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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program My review of the Lowepro Pro Runner 350 AW camera backpack. In a word, wonderful! In two words: five stars!
The minute the Lowepro arrived my wife began eying the bag. In nothing flat she was unzipping it, looking at all the compartments, and telling me all the things she could use it for. She was amazed at the number of pockets, and she commented on how everything was padded. I icily pointed out that it was for camera use only. Something tells me my dinner will be frosty for a night or two. So what, it is going to be worth it. I'll hide the knives.
I unloaded my old camera bag and placed my Olympus into the new Lowepro bag. There was lots of room, and everything that I had stuffed into my old bag easily fit into the Pro Runner 350 AW. The central camera area has adjustable Velcro compartments that are heavily padded. The Velcro is super good. I know `cause it took me quite a tug to get the compartment adjusters ripped out. For a fellow with arthritis the tug hurts a bit, but once the dividers were into their new positions I was glad they were firmly in. The Pro Runner also has room for your Laptop, (yes, a laptop computer), cell phone, pens, documents, small tripod, and a host of other items including keys. I think I can easily find a spot for my aspirin. All six bottles.
The carrying straps are padded beyond belief, and there is a waist belt to hold it firmly on your back. And there is, of course, a carrying handle. Not just any carrying handle, but a rubberize handle with plenty of width for my extra large sized hand swollen knuckles and all. No gloves needed to carry this baby. It feels good in the hand.
OK, so how do I know the bag will protect the camera? That is, after all, its key job. Well, it is heavily padded, the zippers are super wide (plus they zip and unzip easily), and they seem to be super tough. Not the kind of zipper that is going to rip open or unzip due to being flung about.
But, there is nothing like a test. So I went to the top of my stairs with the bag, loaded with my camera and all its gear, and tossed it down the stairs. The bottom of the stairs in my place is a tile floor. The bag bounced nicely down the stairs and onto the tile below. I also dropped the bag by holding it at arm's length over my head and letting it go. Another nice bounce.
I opened the bag and had a look. The camera's lens cover had popped off, but no other changes. Nothing moved at all in any of the camera compartments, and even my keys and pens stayed put. Also, I have to give the bag points for not allowing any dog hair into its compartments. After it hit the bottom of the stairs it was covered in dog hair big time. My wife will hear about this! Errr... maybe not. One crisis at a time.
Ok, now to the negative. One must lay long lenses down in the bag. This will not be a problem if they are fat lenses, but narrow ones will leave a gap between the top of the compartment and the lens. Just put something in that will stop any movement and it should be fine. My camera bounced within its compartment, I think, and that is the reason the lens cap popped off. Still, not a really big difficulty. A small towel or washcloth could solve that dilemma in a flash. The Velcro compartment dividers are hard to rip out and put back in. This will not be a problem for a photographer like myself who keeps the same equipment for decades, but it will be a pain for anyone who wants to change the compartments a lot... do you hear that honey? Of course, the company had to make them hard to jar loose, so that is just the price of quality in this particular system. The bag is black, which is fine in many many ways. Black makes it hard for a thief to determine that it is a camera bag, unlike the silver cases. Those silver cases just scream "steal me." The problem with the black bag is it shows the dog hair like you can't believe! Where did she hide the vacuum?
I like the bag! No, my wife is not going to get it for cosmetics or anything else. A camera bag it is, and a camera bag it will stay. I just hope she can't find a way to get it anyway.... No, I don't have life insurance...
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I was looking for a bag for vacations and short trips to carry everything in one package: my laptop, Nikon D90, Speedlight, monopod, Nikon 18-200 lens, Sigma 150-500 lens, personal items & accessories, such as chargers, batteries, and some carry on items for flights. With all of the pockets and adjustable compartments, I can do all of this with room to spare! I really like how the tripod/monopod holder secures the pod from sliding in any direction. Yes, this bag when loaded is bulky and somewhat heavy but the shoulder and waist straps are well padded and designed so that it is more comfortable to wear than I would have predicted. I wore it for four hours recently and felt no strain or discomfort. I expect it to last indefinitely due to the heavy construction. The rain cover is a plus. This bag is in addition to a smaller Lowepro shoulder bag I have when I don't need to carry everything I own. I went with Lowepro since my other bag has held up well for three years.
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Customer review from the Amazon Vine Program This is a serious backpack...it's meant for carrying camera equipment but would work well for anything you want to protect against breakage if there's a bit of rough handling.
