Today, I had spent about 4 hours at John 3:16, trying to figure out if I should or should not buy the Tarmac Velocity 9 camera bag. I came back empty-handed as I still could not persuade myself that the Tarmac is right bag to get - as, currently, I have 2 bags that I am using. The Lowepro StealthReporter 400 (aka SR400) and Urban (the poor cousin of Crumpler's Farmers Double).
The Lowepro one is nice, with lots of room and space for the gear (which contains a D70, kit lens, 50mm prime len, 75-300mm len, SB600 and other smaller stuff like the omnibounce, etc) as well my wallet, PDA and house keys. However, the only issue I had with it is that it's a shoulder bag, so one side of my shoulder is overloaded, and had to get a waist band to ensure the bag does not bounce that much against my side when I walk. This is also not the bag that I would use when I travel overseas.
The Urban one I got is the one that I uses during my travel trips, and I just bought it recently. The old bag that I was using was getting old and felt a bit unsecure using it. This allows me to carry my laptop and camera on board the plane as a hand luggage. Only thing with this is, I don't carry my 75-300mm lens with me for this - it will not fit. This bag will do fine if I am just bringing the D70 with kit lens and flash.
So now... I am looking at CompuTrekker (so that I can bring all my lens and laptop as hand luggage) and the Tarmac Velocity 9 (this is more of a "replacement" for the SR400). I still could not decide if the CompuTrekker is the right bag to get for that purpose as normally, if I am walking around the places, I would lock the laptop in my large luggage, and just walk round with the gear in the Urban bag. It serve it's purpose but since it's a backpack, it's quite difficult to get the gear when you want to take any pics. Somehow, the pros of the bag still does not tempt me enough to decide to buy. Am still looking at other brands of bags for this purpose. The other bag that I saw was this Thinkphoto bag which is not available locally so that's out of the window - just that it looks good...
As for the Tarmac, well, i had tried to stuff it with the same gear and tested the bag out. Thanks ot J316, I did not have to bring my gear down, instead, since they have stock - except for the 75-300mm len which is no longer produced and had to subsitute with another lens that is about the same weight; I stuff the bag there and tested it out. At first I have to say it feels good, at least I don't feel the drag, but as time goes by I had a feeling that it may be an issue similar to the shoulder bag but this bag has the waist belt that can be tucked away. So the jury is still out on this bag - but I heard quite a fair bit of people are now looking at this bag.
Of course the other thing on my list is the wide angle lens - I definitely cannot afford the Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens or even the 12mm one, which means I have 2 other choices - 12-24mm f/4 Tokina (which I am still eyeing) and 10-20mm Sigma lens. Having said that, the forums or reviews of the Tokina seems to be a 'ok' lens and nothing fantastic about it... So I am still undecided, however, with the new purchases, like the camera bag and other stuff, I seems to be putting this in the wish list rather than the to get list.
Finally, since I am not willing to pay $600 just for a Gitzo super lightweigth CF tripod and a ballhead, I had to find other methods to ensure I could take photos at a lower speed, like 1/4 of a second in places where I would normally use a tripod back home. The one that I was looking at was the 345 Manfrotto tabletop tripod. Like the 12-24mm lens, this is on a back burner. Still undecided yet.
Oh well... I guess another trip there next week is in order before leaving for Germany.
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