I’ve posted here about my occasional obsession with camera/notebook bags – which at some level speaks about gender equality; that Ling has her thing about handbags, I’ve got an equivalent thing about camera and notebook bags too.:)
Anyway – the Kensington Contour Terrain Messenger Bag (right) I’ve been using for two years now was getting worn out. The fabric strap pad doesn’t do well in the humidity here – i.e. it started disintegrating – and the other week a leaky coffee mug experienced spillage. The bag pretty much smells of Nescafe coffee right now.
Oh, I get plenty of complimentary and freebie bags from conferences, seminars and vendor gifts at work, but even when they’re made of heavy duty material (usually they’re not), they often get emblazoned with advertizing logos too. Not my thing, so for the last week I’ve been keeping an eye for a replacement bag for the Kensington at the usual places: the Challenger Superstore at Funan Center, and other electronic stores elsewhere around our place.
The intended bag was supposed to be a daily use one to transport the MacBook Pro and the E-PL1 (LOL). Strange as it might sound, amidst the five dedicated-camera bags I’ve already got – and all for different occasions, mind you – I haven’t got a backpack that’s portable enough for daily use. The closest is my Lowepro Fastpack 250, but that thing’s a monster capable of carting around a couple of cameras, long lenses, a gorillapod and even a netbook. I used it extensively during the Kumamoto trip, but it’s not something I’d want to bring to work every day.
—
One of the nicest thing about the Challenger Funan Superstore is the relatively big floor space for notebook bags on display, which is a great compliment to the plenty of other places already carrying Kata, Crumpler, Lowepro and Tamrac camera bags. Funnily though, even after two separate trips to the store trying to find a suitable bag, I just couldn’t find one with the interior customization options or size I required. But I finally found exactly what I wanted… at Denki @ Compass Point of all places:
It’s a Bagman BP10 backpack. It’s smaller than the Fastpack, very light weight and rather minimalist in the number of compartments. There’s a large pocket that’ll house a notebook of up to 15.4” monitor, a front compartment for keys and small items, side pockets with zips, and a humungous central component with a removable camera bag insert. The bag normally retails for about USD80, but Denki’s price was marked up by quite a bit. I half-expected to find a can of abalone as a comp. gift with the bag, but no such luck. Sigh.
Still, I’m pretty pleased with the purchase – especially considering the number of man-hours that went into the search for it. It’ll be accompanying me for the coming Boston trip mid-year. Hooray – one less item to pick up now.:)
Recent comments