Written by 
B&H is having a Black Friday sale on a ton of backpacks for all of your gear carrying needs. Being a bag snob, and more than just camera bags, I have gone through the deals and will give my recommendations at various budgets. There is no perfect bag, and no best bag. There are only bags that work for you, your kit and your use case.
There may be a few brands missing from these lists that some people like. However, I tend not to recommend the Peter McKinnon Nomatic bags, they’re extremely overpriced for the quality and I don’t really like the Peak Design bags for the same reason. Nothing against Mr McKinnon! He does great work.
Here I Ramble
If you’re looking for a shoulder travel bag, I haven’t found anything close to as good as the Gura Gear Chobe 2.0 and both sizes are currently on sale.
You can fit so much gear into these bags and really avoid any sort of attention at the check-in counter.
Qatar Airways switched their carry-on to 50cm from the usual 55cm, so technically my Shimoda backpack was too tall (55cm due to the frame), so I fit all the gear you see below, plus a 15.4″ laptop into the Gura Gear Chobe 2.0 16L. Most of the time they don’t seem to care much, but I also do not want to look like an idiot at the counter.
I put the backpack in my checked luggage in case I wanted to use it instead at my destination, and I did.
The Gura Gear Chobe bags are also collapsable to become a thinner daily shoulder bag.
Gura Gear Shoulder Bags
As for roller bags for carry-on, I really like both the Think Tank and Shimoda Design rollers. I use the Shimoda and love the “doctor’s bag” way it closes down.
The Think Tank is just under 50cm and the Shimoda is at 52cm. The Shimoda doesn’t have a dedicated laptop slot like the Think Tank does, but I have had no problem putting my laptop on the top in a sleeve and closing the bag easily.
Unfortunately the other really good Think Tank rollers aren’t on sale at this time.
Roller Bags
Budget
Mid-Tier
High End
There are tons of other bags on sale at B&H Photo. Check out the Black Friday bag deals at B&H Photo.
I’ll actually leave open the comments section for this article because I love talking about bags, we all have our weird love affairs.
|
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. |