The bag seems well made and addresses the need for a dedicated iPad pocket/slot. However, the iPad does not fit in the slot with a wraparound slim case while the bag is full of camera equipment. Ergonomically, the bag fits comfortably. Simply, this bag is too small for me and the gear I carry but if you're looking for a smaller day-trip sling bag, this might be it.
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The zippers are small difficult to grasp and the sewing contours make it difficult to close effortlessly and requires two hands.
The rest is satisfactory. How disappointing such an important feature, as is the zipper, is so poor.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I have a sony nex-7 camera and a couple of lenses. My ideal bag would let me carry them and a few other accessories (batteries, sd cards, lens cleaner, bad elf gps, keys, sun glasses) and my ipad mini. I also wanted something that I feel like I am still traveling light.
After an exhaustive search, this bag seemed perfect. Not only did it have a dedicated pocket for the ipad and room for my camera and lenses but it it is very classy looking black.... and is a sling which I prefer.
When it came I was so excited to put all my stuff in. The bag has a lot of room. I also noticed that the way the zipper works it makes it difficult for someone to open the bag or its pocket without you taking it off. This is great for traveling and worrying about "sticky finger" trying to access your stuff.
The sony nex 7 is not the biggest nor smallest camera. This is one of the things that I really like about it. As I started packing up my camera and lenses, I soon realized that the real useable space wasn't as plentiful as I thought. In fact, the front pocket feels near useless because it is too tight to open. Things like a battery, pens, memory cards should all fit in, nit nothing too much bigger.
As far as the iPad, this bag is marketed to fit the full size iPad. I felt my ipad mini was going to be flopping around. Not so, my mini didn't have much extra room. In fact I don't see how the full size ipad would fit in this bag, especially if you have a case on it. I could be wrong about this but I don't have a full size one to test out. This would definitely be something you would want to test. Even if you could get it in, I think it would be hard to quickly get in and out.
As far as bag quality, I think it rates an 8 out of 10. The zippers seem a little cheap, but other wise good construction.
One regret is there is no place to carry a tripod with this bag, If that is important. From time to time, I do like to carry one.
Testing it in the Field:
My wife and I went out of town for a weekend in Boston. I thought that this would be the perfect place to really put this bag through its paces. We walked quite a bit around the city visiting historical site and used the camera quite a bit.
What I found was this was not the most comfortable bag. It wasn't bad and maybe for someone else's body shape they may have better experience. As a point of reference I am 5'5 and while I have a slight bit of extra weight in my stomach, for the most part I am in shape.
I found that the bag didn't contour to my back. As a result, as we were out, I constantly knew it was on my back. Some bags shape to your body better and allow you to walk for miles with less bag-fatigue. This was not true for this bag.
I did love the ability to carry my iPad with me. There were many times that we stopped and looked up more info about where we were, searched for something or had the ability to read while my wife shopped.
Conclusion:
To summarize my complaints about this bag, it is lack of useable room, less the spacious front pocket, uncomfortable and i stubble to see how a full size iPad fit.
BUT.... and this is a big but.....
I know that these could be based on me and my gear. For someone else, this may be a great bag for their gear and fit their body just fine. I would highly recommend seeing if you stuff fits. Then put it on and walk around a little. See what it feels like to wear it for 15, 20, 30 minutes.
Again, I loved this bag. And I really wish it would have worked for me. But there were too many strikes against it.
I have yet to find the perfect case, but currently I am testing the case logic SLRC-205 which overcomes a lot of my complaints with this bag. Although the jury is still out.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is what I am using now for my T3i. I have an 18-55mm stock lens, a 55-250 mm zoom lens and a 50 mm prime lens that fit comfortably in this bag. There are Velcros inside so you can customize the sizes of the compartments. On the top zippered cover flap, it has a small pouch where I put 5 extra SD cards. It is also protected by a Velcro lid so you don't lose any of them. All sides and from top to bottom, the bag is padded.
The front has a double zippered pouch that I use to carry 2 extra batteries. It has a couple of pockets that you can use for anything you want like cables, earphones, money, etc.
The shoulder strap is wide and comfortable. It is easily adjustable to one's height. It also has a hidden waist strap that you can utilize if you want it. I like that it has a handle on top which is the easiest way to carry the bag if you don't want to use the shoulder strap.
A padded compartment can comfortable accomodate a tablet or an iPad.
Cons:
the zipper does an excellent way of making sure you don't drop your equipment from the bag, but still not the best nor the most convenient way of quickly taking out the camera when you need it.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I recently had the chance to review the line of the new Pro Messenger series. I have used LowePro products for the previous 15 years and owned nearly every bag they produced including Fast Packs, Pro Roller (x200 and x300), Slingbags, Stealth Reporter, Event Messenger, the previous Messenger line, etc.... I also owned many Think Tank, Tamrac, and Timbuk2 bags. I admit openly I was (am) addicted to gear bags. Last year, I switched entirely to the Domke brand mainly because, as with many photographers, my shooting style changed. I also chose to go retro with a minimalist approach since I took up street shooting. By comparison, LowePro bags are generally bulkier by design to maximize gear protection whereas Domke bags are designed to be more streamlined, in a minimalist fashion. So, when given an opportunity to checkout the LowePro, I was interested. I figured this bag would challenge my Domke F-2 I use for street shooting now.
This LowePro is a very compact and lightweight bag. It also has the typical LowePro quality longtime LowePro fans expect, with only the zippers posing a possible build (not necessarily quality) issue. You can easily consider the design aspect of this bag to be evolutionary given the prior LowePro slingbags (and hybrids) such as the Lowepro SlingShot 102 AW or Lowepro LP36392-PAM DSLR Video Fastpack 150 AW (Black), which are simply bulkier, heavier, and far less streamlined. The Urban Photo Sling 150 is specifically designed for fast moving in an urban environment and takes on a minimalist approach to achieve this aspect by significantly limiting the amount of gear you can carry. However, because of this, the bag becomes a Street Shooter's dream.
This bag was clearly designed for smaller DSLR's such as the Nikon D90 and not the full body Nikon D4 or even a D300s w/grip. I was able to fit my D300 w/out grip, 60mm prime, 50mm 1.4, SB-910 flash, and some small accessories such as a rocket blower and filters. Fitting my Ipad was a very tight proposition but can be done. The bag provides a decent assortment of outer pockets for money, ID, keys, phone, etcthat I found convenient when on the move in a city. The outer bag clasps will prevent an accidental spill of the camera when you open the bag, a good carryover from other models (I once saw a guy drop a D700 from a different brand sling bag because it did not have these clasps). The design of the bag allows it to fit very comfortably on your back, or even when "slinging" the bag to your front. The strap is designed in such a way that it is very comfortable while avoiding the "man boob" look larger guys have to contend with. The bag also utlizes a cross strap to keep the bag from swinging at all. Internal pockets on the inside of the flap hold memory cards. The bottle holder on the side of the bag is very small and does not hold any of my water bottles.
As always, camera bags are about compromise in response to specific applications. That is why I have been known to collect them over the years. In this case, you will have to limit what you carry (stating the obvious here). In return, you will have a great bag for urban street shooting or commuting on public transportation.
