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I’ve had this cute little modular belt pack for several years, but I ignored it because it seemed like “too much” … something clinging to me, wrapped around my hips, making me look, well, hippy. My last review was supposed to be my “IT” bag. The Crumper 7 Million Dollar Home. Well. I loaded up the Crumpler 7 Million Dollar Home recently and went to a street festival. What this experience taught me? Carry less and shoot more—that’s my new motto. The Crumpler bag weighed going on 15 lbs with much of my gear in it. It seemed a shame not to fill this large sized bag with my goodies. I changed lenses multiple times, but didn’t take too many photos because I was walking among crowds with a friend and feeling oppressed by the weight and size of it all. And I felt very unprofessional. Pros go with less. Less is more. You can have the whole kit and caboodle at home, but if you lug it all around with you, the wrong lens will always be on the camera and you’ll be spending time second-guessing yourself instead of making great photos. So I am sorry to say that I sent the Crumpler back. The day after the street festival experience with the loaded Crumpler bag, I met friends for a Herbie Hancock concert. I wanted to bring my gear, but a smaller bag must now be pressed into service—to this concert we were also hauling picnic stuff—blankets, coolers, bags of food… Sighing heavily, I got online again and just went straight to Ken Rockwell’s web site. To see what he had to say about bags. And he had a lot to say—or, not really a lot, but loudly—the best camera bag is no bag at all. But if a bag he must carry, a belt pack it would be, and the belt pack he liked was the same one that was collecting dust in the bedroom closet. After it was dusted off, the Demon amiably took on the D700 with 50mm mounted and the 105mm tucked on the side. My lip balm, wallet, iPhone and other small necessities went into its marvelously expandable front pocket… and off I was. We stopped at a market on the way, and wearing this bag—well, it just never got in the way, and wasn’t conspicuous at all. Even during much ado at the pastry counter and on through the checkout. At the concert, the Demon sat on our picnic blanket unzipped and the camera ready for action, which it got. In the venue, it tucked neatly under my seat, undisturbed by people climbing over me. Out it came during the encore—I loaded the 105 and left the Demon under the seat, walked up to the stage and got some great shots! You know what? I didn’t miss the gear I left behind. I didn’t even think about it. Instead, I was thinking about the pictures I wanted and getting them. What will fit in the Speed Demon: In the Speed Demon I could only squeeze the D700 with the 50mm attached and one other lens. I tried all of them except the 70-200mm which is too tall for this very petite belt pack. However, each of these lenses by themselves would fit in the bag beside the D700-50mm combo, no problem. Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED Nikon 105mm f/2.8 VR micro So they can take turns riding shotgun. Think Tank Speed Demon. 14-24mm insideThink Tank Speed Demon. Nikon 24-70mm insideThink Tank Speed Demon. Lenses outside bag for size comparison Mounted on the D700 none of them will fit quick draw fashion—the combos are too tall. But if I only wanted to carry the D700 with one of these lenses attached and nothing else, I would take the dividers out and lay that one combo in this bag horizontally. The Demon is only about 6.5 inches tall inside. There are other iterations of this bag in larger sizes if you have longer lenses or want more room (Speed Freak and Speed Racer) but those bags are bulky, at least on me. The Demon is an excellent fit for my frame. And where I once thought it made me look big, it actually makes me look tiny and very efficient. The Demon rides on a wide and comfortable modular belt to which you can attach other Think Tank components like Lens Changers to hold individual lenses, or the Lightening Fast to hold your Speedlight. Demon Details: The Demon has one slip pocket at the back that is too thin for my inch-thick wallet. But a Moleskin notebook and a pen could slip in there with no difficulty. There is even a penholder to keep it in quick draw position. You wouldn’t want to stuff much in there anyway as that is the portion of the bag that rides on your hip or waist. The front of the bag has a zippered pocket that when open can pull far enough away from the bag to be able to see the contents therein completely. This pocket has dividers and slots for pens, cards, batteries, what have you. I find the larger dividers