Mountainsmith Spectrum Recycled Camera Backpack

This is a great bag. Very durable and very comfy. This bag fits everything I need to travel. My huge 17" screen laptop, my camera with battery grip and 18-200 lens attached, two spare lenses, all my chargers and cables, and even has enough space for a pair of yoga pants, flip flops and my makeup bag.

It's a big bag and I am a short person but it is not so big that it overwhelms my small frame. I'm a big fan!

This is an all-in-one backpack. I just got it this week and it surpassed my expectations.

It is a 23L volume, which I believe is the perfect size for short traveling / day trips. It is not bulky at all.

It is really well built, with good padding, and have roomy and separated top and bottom compartments

Its bottom camera compartment is well built and fits my Canon 400D with a 18-200mm with room for an additional small lens and some filters. The top compartment is as roomy as the bottom one.

When not carrying my camera it is perfect for everything else. It has its separated laptop compartment. The separation for the top and bottom compartments can be open, making it a very spacious regular backpack.

Cons:

No waist harness strap

The 2 water bottle side pockets are a bit small

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I've owned the Mountainsmith Spectrum for a week now and would like to share my first impression about it backpack.

I'm an amateur photographer/professional graphic designer who owns a fair share of camera bags from companies like Lowepro, Tamrac, and Crumpler. The Mountainsmith Spectrum is my first camera/laptop combo bag.

I've been carefully searching for the right bag that would allow me to carry my 15 inch 2010 Macbook Pro and a Canon 7D paired with a 16-35 L lens. My research stopped when I came across the Spectrum. I was in REI when I came across it. When I finally purchased the bag, the first thing I did was take everything out of my laptop bag and swapped it all into the Spectrum. Goodness! This bag has A LOT of room. In the top compartment, I was able to safely zip it up containing 4 portable hard drives, 2 Naked SSD drives, 7 USB & Firewire cables, Sony in ear headphones, (Small) Wacom tablet, 2 Kingston memory card readers, a GOPRO Hero 2, and a portable USB backup power with a lot more room to spare. My MBP slipped into the laptop compartment nice and snug (The WeatherProof zipper housing is an excellent touch).

Now, the camera compartment is where things get a little touchy and is probably why I'm not completely thrilled with this backpack.

The Camera compartment only seems to be able to hold my Canon 7D with 16-35L lens and 2 extra batteries.

I can't seem to fit anything else and probably wouldn't want to considering how stuffed the compartment is with the camera in. The padding pieces are very sturdy which makes me confident that they are doing their job to protect my camera. The Canon 7D is much smaller than my Canon 5D so I doubt I'll be able to fit it in the compartment.

This backpack wasn't purchased to fit my entire arsenal of camera goodies. I simply wanted a backpack combo where I can store my laptop and a single camera body and single lens and bring it to work with me everyday. The Spectrum definitely takes care of this.

I gave this product 4 stars because of the zipper area leading to the camera compartment. The way that the compartment is situated makes it very difficult to get the zipper opened and closed. It's like a tug-of-war battled each and every time I have to get in there. A nice little trick is to flip the zipper hood over itself, hold (with pressure) one end of the zipper mouth and zip away. I'm planning on ordering a battery grip for my 7D. I'll see if my camera will fit with in this compartment with it.

I decided to get the Spectrum over the Borealis because of size. The spectrum looks and feels like a backpack you would wear to school or on a short hike while the Borealis and the Parallax look like full on-set/shoot backpacks which I already own. I wanted something with a smaller footprint.

With this bag being only a week old, I understand that I need to spend more time with it and see if the zippers need to be worn in a bit. I'll update my review in anything changes.

All in all, this is a wonderful and comfy bag when it's full and on my back. I would definitely recommend it to someone who wants to carry around a day-shoot camera and their laptop+accessories.

Thanks for reading.

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The backpack is very well made. It comfortably fits my 14in laptop, nikon dslr and zoom lense. It also has a decent size compartment for daytrip items (ie light jacket, books, brown lunch bag and other personal items) and a smaller compartment with various organizational pockets and a waterproof (I think) pocket for passports and keys. The camera section does open slightly awkward; however, since I typically have my camera out well before picture time, I don't have a problem the slightly cumbersome camera zippers. Overall, I am very satisfied and would recommend it to people who use it for day trips and such (even shortterm travel since it also fits a laptop).

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I have lots and lots of luggage. But having finally invested in a DSLR I wanted to be sure that I had a practical way to shlep it around both to kids soccer games and on long trips.

I didnt really like the idea of a traditional camera bag (too much like a purse) but wanted to be able to carry at least one extra lens. I did a fair bit of research on backpacks and would up buying this one.

No regrets whatsoever this has been awesome. Given that I am not a pro there is plenty of space for a few extra lenses and accessories, but importantly I can also carry a bunch of other stuff, really pleased with how this is designed.

Also very well put together this is a well made, pretty tough backpack that has been on planes, hikes, and the like. No long wilderness treks yet but I am happy with the quality.