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I bought the LowePro Magnum 400 AW bag in early December to use as a travel-lite case for smaller assignments. I have to say that this is one sturdy and solid case! I'm able to accommodate a D700 with 14-24 2.8 attached, a D300 with 17-55 2.8 attached, 70-200 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 50 1.4, 60 2.8 macro, and an SB-800 speedlight in the main compartment. The outer pockets hold my Pocket Wizard Plus II's, SD-8a, extra batteries, chargers, and lots of other stuff. There are several good ways to carry this bag around, and all feel very secure. Be warned, though...the bag gets HEAVY with so much stuff inside. All in all, I'm pleased.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program I am very impressed with the features and layout of the Lowepro Magnum 400 AW camera bag. Having spent the past several years toting my camera gear around in a Tamrac Pro 12, I was excited to see what Lowepro had to bring to the table in a similar sized shoulder bag.
The Lowepro Magnum 400 AW features plenty of room for lenses, flash, filters, two SLR or DSLR camera bodies manuals, and other accessories. The main compartment of the bag features velcro dividers that are foam padded and have a soft lining to keep the gear nestled into the bag without worry of damage. The dividers are moveable and can be arranged in any number of ways to suit your own gear and carry style. The camera bodies are carried vertically with the lens down with bag, which I am not used to, and doesn't seem quite as stable as the horizontal carry style with lens cradled underneath and from the sides, which is how I'm used to carrying them in the Tamrac Pro 12. Whether one style of holding the camera is better than other I cannot say, but the Lowepro bag does seem to make reaching in and grabbing the camera slightly easier, due ot the camera's orientation in the bag. In the cover of the main compartment are two zippered see-through pockets that are handy for keeping small reference manuals, business cards, or other non-bulky materials.
As for camera fit, I was able to fit my Nikon D300 inside and it felt perfect with the size of the compartment. Trying out my other cameras in the 2nd camera compartment, I found my Nikon N80, Nikon F3HP, and Nikkormat FT3 were a bit on the smallish side compared to the digital SLR's of today, and as such felt small inside the bag's camera compartment and would shift around quite easily, though this would cause no damage to anything as the dividers and padding would prevent any contact with other items in the bag.
The front zippered compartment has several small pouches sewn in to hold your accessories, such as pens, batteries, cables, and other items of interest. A zippered mesh pouch is also provided in the flap, which is a great place to store anything else that won't fit into the smaller pouches. I was able to fit most of my accessories in the front without any issue, though there was less space there than in my previous bag, so it took a little reorganizing to get everything placed conveniently. The side pockets are also spacious and the flaps zipper open a good 3/4th of the way around the pockets to provide easy access to anything you store inside these side pockets.
The exterior of the camera bag is touted as being water resistant, but anywhere there are zippers (these are non self-sealing zippers) there is a chance for water to leak in. Even keeping the exterior treated with a coating of camp-dry or other waterproofing spray will not completely eliminate the chance of water leaking in through any of the zippers, or soaking through fabric where the treatment has worn off. This is not a major issue with the Lowepro Magnum 400 AW camera bag however, as the innovative folks at Lowepro have managed to stash a little goody in the back pocket of the bag. Unzip the back pocket and out comes a waterproof rain cover that covers the entire bag, top and sides, keeping the heaviest of rains from getting into the camera bag. This is a great feature for outdoor photographers who take chances of getting stuck in a sudden downpour when out and about. Of course, I wouldn't go leaving the bag out unsheltered if at all possible, and you aren't going to want to set the bag down where water will pool around the base. This is still a fabric bag, and will not be 100% sealed from the elements like a bulky Pelican case would be.
There are plenty of carry choices with this bag, from a luggage carrier sleeve, to dual handles on either side of the lid, a single handle in the center of the lid, or a very thick, well padded shoulder strap with metal attaching hardware. Also found on the exterior of the bag are a couple of tripod straps, which hold the tripod at the back of the bag, but off the ground. This is a huge improvement over my Tamrac Pro 12 which holds the tripod at the bottom rear of the bag, making it the first thing to clunk down on the ground when setting the bag down. Kudos to the folks at Lowerpro for the excellent, well thought out placement of the tripod straps!
In addition, the Lowerpro Magnum 400 AW is digital friendly and came with a removable pouch that holds extra memory cards, batteries, and even enough room for a Firewire or USB card reader. Also of note is that this camera bag meets size requirements for carry-on baggage when flying is the method of travel. Overall, the bag is rugged, well built, with sturdy hardware, and overall is very well thought out in terms of functionality, durability, equipment protection, and ease of use. This bag has by far exceeded any expectations I could have wished for from a camera bag of this type.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This bag is large. In comparison to the Pro Runner 200 AW, this bag is approximately 2.5X bigger. It is has about 3.5x 4x the space of the Slingshot 100 I use frequently (see image I posted). To use this bag, you need to be hauling pro level equipment, and several cameras. The construction of the bag is second to none. The material it is made from is rip stop, and very tough. The shoulder strap it comes with is thick and you won't have fear of it breaking when fully loaded. There are a few really great features this bag incorporated:
1) Sleeve for a hand trolley. If you are fully loaded and want to use a hand cart, this will help.
2) Built in rain flap. Being from Seattle...this is a key component.
3) Fully adjustable interior. Very awesome how you can move the interior. IF you have a mid sized video camera, you could easily adjust this bag to work.
4) Pockets everywhere! On all side, interior, etc... You won't run out of useful space.
5) Separate small bag for personal goods and CF cards. Slots for 4 CF cards and your wallet. Real convenient and a nice surprise.
