First of all, I bought this bag because the price was considerably below comperable rolling photo bags. I believe I paid a bit over $200, compared to over $300 for its competitors. It is a great bag, no doubt. When my gear is in it, I know that it's all well protected, from my Nikon D200 to my largest lens, a Tamron 200-500mm. There is room for my additional lenses, and all the rest of the stuff I drag around, except my tripod, which I put into my luggage when I travel. In fact, I bought it specifically for pulling around airports, because carrying all my photo gear was getting really old (maybe it's just me getting old....) Which leads to the issues:
1. As a carry-on, be warned. This will fit in the overhead bin, but ONLY if you open up the back where the backpack straps are stored, and lay it out flat. Otherwise, it just won't make it. It's a tight fit, but it's do-able. I've flown four times since I purchased this, so I know from experience. But, filled with gear, it's also too heavy, so I always have to rely on some strong man to do the man thing and get this sucker up there. Goddess forbid I'm told that I have to put it in with the luggage. I'd rather not fly.
2. The single post puller feels a bit weak, and it can tend to roll the bag if your not careful. It did roll a few times for me, but now that I know it has the tendency, I am careful going around corners, etc. As for being weak, it's really not, I don't think. It works, telescopes, etc. just fine. It's never felt like it was going to put loose or break.
3. The laptop slot is miserably tight. It invariably breaks my fingernails as I rush to remove the laptop when I'm at airport security. It's tight, but it protects the computer very well. In fact, there is room in the bag itself to keep the laptop necessities while traveling, including the power cord and the mouse.
4. For the life of me, I cannot imagine using this bag as a backpack. It's heavy in its own right. And, its big. In fact, I just may remove the backpack straps altogether, to avoid overhead storage issues. In fact, when I'm not traveling, it's a great storage device for gear that I'm not bringing with me on specific shoots.
Other than these four issues, it's a really nice bag. It's well built, and the zipper system is really nice. It has these rubber closures that fit well over the zipper as you zip it up. It's well padded. It's spacious. It's a nice bag. But, having said that, if I had an extra $200 on top of what this cost, I'd rather buy a Pelican or a Think Tank airline bag. As I said up front, it was a money issue. I'm not disappointed.
Hope this all helps. :-)
Rollerblade wheels
Full Backpack with padded straps and even some lumbar padding.
Holds 2 camera bodies with grips, 8-10 lenses, flash, and even capacity to hold a full sized Manfrotto Tripod.
Weather wrap
Weather proof zippers
15-17 inch Laptop case
Solid construction retractable handle
Side access pockets that gives you access to the main compartment
Detachable CF card wallet
And instantly converts to a standard carry-on luggage bag by a removable shell.
This is a well-engineered bag with a lot of flexibility built in. The laptop sits snugly and securely behind the handle plate mechanism so your back never makes contact with the lap top. The compartments offer a spacious configuration with very easy to access side compartments. The compartments come out in single removable shell, allowing you to convert this camera bag into an airline luggage bag in mere seconds. The construction is solid and the handle slides out with smooth precision.
The outer panel folds out to a handy tripod holder that permits you to carry small travel tripods to large tripods (like the Manfrottos). You can convert this roller bag into a hiking backpackby unzipping panel to reveal the straps. Tenba cleverly engineered this flap to cover the luggage wheels so it never soils your clothing then lugging the pack on your back. The lumbar padding is minimal. The backpack straps do have a waist strap and a chest strap for extended hiking.
There's an all weather wrap included in the pack. Also there's weather resistant zippers that seal the compartment against rain.
The case fits perfectly on the airline overhead compartment. Rolls nicely through airports.
A free CF card wallet with a tethered leash is provided on one of the side access pockets.
Overall, this bag gets high marks from me.
Advantages:
Well Built
Lots of features
Versatile and solid construction
Lots of capacity
Disadvantages:
Lumbar padding is minimal
Limited color choices.
Bottom line:
Surprisingly great and underrated features make this bag a terrific value for the traveling photojournalist.
Buy Tenba ShootoutTM Backpack - Large Rolling Now
This product is an outstanding example of blending the two worlds of digital photography and digital imaging into one incredibly practical rolling unit that held everything I wanted to take to Mexico for taking and processing images. I can't tell you everything this backpack has or can do. It would take more than I wish to type. Suffice it to say that for both the professional and amateur photographer who wants a package that can hold it all (including laptop and all accessories), protect everything, take on or off the road and be incredibly accessible,this is the unit for you. I love it.
Read Best Reviews of Tenba ShootoutTM Backpack - Large Rolling Here
Recently completed a "cruise tour" to Alaska. Wanting a larger bag to accomodate my gear, I settled upon Tenba's "Shootout" LARGE Rolling Backpack.
Other reveiws will give you the specs on this case. It is big. Very big. However, its design creates some limitations or room for improvement.
The bag is very well built. I carried two Canon DSLR bodies, a vertical control grip, four lenses (Tamron 28-300 "walkabout", Canon 100-400 L, 16-35L and a Sigma 150mm 2.8 macro), an EX 550 flash, 2x extender, a Wolverine 100gb storge unit and the usual accessories and cables. For computing, a HP 9000 series 17" notebook. All this tipped the scale at 43 lbs. Toss in the Manfrotto and its 48 back breaking pounds.
As the airlines are getting really fussy on what you can bring along, I wanted a bag to accomodate all my gear knowing upon arrival in hotels, onboard, etc. I could park gear not needed.
While the bag is as large as a weekender suitcase, it did fit in the overhead bin without having to open up and spread out the backpack harness. However, this was on a 737-400 series and no way it would fit in a regional carrier's overhead.
