) Putting your DSLR in the bottom compartment will make it difficult to pull out later. Place it in the top area for easier access.
3) I bought the black and red color thinking that the inside will match the red exterior accents. However that's not the case. It is yellow inside no matter what color you bought (by no means a deal breaker for me).
4) The build quality is great. I don't get the impression that this will come apart anytime soon. Also, the bag is very compact and fairly discreet.
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I got this bag to carry my laptop and a camera with a couple of lenses in a relatively small package because the Kata 3-n-1-22 "sling-pack" isn't big enough for my 14" laptop and the 3-n-1-33 is bigger than I want. The 466i can take a 14" laptop in the padded back section and a semi-pro DSLR (Canon 7D/5D or Nikon D90/D300S ) with a standard zoom plus a lens and flash in the padded and flexible lower section. YOu can fit a large lunch, a medium telephoto lens or a rolled up windbreaker in the unpadded upper section. If you have a 15" laptop with a case bigger than 9-3/8" x 12", you need the next size up, the Kata 467i.
You can attach a medium sized tripod/monopod or a water bottle to the outside. You can remove the dividers in the bottom section to convert it to a regular (non-camera) laptop backpack. It's comfortable to wear with a moderate load and has both a chest strap (good) and a removable waist strap (maybe overkill) along with a few zippered external pockets. Don't put anything valuable in the external pockets because they could easily be unzipped in a crowd or on a subway car without you realizing it.
Like other Kata bags, it's well made with good zippers and it comes with a rain cover. The top section's zipper should extend an inch or so further down each side to make that section easier to get at, but apart from that the sections are accessible. The bottom section sticks out as much as 8" from your back so you have to be conscious of it in a tight space. Unlike Kata and other "sling packs" you need to take the bag off to easily reach your camera, but the bag does stands upright when you put it on the ground. All in all, it's a functional, reasonably priced bag that lets you comfortably haul both laptop and moderate amount of camera gear.
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This backpack is awesome. I have a D300s with a 16-85mm lens attached, Nikon 70-300mm lens, Nikon 50mm lens, sb-600 with filter, battery charger, and miscellaneous filters. All this fits in the bottom area with ease while the other accessories fit nicely up top. I also have a macbook pro 15" that fits too tight with the foam insert left in. Without the foam insert I was a little concerned that the padding on the bottom was not sufficient. To over come this I made a small slit with a razor on the side of the foam insert and removed one layer of the 2 layer foam insert (you can feel the 2 foam pieces if your roll the insert between your fingers). This worked perfectly and now my macbook pro 15" fits great and is adequately protected. I liked the backpack so much that I purchase a Kata DC-445 carrying case as well which is equally as good.
Honest reviews on Kata DR-466i Digital Rucksack -Black
I am using this bag to store and carry my DSLR around, both in the city and during outdoor trips.
The quality of it is simply stunning and every little detail has been taken care of.
The only defect I found is that it is actually a little smaller than I thought: the upper compartment can carry a second pair of shoes, a small bottle of water and a sandwich.
The bag has three pockets on the upper section, two are quite small and flat, good for holding memory cards and batteries. They could easily hold wallet and keys as well I guess. The third one is bigger and I can put in a small bike pump, a spanner and a tube repair kit for when I go cycling.
The camera section is where the good things happen: the compartment looks small from outside, but it is actually pretty big, and holds the camera plus three lenses, or two bodies and two lenses.
There is a small pocket that holds sort of a net for a water bottle or the tripod, and another flat pocket on the back for your laptop. I have a 15'' MBP and it doesn't really fit. I had to remove the pad at the bottom of the pocket, remove the laptop sleeve and push quite hard to be able to close the zip. One it is closed the corners of the computer are quite compressed against the bag and I reckon that a small bump would definitely hurt the computer.
When the bag is closed it sits vertically without falling because of a rigid horizontal surface underneath the camera compartment, when you wear it it is very comfortable. A possible defect is that the waist strap is not padded and it hurts after a while.
The bag is compatible with that KATA system that allows you to lock multiple bags together. Useful if you have some already.
Globally I am very happy, if I had to but it again I would probably buy the 467i. But the 466i looks way more sexy.
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I had my first DR-466 for a few months, made it through a long vacation in Argentina with a laptop, Nikon D90 and lenses, a Flip camera with underwater case below as well as battery chargers for all and that's all in the padded compartments, the unpadded compartment held junk I needed for the day like snacks. My kid liked it so much she took mine on a similar vacation and lost it along with her Macbook Pro 15 that fit in perfectly.
I must have liked it because I bought the very same one again and took it to Paris, this time with my laptop, iPad, same camera gear.
Then my kid wanted the same one for the holidays so here I am, back at Amazon buying my 3rd one and they changed the model number to 466i, they must have gotten that from Apple, add a lower case i to everything.
What I like is that it's very well made, has some unique features like the yellow lining so you can tell from a distance that you left it unzippered and it does protect the camera gear and laptop very well, even when tossing it around. It also has a strap on the back designed so you can slip it over your luggage rollalong handle. Never had a problem claiming it as my second carry on where you are allowed a laptop bag, purse or briefcase even though technically it's about an inch too fat. Also feels very comfortable on my back, not all backpacks feel this comfortable, can easily spend the day with this. It also was accepted as carryon in some countries that are not as liberal as the U.S. in allowing carry ons and technically it was too big for those countries but nobody said anything (so much for a 20" carry on being the international standard).
