Bagman CA11 Medium : Practical Review

[Reportage]

First of all let me say that i dont need a shoulder bag to begin with. Its just that while i was walking pass the PC Show met the Ubi uncle and he give very good price. The rest was history.

Have brought the bag to a few paid events and my views will be later on.

Okay, now we proceed to what you get for the price...

[Reportage]

Take note that the pictures were taken with the bag loaded with gear so more or less you know the amount of space you are getting.


the external and internal.


left front zip pocket and right front zip pocket. The left i designate for misc tools and the right is the filters, batteries, card reader and so on.

[Reportage]

middle front zip pocket which is has enough space for keys, maps, namecards, PSP and so on as long not very wide items. Top flap has 2 compartments, left for memory cards and the right i put a first aid kit.


On the left hand side is another zip compartment which i put cleaning kit, the right is a fixed for attaching extra attachments.


There is no zip space or even flat file space like you see at the back of most bags but good thing is that its well padded so better for lower back.

[Reportage]

Important fact you might want to know, the zip doesnt seem the weather resistant kind and the zip as well as flap doesnt cover the whole bag opening.


compared to a long time camera brand bag,

The flap covers the zip so that water simply goes over the zip, the zip also closes the whole bag opening for a good seal and the zip used looks weather resistant.

completely zipped, the whole bag looks like this

I am thinking the zippers could be bigger so that possibly can fit a lock in between them just in case.

[Reportage]

Plastic D Rings so please dont overload the bag as there is a chance the plastic D Ring can break. The strap doesnt go around the bottom like Tamrac which supports the whole bag but rather stops a few inch after the d rings and then sewed on. The base appears to have a plastic reinforced bottom.

Here it is compared with a regular lowepro shoulder bag.


my opinions on using it for events.

First of all..this bag is 100% polyester and Made in China but the price was very right compared to other bag brands made in china/vietnam and etc. i wasnt expecting much out of it but what got me thinking after a while is that even selling their bags at a fraction of lowepro, crumpler and other bag makers, Bagman is still in business all this time so something must be doing right.

I am glad the CA11 is one of them. Its practically the much cheaper and better looking version of the Lowepro 180AW/190AW. While the 180/190 are basically just "dump everything inside" bags imo, the CA11 has lots of compartments so that everything can be arranged as to how you want it. What i did for mine was to arrange by usage. The padding is very generous but try not to get them wet

Although its only been a few days, been getting remarks from other people about how nice it looks and where can they get it. It also has so much space that there is an actual danger of overloading which is why i got a bigger shoulder strap cushion instead of the default that came with the bag. Its good for shoulders if you need to walk A to B to C or need to carry with you for hours during the event. However, more or less the bag is a permanent box shape so even empty it is still box shape.

For the price i paid, pretty worth but i aint bringing it to rainy weather countries as it is.(easily solved if willing to be unconventional)

[airconvent]

Hi
I bougth the exact same bag as you in the recent PC Show. Its a good fit and nice design.
Best of ll, it does not scream "I am a Camera bag!". But of course, I don't "abuse" the bag like you . I reserve the smaller compartment for the DSLR and prime lens (I use a Pentax which happens to have amongst the smallest bodies and lenses around, especially their limited series). The other half I use it to store a jacket and a water bottle. The rest of the nitty gritty stuff like handphone, batteries, etc goes into the side pocket. Quite neat.

By the way, I also have a Tamrac Adventure 6 which is the same category but slightly bigger.