Shootsac – the photo bag for women?

The perfect camera bag is hard to come by.

I’ve got 3.

You’d think I’d have one I’d be happy with.

• The Crumpler Farmer’s Double that is bottom half a camera bag, top half a anything-you-want-to-have-in-it bag, and a laptop bag.
• The Lowepro Stealth Reporter D100 AW for the D70.
• The Tamrac sling bag for my Yashica T5. It’s so simple it doesn’t even have a model number.

I also used to have the Lowepro Top Loader Zoom 1. The bag was fine to put in a larger bag as I often did, but soon I got lazy and just put the camera, sans padding into my backpack. It was just lighter and simpler. So it has been sold off.

Of the three I have left, I love the Tamrac the best. It is small, wears like a gun holster under the jacket when I shorten the shoulder strap. This allows me to keeps the camera warm and fog free on a cold day. This is especially useful when travelling and coming out from a cold hotel room.

See, it’s not that hard to please me.

The Lowepro Stealth Reporter D100 – the smallest in this range – was supposed to be my answer for the D70, but it just isn’t right. I find it much too fat. But my father seems to like it.

Not only is it too fat. Stand the bag on it’s own and it tilts forward. Add a water bottle holder to the side and the bag loses all balance. It’s just a very awkward bulky bag.

And that waterproof rain cover? Absolutely useless because you can’t use the bag in the rain using the shoulder strap. If you can’t work with it in the rain, why have a rain cover? You’d just run for cover and protect both your camera and yourself.

Perhaps the larger versions of the Stealth Reporter work. But the D100AW just doesn’t cut it.

The Crumpler Farmer’s Double is one hefty bag. It weighs a tonne on it’s own, and I’ve only used it when I absolutely have to – ie work and travel at the same time.

One hour with the bag fully loaded is tolerable, but increase that to three – and I’ve carried it for eight fully loaded, is a killer. Bruised and sore shoulders that ached for days.

Thankfully, it hasn’t happened that frequently and I’ve only had to carry on my poor back, a laptop, camera and daily essentials on four trips.

Of course you can leave the laptop in the hotel room – that helps reducing the weight by 2.5kg (old Apple 12″ ibook) but the bag even then is too large with too much padding to carry around in the city.

In order to use the Farmer’s Double properly, one needs to travel with at least 2 bags. The Farmer’s Double is for the long haul, airport to airport, hotel to hotel. But you really need a smaller accompaniment for intra-city work/travel.

I’m still looking for that perfect bag, that isn’t too hefty or bulky and one that isn’t just made for men.

Enter the Shootsac. Designed by a woman photographer, Jessica Claire, this bag looks more like a handbag rather than a camera bag.

You’ve got to admit, they got it right. Packaging looks great. That silver “thank you” sticker. My, my won’t you feel special having received one after plonking down $175 on it.

Plus, you can choose various covers without having different bags. Buy all the covers, and put on a different cover each day and look like you have a different bag each day.

But note that it isn’t just targeted to women. On their shop website, there are several photos of men totting the all-black version of the bag – their answer to the man-(camera)bag.

Unfortunately, I think it’s all looks again, and dies on function. The DSLR body can’t be carried in that bag unless you don’t have the lens mounted, you use some point and shoot or a rangefinder camera also without lens.

Okay, I have a point and shoot. Soon I’ll have a rangefinder. But when it comes to my SLR camera, digital or analogue, I want to have a lens mounted on it.

From the photo, you can already see the stress created on the bag by the shoulder strap loop. Load this bag up completely and watch the bag sag and feel your heart skip as the seams pull.

Usually joints from the bag to shoulder strap or strong and wide. This is to ensure the strap doesn’t break and distributes weight over the wide shoulder strap evenly so that you don’t feel the weight. Check out the Crumpler shoulder straps and how wide they are.

So, I don’t think the Shootsac cuts it either. Too bad.

Too bad that all these bags – Lowepro, ThinkTank, Kata Bags, and so on – claimed to be tested by pros, tested by military men, used by pros – why are they all not made just right?

I think it’s because there’s a bunch of people who aren’t pros who are looking for camera bags that aren’t used by pros.

They want a bag that’s useful enough to carry around their camera, that’s fast to whip out their camera, to hold their travel documents, maps, foreign exchange, water bottle, a sandwich, chapstick, lozenges.

They want stuff in their bags that pros won’t carry.

And they don’t want it to look like a camera bag.

Maybe there’s no “they”.

Maybe it’s just “me”.

Picky me.