The "pouch" design for the tripod I found to be unique, but I opted to just strap it to the side of the bag and keep the pouch closed during airport/hotel/ship navigation. In the field it would probably work out just fine.
Although massive in size, the actual camera/equipment storage area was a bit dissapointing. The pockets are 5.5 inches deep. My 5d with vertical grip and tripod mount attached is 6 inches. The top of the bag will close, but the top of the camera pushes up hard against the padding creating an impact point. Removing the tripod mount, it's a nice snug fit. Take off the grip, and a good inch to spare.
The single pull handle feels a bit wobbly, but performs well. Extended, it curves forward an inch or so. Not much, but this allows the bag to remain more vertical when being pulled. Drawback: the more vertical the bag, the more it skips and twists. The lower you hold the handle, the more stable the bag is when being pulled. I'd suggest to Tenba to reverse the handle to tip it just a bit more forward to increase stability.
I couldn't get a straight answer from Tenba whether a HP 17" notebook would fit into the medium bag, so I opted for the large. The HP weighs a more than hefty 8 lbs. I didn't take into account, when closed, the rear side is larger than the front. Where an Apple is thin, the HP is thick and the fit is snug. Very snug. It did loosen up a bit after a few days. The pocket is deep enough for the HP AND the power supply. Just make sure to coil the cord around the PS to prevent direct contact. There's still enough room to stick a wallet inside.
The wheel assembly and notebook pocket take up half the 10-11 inch depth of the entire bag. Suggestion to Tenba: Use double frame rails and position the notebook pocket between them. Would give the unit a slightly wider and more stable wheelbase, great protection and provide about 3 more inches of depth inside the bag for gear. This allows more lenses to be carried on end vs. being laid flat.
For the little things, there is a flat storage compartment inside the lid. It's a flat pocket. Period. Good for things like manuals or anything also flat. There are a couple of elastic loops for a lens brush, etc. but the "peanut" shaped lid wraps down a bit so best for short items.
The included tethered cases, one for memory cards and one for a slim cellphone are great.
These are inside the two external accesible compartments on either side of the bag at the base. Very slick feature, you can keep your favorite smaller lens in the bottom of the bag and pull it out through the compartment. No need to open the bag to get to them. This is a great feature. These compartments are also great for storage of small items. However, in reach for a lens, you have to dig through and perhaps drop anything in the way. If you want to change lenses fast, almost a certainty you're better off keep the compartment empty.
Overall, the bag is very large and well built. Once I loaded it up and used the harness, I quickly realized how HEAVY it was, and how quickly I'd drop lugging it around.
Through the airport, to hotels, onboard ship....it's perfect being pulled around. To use in the field, take along just what you really need to keep the weight down. Or do like I did and bring along my photo vest for field work.
It's a good bag/backpack. Extremely well built and very underated. Balance out your need. If rolling capability isn't that important, go for the non rolling bag and pick up an external rolling setup.
Want Tenba ShootoutTM Backpack - Large Rolling Discount?
After reading the reviews on Amazon and other sites I was very excited for the arrival of my Tenba Backpack. Then I saw it. Holy cow. I am 6'0" and weigh about 190lbs. Wearing this bag as a backpack looked ridiculous. Here are the reasons why I am sending this bag back:
1 Too big to be backpack. Simply not a useful way to carry it. The depth of the bag is 13 inches. It is like carrying a suitcase on your back.
2 Not enough space. I currently own a small Canon backpack and after transferring all of my gear into the Tenba, I only had room for a couple more lenses. What is unbelievable is that the Tenba is 3X the size of my Canon backpack.
3 Not enough pockets. I want to keep things organized and on my Canon backpack I have side pockets, two front pockets, and then inside I have the organizational compartments and two flat pocksts. The Tenba has fewer pockets. It is missing any usable front pockets which are what you need when you travel to stick in travel documents, a book, ipod, etc.
4 Pockets are tight. I was barely able to squeeze my 13" MacBook into the laptop compartment and I was unable to get a book in there as well. It was difficult to pull the laptop out again and would definitly struggle with it in the airport security line.
5 Zippers are tough to open. The zippers are cool since they completely seal, but they are not easy to open. Part of this is the path that they need to travel which is an S curve so you can't get any momentum.
6 Hard to get the handle out. The handle tucks away too nicely and like all of the other pockets, it is hard to pull it out when you need it, especially when the bag is packed full.
7 Waist Band not removeable. Since you are only going to want to use the backpack function is rare moments that it is too difficult to roll, you really don't need the THICK waist band. Unfortunately, once you access the shoulder straps the band flaps around and cannot be stowed away.
8 No side handle. Since this bag is basically a suitcase, I would expect to be able to grab it from both the top and the side. Unfortunately there are no handles on the sides.
9 Wasted space. I pulled out the entire organized camera compartment and removed the back cover. I got to a hidden section that has two thick pads and the bar for the pull handle. THIS IS WHERE THE SPACE WENT. This was about 2" wasted space along the entire length of the bag.
10 Main compartment too deep. Another place where space is lost is in the main compartment. When I put my SLR body in the bag there is still about 2" on top of it. Now am not going to put something on it or below it, so again this is wasted space. I found that in order to truly fill one of the slots I had to put multiple items on top of eachother.
Overall, the bag is cool and obviously a lot of thought has gone into it. But really they should ditch the whole backpack concept and just use the wheels. Also, I saw a bag that had a low profile options for the main section compartments. This allows you to lay your laptop on top of the gear.
I needed a bag to carry a computer in that would serve as a handbag as well. This bag was as advertised. I have adapted it for use as a handbag also. Good quality.