useful—the small dedicated ones annoy me… my stuff doesn’t usually fit these pre-configured arrangements. But some organization is appreciated. This pocket is big enough to hold my fat wallet. (Not fat with money—fat with junk.) Most of the other bags fail on this front—no extra space to store your miscellany. Not even on the big bags! This pocket on the Demon opens wide and swallows a lot effortlessly. On the front of this large pocket is a small zippered pocket where you might slot a passport or a ticket (a small ticket), some quick loot for coffee on the run, or other equally thin small thing. It was extremely comfortable to carry and very balanced. It’s also small, or rather, small on the outside but big on the inside. The padding is adequate but not overwhelming. Think Tank mentions this on their web site and says it’s all the protection your gear really needs, and that other manufacturers use far too much padding, making bulky bags that make getting at your gear difficult. I wear it low on my hips and I wear the shoulder strap—which is thick and cushy and extremely comfy—diagonally across my torso to help distribute the weight even more, but just two fixed lenses and the D700 really didn’t weigh all that much anyway. I remember thinking the zipper around the whole top of the bag was very “unprofessional” and for a long time I favored big flaps instead, but the beauty of the Speed Demon and the other Speed bags is that you can unzip and grab your camera and then close the top—zipping it back up should really only be necessary if you are moving around a lot and worried about the other lens falling out. Or you could just zip it back up a little. It’s a great bag to work from—you swing it around to the front (if it’s not already there—I like to wear it on my backside) unzip and yank—need to swap lenses? Take the one off, set it down in the bag, take the other and put it on—working over the open bag. This bag is like a small shelf or table when working with it on your hip. It was such a breeze to walk around in, did not look ridiculously enormous on me, and was small enough to force me to choose just the 50mm and one other lens. It’s been hard to find a bag that will swallow the 70-200 VR II. All the bags that do accommodate that lens are just too big for everything else—if you put just a few things in to keep the weight down, there is too much leftover room. If you load up these bags, they become like the proverbial albatross. The best solution is really a dedicated bag for this lens only, which I can attach to the Demon’s belt. I ordered the Lens Changer 75 Pop Down from Think Tank—this is going to be the most efficient and “small” way I can cart around this big lens comfortably. This Lens Changer is specifically designed for the 70-200, but has a nifty little expanding section. When you zip that closed, it will become a smaller component that will fit a mid-range zoom—or the 105—just great. When expanded, it will be a perfect fit for the 70-200. And I also picked up the R U Thirsty—because a little water is often nice—and an energy bar will fit on the side of that. This will also occasionally be attached to the Demon’s belt. And I do confess, my appreciation for Think Tank gear has increased—for those times when I am actively shooting, I just got—and man, I love this—the Change Up belt/harness bag and the Digital Holster 20—this is a package that is made for shooting without taking anything off or setting anything down. And truly, the most comfortable way to haul more gear than the Demon. And thinness can’t be overrated—the Change Up has a slim profile… I’ll review this incredible harness system very soon! For every day though, the bag that I thought was “too much” and that made me look hippy turns out to be the best bag of all. And I had it all along. This small belt pack is really going to be the most streamlined way for me to carry some of my favorite gear… but again, not all of it. The Speed Demon is great way to carry a small daily kit along with your personal stuff—wallet, phone, sunscreen. My few meager complaints about this bag are the large loopy handle on the front—this could be smaller and more discrete. Also across the bag’s top is another zipper—I don’t know what this is for—it does not open wide enough to access your gear. The real zipper rides the outside edge along the top of the bag—they could ditch the straight zipper across the top middle. One other little thing about Think Tank bags that I’m quite keen on—all the mesh on the outsides of their bags and Lens Changers—because where do you stick that lens cap, that extra battery, or if you are me, that lip balm? Think Tank. They thought of that!