Lowepro Specialist 85 AW

Owner contribution

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Owner contribution

After a year and a half of trying every style of bag and finding all of them either too small, too large or too uncomfortable, I've finally discovered the Lowepro Specialist 85 AW, which I think is one of Lowepro's best kept secrets. It's perfect for my needs. I can keep the D70 with the 70-200 VR mounted, plus an SB-800 speedlight, SC-29 cord, 3 other lenses, miscellaneous photo supplies, and my wallet, PDA, cell phone, keys and other items in the bag and still have room for another 2-3 lenses or flashes. And the bag takes up less shelf space than any of my other bags, because it's more vertical than horizontal and has a trim profile. Amazingly, when I loaded the bag (it weighed in at 14 pounds), I was able to carry it for hours without even noticing it. The waist belt, which nearly kept me from buying the bag, as I wasn't sure I wanted it attached, was key. The bag was heavy when it was just hanging from my shoulder, but with the waist belt in use, the weight disappeared. When the bag is lightly loaded and I'm not using the waist belt, I wrap it around and buckle it in the front, like this (making it just a shoulder bag): --- Side view with the belt wrapped around it: --- And with the belt undone (the belt has a ring and several loops on each side): --- Front pocket (at the bottom, the pocket is a couple of inches wide, so you can easily fit your cell phone, pda, wallet, keys, granola bars...or camera gear.in there!): Along the top of the bag there's also a zip pocket for long narrow things (my wallet fits in there perfectly, along with a couple of Ziploc bags.) --- Now for the main compartment....the 70-200 VR with hood reversed and D70 mounted is on the right. The SB-800 in its case and SC-29 cord are in the middle. On the left at the back is the Tamron SP AF 90mm F/2.8 Di Macro lens (hood reversed) and in front is the 18-70mm Nikon lens (hood reversed, though it fits with it in place as well); both are pushed all the way down to the bottom. The space between the top of the 18-70mm lens and the top of the bag measures about 8 inches. --- When I carry the bag, I typically put a divider on top of the Tamron lens and place the Nikon 1.7x TC teleconverter on top of it (this leaves about 3 inches between the top of the TC-17 and the top of the bag.) I pull the 18-70mm up near the top of the bag and put a divider underneath it to hold it up there so it's easy to get at quickly. When I leave the body mounted to the 18-70mm lens rather than the 70-200 VR, not much in the bag has to change. I move the TC-17 to the back middle, above the SC-29 cord. This leaves room for the camera body to sit above the Tamron 90mm lens without touching it. This bag comes with a lot of dividers (I'm not even using 3 of them here), so it's highly customizable. Although I wasn't a fan of the waist belt initially, it really is an integral part of the bag, and it will save your back and shoulders on long treks! thanks to Sommer for review

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Owner contribution

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