Crumpler keystone

Owner contribution

This bag has been extensively reviewed on this site, so I'll just add a couple of updates. Firstly, the bag now has an upper tripod clasp. Nice improvement. Secondly, the inside of the bag is quite angular. If you look at the outside front, the grey part is the base of the cavity. Thus, it is much wider at the back (the opening) than it is at the front (the base of the internal cavity). This surprised me. It means you can't fit as much as you might think from looking at a photo of the cavity. Nevertheless, with careful arrangement it holds a surprisingly large amount. I haven't worked out how to have the 70-200G mounted with all of the other lenses packed. It may be possible by rearranging the partitions each time, but that seems more hassle than it's worth. So, I have it setup so I can have any of the other 3 lenses mounted, but have to unmount the 70-200G before packing everything away. Apart from the 11-18mm, these lenses are big, heavy metal muthas. After buying the bag, I was afraid they wouldn't fit, but they did (just). As ever with Crumpler, this bag is VERY robust and supremely comfortable. It's heavy duty and weighs about 2kg when empty. It looks like a normal backpack, a stylish one, but you would never guess that it's holding a small fortune in camera gear. The gear is very secure because no one can open it while it's on your back. It hangs nicely off one shoulder too; the straps are wide and strong. I appreciate the way the straps are integral to the framework; they're not sewn on like other backpacks. With other designs, it's usually the straps that give way when there's a lot of weight in the bag. The bag sits nicely when you put it on the ground. I hate it when a bag overbalances when on the ground. In conclusion, I love this bag. I'd recommend checking if all your gear fits before you buy it. I didn't, but got lucky.

1 / 2

Owner contribution

+1

1 / 6

Owner contribution

I was looking for a smaller backpack for travel. My Computrekker looks (and feels) enormous, and I wasn't looking forward to taking it on a 3 week international holiday. The bag had to meet the (highly restrictive) regulations for flights at my local airport, preferably not look like a camera bag and hold everything I wanted to take. I ended up deciding on The Keystone, which was had to be ordered in, so I was shopping blind.

1 / 3

Owner contribution

of the crumpler keystone

1 / 2

Owner contribution

The Keystone is Crumpler's midsize backpack-style bag with provisions for carrying not only your camera gear, but also a laptop. Overall, I think it's an excellent bag of high quality. As with most camera bags, the Keystone is easily reconfigurable using padded inserts with velcro-backed tabs. Crumpler's backpack design is unique in that the REAR panel opens, there is no front-panel access. I liked this concept, and so far it seems to work nicely. On the exterior of the bag are zip pouches on either side, but aside from the main rear panel, there is no exterior access to the main compartment. The laptop sleeve is a separate padded pouch, mounted in a pretty ingenious fashion inside the backpack. It's removable (again) by releasing some clever velcro tabs. The sleeve has a number of "organizer" type slots and holders on the exterior face for pens/pencils, etc, as well as a flat (but expanding) zip pouch for additional storage. For reference, my laptop is 12x10x1.5 (I know, a clunky old dog) and fits this sleeve perfectly. The main camera equipment compartment will pretty easily hold three small primes/zooms, my 28-75 mounted on the XT with BG-E3 Grip , and a medium zoom like the 75-300mm or 70-200/4L. Those with big L-glass will probably need to reconfigure from where I have my bag set currently, as my lenses are all relatively small in diameter. There are a number of dividers included, I have one spare vs. what is shown in the pics. Because of the shape of this bag, the dividers are shaped somewhat oddly, so it may require a little "creativity" to configure to your tastes/gear. One minor annoyance is the lack of any small contained compartments inside the main section. It would be handy to have some small-item (CF cards, light, tools, blower, etc) storage that was self-contained but attached internally. Covering the equipment section is a rubber-mesh type material that zips around the perimeter. There is a single stretch/velcro retention strap included, although I'd personally like to have one or two more. The main equipment section is actually a self-contained sub-bag of the larger backpack. This was a surprise to me, and I think it's a good feature. Velcro around is used around the entire perimeter to hold the equipment compartment (very) securely inside the main backpack shell. Between the removable main compartment and quickly detachable laptop sleeve, this bag could be used for most any purpose within several seconds. The overall construction of the Keystone seems to be of very high quality. The materials are mostly heavy thickness/grade fabrics, and the zippers are heavy-duty stuff as well. All of the zippers have large metal pulls attached, which I find to be a nice touch. This makes them quickly and easily accessible, and gives a nice quality feel. Cosmetically, I really like the bag. I chose plain black, but there is also a tan/brown version available. The Crumpler "stick guy" logo abounds, it's pretty much everywhere. Some may or may not like this, but I don't mind - it makes the bag look that much less "camera-ish." At first I wasn't keen on the funky sky-blue interior color, but I can say that small items are easily spotted against this color material. Padding in the Keystone is good. The interior dividers are "typical" in their pad level, and the exterior padding is somewhere between reasonable and substantial. The shoulder straps are thickly padded as well, making it a comfortable bag to wear. One item to note: The laptop sleeve acts as "filler" inside the bag, between the back panel and the top mesh surface of the equipment compartment. The back panel itself is very thickly padded, so this isn't necessary from a purely protective standpoint. However, there appears to be a potential for lenses and other items to move around in the equipment section without the laptop sleeve in place to fill potential space in between panel and compartment. I've carried the bag a couple times without the laptop sleeve in place (I've taken to using the sleeve with my laptop in my daily briefcase/messenger bag!), and have not noticed any significant movement of the camera gear. That said, for the utmost in security of your items, it looks like the best option is to leave the sleeve (even if empty) mounted inside the Keystone for heavier-duty transport.

+4

1 / 9