The backpack contains many well-padded compartments, and I really like the way the compartments are implemented...they're not sewn in place, but are all done using velcro so they can be moved around, resized, etc to fit whatever odd-shaped gear you are carrying.
The backpack is not lightweight, which is not surprising considering all the padding...and it's a large pack, again not surprising.
I will use it for traveling with my electronic gadgetry and pretty much anything I don't want broken.
Honest reviews on Lowepro Pro Runner 350 AW DSLR Backpack (Black)
This backpack works great for camera gear. It's a little bulky, but your gear will be safe. The problem is it's also supposed to hold a 15 inch MacBook Pro. Here's the thing -if you can squeeze your MBP in there, you will have the hardest time getting it out. I literally have to yank and squeeze and tuck and pull and wrench all my fingers around my MBP before I can get it out. And in the process of all the pulling, compress the laptop's case, which Lords knows what kind of damage that is causing to the laptop. It's not worth it so now I can't use the backpack to bring my laptop anywhere, which means this backpack is pretty much a fail for that function. So to sum up, great camera bag, just don't buy it for your 15 inch MacBook Pro because you will have the hardest time getting it out.
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I bought this bag because I needed a way to carry a laptop and camera equipment on a plane to Arizona. As of this writing, it does fit guidelines for carryon luggage. I already own two smaller Lowepro bags. So going back to Lowepro was an easy decision. I found this bag to be really well made, well designed and very comfortable to wear. It is also attractively made/looks business like and does NOT scream camera bag. For this reason, I think it will be safer to carry around.
My one beef and the one thing that caused the greatest challenge when choosing which bag to buy was finding something that would fit my 15.4" laptop. It's a recent model Dell Latitude E6500 with an extended battery that sticks out the back an extra inch. According to the specs on their website, Lowepro seems to design the laptop section with rather tight tolerances. Fortunately, there is just enough room to fit my laptop. My beef is... There is "only just enough" room not in depth for the extra battery, but in height and width. Sliding my late model, fairly slim (1.25" thick) laptop into this bag takes some effort pushing/stuffing. Lowepro says the compartment is 1.8" thick. Getting the laptop back out takes even more effort and definitely two hands. Part of the problem seems to be that the zipper isn't long enough to allow "proper" access to the slot for the laptop. You have to sort of inch your laptop up to and then wiggle it past the zipper before it will come out. Lowepro could have and likely should have given just a little more height to this section and/or added a slightly longer zipper. Adding a zipper that is even an extra inch longer would have made access to a laptop so much easier. (If someone from Lowepro is reading this, please make this change.) This is the reason for 4 stars rather than 5. If you own an older, thicker or slightly oversized laptop, it may not fit in this bag at all. You should take measurements of your laptop and compare them to the specs on the Lowepro site BEFORE you buy this bag. My laptop's dimensions are easily within the Lowepro specs and "just barely" fit. On the upside, the laptop section is on the back (side next to your back) of the bag for proper weight distribution and is very well padded.
The balance of my review could be summed up with, "Oh my gosh what a wonderful bag!" It has a large front pocket with room for files and a number of smaller pockets for pens, mp3 player, etc. There's also another smaller pocket on the front outside that is the perfect size for my airline tickets. On the side is a stretch mesh pocket just big enough for a small water bottle. There are a total of 8 SlipLock strips for Lowepro's add-on accessories scattered all over this bag front, side and straps. There is a removable tripod holder and an all weather cover if you get caught in the rain.
The straps are well padded and very comfortable. The back of the bag, where it comes in contact with your back, is also well padded adding to the comfort. The whole backpack is quite comfortable to wear, especially for a bag of this size. The bottom (belt) straps tuck into a compartment on the back of the bag when you don't need them. If you're going to be wearing it for a while, the bottom belt is also well padded, holds the bag more securely and helps to support the weight. This bag loaded down could be quite heavy. If your dashing through an airport or taking it on and off a lot, the top straps work just fine.
Inside is your typical Lowepro genius. Very well padded, soft materials and great protection for all your electronics and lenses. The dividers are completely adjustable. You could easily store 2 camera bodies with lenses on, 4 or more additional lenses AND flash, charger, batteries, etc. The bag is shaped in such a way (rectangular) where you could fit a body and up to 3 long lenses. On the insdie of the cover are 3 large clear plastic zipper pockets and two SD pockets with velcro covers.
It is a great bag. And, I plan to keep it. My one caution is, if the laptop section is important to you, make sure you check your measurements first.
