[Steep]

The rucksack (made by Hama under license to Samsonite) is dark grey in colour, has blue piping on the front pocket with a blue stitched 'Trekking' logo and a hard Samsonite badge on the front. Build quality is excellent, the zips run free and the stitching seems strong, there's no loose or ragged bits anywhere. Round the outside of the bag are various tough fabric loops and belt hoops for attaching a tripod or extra lens cases.
I bought it in December 2004 on eBay for £24.95 + £6.95 delivery, seller "scottish_sterling"

It's oddly rucksack shaped with two shoulder straps and a top carrying handle. The back is well padded which makes it very comfortable to wear for longer periods. The main compartment is accessed via a pair of toggled zips which run round the front outside edge of the bag, it has a full compliment of adjustable, well padded dividers down each side of a central section meant for telephoto lenses. A nice touch is two elasticated straps across the centre section which keep long lenses in place when the bag is upright with the lid open. This is an important feature as it's alway possible to pick the bag up while forgetting to close the zips so that the front flap falls open.
Internal dimensions are approx 30cm long x 28cm wide x 13cm deep with a zipped mesh pocket and a detachable (velcro) mesh bag on the inside of the lid.
This main compartment holds my 300d with battery grip fitted, the camera and grip are actually just a bit deeper than the bag but still fit nicely as the bag is not rigid**, along with a 70-300 zoom lens, 50mm prime and the 18-55mm kit lens, a large flashgun, mini tripod, G clamp pod, various cleaning cloths and tools, spare battery, home made cable remote, end caps, tripod quick release platform etc etc. and has space to spare.
On the front of the main flap is a secondary flapped pocket again accessed by two toggled zips, inside are 3 divided nylon and one mesh pocket, I keep my cf cards and filters in here, again there's tons of space. On the outside of that pocket is another large zipped pocket under a downward facing storm flap. All zips are protected by storm flaps and the base is rubber with heavy duty 11.5cm wide rubber feet.

After a couple of months use I'm well used to the bag and have not found any problems with it so far at all. It's comfortable to carry, I mostly tend to heft it 'one strap on one shoulder' style since that's makes it easier to slide it off to access the kit. I did once pick the bag up with the front flap unzipped and various bits and pieces went flying but luckily for me nothing important fell out thanks to the elastic straps, that was a lesson well learned. I suspect it's a possible problem with all rucksack type bags though not just this one.

My apologies for the overuse of the word "flaps" here, it couldn't be helped...

** I would not trust this arrangement to any baggage handler type because of the crush risk, the camera with grip fitted is a neat fit, if there was any chance of the bag being crushed I would pack the kit with the grip seperated from the camera, but for normal use with only myself handling it, it's fine.




I hope this is of use to someone

[Matty]

thats great Steep, if you have no objection i will add it to the reviews section (with a minor layout change)

[Steep]

Help yourself, do what you will, I promise I won't claim royalties

[Matty]

Thanks!!

[Steve]

Just like to jump in here and offer my thanks as well for a great review and for allowing it to be used in the review section.

Many thanks!!!

[Matt]

7DAY shop where selling these for £17 a couple of years ago.

Quite a good little backpack, but wasn't substantial enough for my needs.

I bought ten of them and sold them on the auction site for a good profit.

I then bought myself the lowepro nature trekker with that profit.

[feeson]

Originally Posted by Matt

7DAY shop where selling these for £17 a couple of years ago.

Quite a good little backpack, but wasn't substantial enough for my needs.

I bought ten of them and sold them on the auction site for a good profit.

I then bought myself the lowepro nature trekker with that profit.

I'm still using mine 8) in 2-3 years use, I've been out in all weathers with no problems even a down pour or two, a bit of a tardis in that you can fit so much gear in it, I normaly have a slr, fuji 602, lenses bits and bobs plus my thermos and sannies except for a girl named Sue it was the best £17 I spent in recent years :wink: