She was really hoping that there would be more pockets for things like cell phones and a field notebook (a pocket on the back of the bag for a notebook really should have been there in my opinion), not the type of thing that you really want to hang off of your camera bag. Especially with some of the places I drag her through, anything hanging off would get abused pretty badly.

In addition the bag wasn’t a perfect fit for her gear. Her camera w/ attached lens + additional lens + hoods and filters just didn’t fit in the bag in a manner that she was happy with (and the silly dividers that had a habit of folding over didn’t help).

Oh well. For now she will continue to cart stuff around in her Canon Gadget Bag, and use her lowepro for hiking until she finds the perfect fit for her.

Sadira - you’ve seen my camera case. Just big enough for the G9, spare battery, spare memory card, and card reader. I’m a pretty minimalist kind of guy. That mixed with the fact that my case only cost me $20 made it perfect in my mind.

As for Sunday - I think that sounds good. So plan on meeting out in Chino (Circle K?) around 8:45ish? I’m guessing we are taking the Perkinsville route? Just give me a shout if plans change.

My 6 million has accessory areas as well. My Lowes do too….so does my Canon bag (the whole top is covered in Velcro). I promise ya, the animals hear you before the Velcro. LOL!

When I’m ready to shoot I keep my camera in my Zing case. I can peel it off in a second. But, when I’m carrying gear I want a small camera pouch. The Crumpler fits the bill compared to many other packs I’ve owned. It’s slimmer, yet still fits the same stuff. Lowe backpacks are on your back (zippers, velcro, security codes and alarms), my Canon pack is huge and doesn’t sling well. Ah well, keep searching.

Sunday……heading out at 8:30 from Prescott.

Tom…where are you guys going that there are wild animals? I have a theory that humans on the whole aren’t that quiet, so they probably already hear you as you’re “sneaking” up on them…which is a good thing with bears and whatnot. Tell her to just put a piece of fabric over the sticky part of the velcro…that will probably solve the loud problem as the fabric will stick to it and then you can just use the buckle. You can also hang accessories off the side of the bag if you need to.

Seriously, how much gear is everyone carrying?! I feel kind of goofy with my tiny bag, but it’s really the perfect size for the weekend grab and go…and I mostly plan out where I’m going during the day so that I don’t need to take everything camera that I own with me…is that wrong? I mean, lets face it, I just got the 10D so I don’t have a ton of extras…and um…well…Rich can carry all those in his big bag right?

Sunday…. what time are you thinking? We were planning to hit the lava tubes bright and early sunday morning (DaNece has never been).

Ah, Sycamore on Sunday??? What do you think?

I bought DaNece the 5 million dollar bag, but she ended up not liking it very much and is returning it. I look forward to a review in a few months of how it holds up.