6) The interior dimensions are about 14" x 10" x 11" high. Lots of room... With pockets, you get a lot more room than this though.
Overall...you need to be hauling a lot of stuff to really find use for this bag. If you are a pro or semi-pro working with a lot of equipment, you really can't beat the design of the 400 AW Magnum... I will use my Slingshot and Pro Runner 200AW a whole lot more...but this serves it's purpose well.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Even though I looked at the measurments, I was still pleasantly surprised by how big this bag was in person.
No problem holding two DSLR cameras with lenses attached, one side will hold my Canon 40D with grip and a 100-400 lens attached, other side had dividers/camera supports for shorter zoom lenses mounted on a body, but I'm sure you could buy a pair of the taller dividers if you needed to carry two with long lenses.
All the dividers will come out so you can redo interior to fit as you need it to.
Only thing to note is that the largest divider going side to side only has the hook and loop material covering one side fully, other side just has a strip in the center going top to bottom.
Also, hook and loop material on the back wall comes within 1 1/4" of the side walls on both sides, but should not limit your setup of dividers IMO.
Nice touch adding a microfiber cloth sewn in to cover the backs of two cameras for protection from scratches.
Top notch materials used thoughout this bag as well as reinforcement panels and lots of double row stitching where needed. Lots of padding with extra in the top and bottom panels.
Love the fact that they use a hard shell bottom plate(tray)on the bag so not only do you not need to worry about the odd stone when you set it down, but it also gives you that extra waterproofing that you need if the ground is wet or damp.
This hard shell comes up 1 1/4" on all sides also.
Sewn in weather cover is wonderful and can be pulled out and put away in very short order, a very real usable feature if weather turns bad.
Nice wide shoulder strap with 1" x 3" padded area to conform to your shoulder, seems very comfortable.
Please see my uploaded photos for more details.
No wonder they have been selling bags for so many years.. Man, I'm going to love using this bag!
Update;
After some use, the only thing I don't like so far is that the tripod/monopod carry straps are on the top of the bag and if one is mounted, it will cause a problem using any of the three great handles there, my work around is to use the luggage cart straps in the rear to pull my monopod towards the rear of the top and away from the carry handles.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program Let me begin my noting that I have been a devoted user of Domke camera bags for almost 30 years. I hauled my Nikon F2s and F3s across the US and Great Britain in them. I still have the first Domke I bought. I figured I'd be a devoted Domke user for as long as I carried cameras. Then I got my Magnum 400.
I knew Lowepro made quality bags, of course. I've actually been thinking about getting one of their backpacks for nature photography. When I was offered a chance to get a Magnum 400 for review, I figured it couldn't hurt to have another bag around, and I might even find it useful. It's that, and more.
First of all, this is one seriously large bag. I can carry two DSLRs with lenses attached, another 3-6 lenses, flash, charger, notepad, filters (there's even a separate accessory bag!), CF cards, reflectors... this thing is huge, and it's only the middle bag in the series. The camera compartments even have special microfiber cloths attached for cleaning your DSLR LCD screens (or filters and lenses, if you keep the the cloths scrupulously clean). There are four external compartments as well. The front compartment has pockets to organize pens and pencils, flash cards, cords and other small items, and it's big enough to fit my Asus 700 netbook. The side compartments are also very bigbig enough to carry the folding reflectors I like to use.
This bag has first rate protection for your gear, too. The padding is thick and stiffa must for today's cameras, which generally aren't quite as rugged as the F1s and F2s of yesteryear. The base of the bag has a stiffer, rigid foam, to protect the contents against accidental dropssomething missing from my Domkes. The interior dividers are surprisingly solid, too. And in the back, a compartment that zips open to reveal a waterproof cover that can be pulled out and over the bag in a rainstormno need for a separate cover.
I just keep finding more features on this bag, and they're all well-thought-out features designed to fill real needs, not gimmicks. For instance, there's a wide strap across the back of the bag that had me puzzled. Turns out it's designed to slide over the telescoping handles typically found on modern luggage. You can place your camera bag right on top of your suitcase and wheel the two together, instead of trying to wrestle with two bags.
I used to organize my gear into two Domke F1 bags, and carry another bag for accessories, but now just about all the photo gear I travel with can be carried in this one case. As I noted, it's the middle bag in the Magnum line. There's also a 200, for one camera and accessories, and a larger 650 that has a dedicated laptop computer pocket in the lid as well as even more storage space. Now this is not a walking-around bagit's way too big for that. But for travel and storage, it's absolute ideal. This is a tremendously well made, practical, bags, designed by a company that really listens closely to photographers.
UPDATE: The bag currently contains:
Nikon D70
Nikon D80
2 zoom lenses
2 fixed lenses
two spare batteries
battery charger
Nikon SB-600 flash unit
Remote flash cord
flash bracket
2 folding reflectors
spare memory cards
Spare AA batteries (for the SB-600)
instruction cards
...and there's still room. I've also ordered a Lowepro Stealth Reporter D200 to compliment this bag. Now the gear gets kept in the Magnum 400 for storage, and travel, and the Stealth Reporter will carry just what I need on a day outing.
UPDATE: It's been nearly three years, and I still use this bag, though now it's more for storage than for travel. I sold all my Nikon DSLR gear and replaced it with Micro Four-Thirds geartwo bodies and four lenses so far. The MFT gear doesn't take up a lot of room, but the bag allows me to store the cameras when I'm not using them, along with the lenses, chargers, flash units, a meter, spare batteries, older lenses with adapter... and more.
