LowePro Flipside 300AW Bag Review
Having been a p
rofessional photographer for quite some time I’ve managed to collect my share of different camera bags. I can’t seem to give any of them up so I just keep adding new ones to my repertoire.
My latest addition is the LowePro Flipside 300AW. It's a backpack style bag with all the great features and pluses that come with other LowePro bags, but this one has a unique twist that is great for travelers like myself, and possibly you as well! As the name itself implies the opening to the main compartment is on the “flip side” or inside of the bag.
What that means is that when you are carrying the bag, the zipper is totally against your bag. There is pretty much no way anyone is going to get into it without you knowing because they’d have to rip it off you to get it opened. There are a couple small pouches on the outside but I’d only use them for non-valuables and things I didn’t care about like loose change, a bus ticket, a power bar, etc.
That was the main selling point for me on selecting this bag prior to a recent trip to Turkey and Spain. Barcelona, Spain is the pick pocket capital of the world and I’d been warned (and scared into paranoia) by my friends that live there on taking precautions. I wanted to make sure I had a bag that no one could get into from behind me.
Besides this main feature it has others that are quite handy and useful as well including: a tripod holder, a water bottle pocket on the outside, comfortable padded straps, a waist strap (so you can actually keep that it buckled and rotate the bag around to access the contents without putting it down on the ground), slots on the shoulder straps to add additional Lowe Pro accessories (cell phone holder, water bottle, etc). The inside of the bag has padded inserts that are movable and you can fully customize the configuration to suit your needs and gear. There's also a small personal section at the top where you can keep a snack, cables, chargers or even your wallet (although I don’t recommend that in Barcelona either!).
For HDR photography a tripod is almost essential so having a backpack that is compact, secure, and can carry my tripod is a huge plus. I chose the Flipside 300 because of its narrow profile (10.2W X 6.9D X 17.5H) so as to fit into the small overhead bins on the tour bus I was taking in Turkey. I think however that if I hadn’t been so limited for space, such as that particular tour was – I’d have chosen the Flipside 400 (which also includes a rain cover). Hmm, next bag perhaps?
Okay I admit it, I’m a bag pack rat, hoarder, collector, dare I say fanatic? But there are just so many good ones, and for different reasons – I want them all!
Check out the LowePro Flipside 300AW.