Product Announcement: Peak Design Photography Bag

Hi, I'm Ian Plant, managing editor of outdoor photography guide. And when you're in the field it's important to keep your gear organized to protect your gear from the elements, but also to have your camera easily accessible in case you need to reach for it quick to capture action that's unfolding. Today I'm going to show you an innovative photo pack from peak design. This is their everyday backpack, and it is part of their everyday line of photo bags, slings and totes. The bag I have with me today is their 20 L, their 20 liter version, they also have a larger 30 L version which gives you more room to pack and organize your gear. You can see right away that easy access was one of the key design components of his bag. So first of all, there's the top hatch which comes open and you can store some gear and it closes up really quickly, this is a magnetic hatch so it's pretty easy to get that closed. Having a camera bag that is expandable that gives you flexibility in terms of what gear you can carry is useful cause you never know when you're going to have to throw an extra jacket or an extra lens or an extra piece of equipment into your bag. So for example, with this bag there are four different latching options for the top access pouch. So if you have a lot of gear you can expand the top pouch and use the top latch. And if you have less gear, you can push it down and go ahead and use the bottom latch or any of the latches in between. They've also got side pouches which allow you further access to your gear. There's some configurable pouches on the inside plenty of internal dividers. So definitely it's very easy to organize your gear in a pack like this. There's another pouch over here on this side, more internal dividers. So having plenty of interior pouches and dividers to help you organize gear is important. So you don't have all your gear just rolling around inside your bag as you're moving. There's even some further storage space up here on the top. You can open up this zipper. There's a laptop sleeve if you need one. You can store additional small items and accessories up here as well. There are also large side pouches on either side that allow you to carry water bottles or a tripod. You reach into the side pouch you'll notice that there is an accessory strap. So that way you can go ahead and pack your tripod in the side pouch, take the strap pull up to the accessory loop up here and clip it in and then pull the strap nice and tight. So this way you can hike around with your tripod strapped to your bag on your back instead of carrying it with your hands. There's also a secret compartment here on the front with accessory straps that you can use to strap extra large items to the back of your pack. Something that's too big to fit inside the bag you can latch to the outside. The side access pouches are actually quite useful when you're hiking along and you suddenly have to capture some action with the camera. Open up the side pouch and you can easily extract. Whatever gear you want to use without having everything else falling out. You want to make sure that you buy a bag that pays attention to weatherproofing design. Make sure they have good weather proof zippers and nice weatherproof fabric. Another feature of this bag that enhances accessibility is an accessory called the capture clip which is the small clip here that you can hook on your belt. Here I've hooked it on the strap of the pack itself. And then when you see something that you want to take a picture of you can just release the quick release and slide the camera out of the clip and you're ready to shoot. Of course, if you're using the capture pro clip your camera is going to be exposed to the elements. So peak design created what they call a camera shell which is a cover that can go over your lens and your camera to protect it from water, from dust, and from abrasion. So you can just go ahead and slide this over the lens. And once you've got it around the lens and the lens hood you can slide this part over the top of your camera. So that way when you're moving around the camera is protected and when you're ready to shoot and just lift the shell up the back and go ahead. And that way you'll make sure that when you're using the clip you've got some protection for your camera. So a bad camera bag can just weigh you down, but if you have a good bag that allows you to easily organize your gear that protects your gear from the elements and gives you quick and easy access to your camera. Well, that's going to lighten your load and allow you to focus on your own personal creative vision.