Think Tank Airport Acceleration

Think Tank Acceleration

If there is one subject that is sure to get photographers all riled up its photographic backpacks or bags. There are loads upon loads of brands from the well known Lowepro to well less known companies like Swarovski. Covering everything from aluminum trunks to little lens cases that attach to field vests. There is certainly no lack of choice, but finding the perfect or something even serviceable can be a life long long quest. I have gone through more bags than I care to remember buying. I have tried all sorts of formats and still have probably a dozen sitting around not doing much of anything as I’ve lost patience with them. Almost every bag has something going for it, whether it be its ability to hold a mountain of gear, give you firm support whilst walking, to holding your tripod in an acceptable way, to fitting in an airplane storage compartment and so it goes on.

I’ve used Lowepro probably the most in the past like many photographers and they do make some excellent bags to be sure. I can’t put my finger on one though and say, that bag came very close to perfect for my needs. I was reading a photographers blog and came across the name Think Tank. I must admit to never having heard of these people before then which I found quite surprising as they have quite an extensive range. But perhaps they don’t sell many here in the UK. After looking through all their options, I decided to go for their medium sized backpack as it looked like it would hold more than enough equipment for an event, yet still be allowed on the plane when I travelled.

Buying this bag was one of the better decisions I’ve made as far as photographic gear goes. It is exceptionally well made and comes with so many dividers that you can set it up any which way you want. In fact, for the first 30 minutes or so after getting it unpacked, you’re going to want to sit down with all your most used gear and figure out the most effective way to arrange the bag as the default isn’t really ideal and is clearly just a way to transport it to the customer.

The amount of bodies and lenses I can fit into this bag is remarkable. At the minute, I normally travel with a Nikon D300, Fujifilm S5 Pro (+ grips for both), a 17-55mm, 70-200mmVR, 1.7 extender, 85mm, 30mm, 150mm, 60mm, SB-800 & SB-600 speedlights plus some extra batteries, memory cards, lens pen and other odds and ends. It all gets swallowed up easily which I think is down to the way they’ve designed it to open from the other side to what is generally done. It also has more square corners which may not sound like much, but because it doesn’t angle in towards the top, you are able to fit two bodies next to each other. I could actually fit even more in, but I just don’t need to on most occasions.

The really smart thing is how easy it is to carry all of this. I know it should feel very heavy, and I’ve carried less in other bags and felt a lot more tired after using them than I do with more equipment in this bag. It sits nicely on your back and distributes the weight very well so it just doesn’t seem like you have all that much in it. The killer aspect is that you can take this bag with all that equipment and be allowed to take it on the plane as a carry-on item. I love this, as any photographer knows that the very last thing you want to do is hand over all of those bodies and lenses to check-in. The only real complaint I have is that the tripod doesn’t attach as well as I’d like. There again, I’ve yet to find any bag that takes a tripod very well so I can’t really hold that against it since it does everything else so well. This may be the bag I keep for quite some years to come, I just wish I’d heard of this company sooner. Hopefully they will get their name more well known and into some more retail outlets as they really deserve to be.