LowePro Photo Sport BP 24L AW III after 9 months of usage. Time for a conclusion.
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- čas přidán 29. 03. 2022
- I've been using LowePro bags and backpacks for 20 years now and none has ever failed me. For the last 4 to 5 years I was using the LowePro Photo Sport BP 300 AW II as my main travel, hiking and EDC backpack, as it features a good and easy to reach camera compartment as well as space for other things, just like a normal backpack does.
When I read the press announcement of a new version coming out the Photo Sport BP 24L AW III, I was very hyped. After some persisting opening their shop every couple of hours, I was luckily able to catch one of the first that were available in the shop (at least here in Europe).
After having had the Backpack for around 9 months now, where I used it on various shorter and longer trips, I wanted to share my thoughts it with you - as promised in my review to tell you where I would and why I wouldn't use it for most of my future trips.
Just to be sure we're not having a misunderstanding here: I bought this backpack for my personal use with my own money, I paid the full price, I did not tell LowePro about making this video, I don't get paid by them or anyone else for presenting the product in any light - this is solely my opinion about both backpacks and nothing else. - Věda a technologie
Danke dir für die ehrliche Einschätzung. Ich hätte mir schon fast den Rucksack gekauft, aber der Designfehler, dass alles aus dem oberen Fach nach unten rutschen und schlimmstenfalls verloren gehen kann, ist ein K.O.-Kriterium.
Falls es dich interessiert: ich habe einen anderen Rucksack gefunden, der ähnlich groß und ähnlich aufgebaut ist, aber den Vorteil hat, dass man das obere Fach per Reißverschluss vom Kamerafach abtrennen kann: Cullmann ULTRALIGHT 2in1 DayPack 600+.
Thanks for the in depth update on this bag👍
Awesome review! I still use my photo sport model 20l that was terminated in 2016 or so. I like it for its camera gear and personal items carrying capabilities. I actually carry two cameras with different lenses on them plus my rain jacket, rain pants and some other stuff for day long use.
Sorry, it is Photo Sport pro 30 L that I still use and has been terminated by Lowepro.
czcams.com/video/IRNk58oUXrM/video.html
However, I received my LowePro Photo Sport BP 24L AW III a week ago. I am disappointed at seeing its smallness and narrowness. It will not fit anything more than a jacket.
I don't know why Lowepro did not work on upgrading Photo Sport pro 30 L. The main complaint with that model was thinness of shoulder straps.
I also ordered Lowepro Flipside Trek 450 BP and received it yesterday. I think after fitting my gear in it, I will retain it and return photo sport.
thx you very much !
I was planning to buy this backpack, but due to the flaws you mentioned, I decided against it. I also have the previous, old version, and I'll stick with it despite it being damaged a bit in a few places. Thanks for the helpful insight!
Thanks for the review! I have the old one as well and your video helped me to decide. No more Photosport for me - LowePro essentially bricked the design…
Can you increase the Velcro area by stitching a wide band of Velcro on the sides of the internal divider so it would be stuck much better in place so it would not come loose? Is there what to stick all that extra Velcro on the inside walls of the backpack?
I found a similar backpack called CULLMANN ULTRALIGHT 2in1 Daypack 600+. On the inside, instead of having the divider from the top and bottom part fastened with velcro, it has a zipper all around that area. I am thinking to get this one. But until then I need to do a bit more research since I found only one video on CZcams about it
Planning to buy this bag my question is can you fit a water bottle and tripod both in here
I have the original Photo Sport 200 AW from a decade ago. It's getting a bit worn and I've been thinking about upgrading to the latest model if there's some new features or benefits. Unfortunately this seems like a downgrade for the reasons you've covered. My Photo Sport is my all-time favorite camera bag / backpack and is great for hiking or even just walking around the city but the reduced camera gear storage and a divider that won't stay secure feels like big, annoying drawbacks.
Hi David, thanks for your comment!
They still sell the older AW II at least in Europe, so if you can get your hands on it, that might be a better choice than the AW III for you. I personally never owned the AW Version 1 back in the day, I just didn't know it existed. Been using larger LowePro camera bags or over-the-shoulder type of camera bags back then. I only noticed the series when they released the AW II so I can't really compare both out of personal experience, however the AW Version 1 looks rather similar to the AW II after a quick internet search - so that might be a better choice for you then especially as they still seem to sell it at least online.
I mean the AW III ist not all bad. It's just not a backpack for me, hence it's been lying around in my closet since a year and I've exclusively used my old AW II. Hope that came across in the video :-D
Also I don't know if they might have improved something silently since I got it as one of the very first in Europe last year. Haven't had any recently sold in my hands. So that's a possibility. Doubt it, but possible nonetheless.
If it's just the flippy floppy flap that doesn't stay latched (for me anyway) that bothers you one could think about sewing or glueing it fixed or... I don't know. But that's also not really something you'd wanna do to your expensive backpack. If you're happy with the AW I, I would suggest looking in the AW II for a replacement :-)
cheers
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I was looking at this bag . I have the old one and decided not to get this newest one. Simply for the fact they removed the extra safety camera door strap. I just dont trust one zipper alone holding your expensive camera from falling out. I went with the shimoda explore 25 but its more expensive.
They described this "design flaw" as a feature in their video......the intent is that if you take the inner bag out and use it strapped to you, then you have the entire interior of the backpack for other stuff. I'm curious, does the flap between the sections only have velcro on the one side? It looks from the video as if it does.
Hi Tihr, thanks for your comment!
I do fully understand what the intent of this design decision is. I might not be stating it that clear in this video since it's a follow up, but go over it to some extend in my initial review I did last year.
Not sure what you mean by "on the one side" - it's standard velcro, the soft... hairy? (not sure how to describe it, but you know what I mean, right?) bit is sewed on the inside of the backpack and the flap itself has the hook-part sewed to the underside if you look from the top down. So in theory that should be physically the best approach to it, because whatever pushes down pulls on all the velcro and doesn't peel it off. And as long as this happens in the middle or so it probably works fine. Based on my experience smaller things like GPS devices or filter cases have a tendency to work their way to the sides/edges though and that's where it at some point always came lose enough for those to slip through. Not sure if they then peel off the velcro from the edges or if it just can't hold it or whatever I don't know. I've always just seen the result.
Then there is the point of fixing it once it's lose, that is -diplomatically speaking- a pita. The underside of the flap is made of soft microfiber-like material, probably to protect the camera compartment itself with very soft fabric so nothing scours off each other. Theoretically a very nice idea, however the velcro hooks on the flap bend around and stick like hell to this fabric, so you have a hard time pulling it off there (in fact it hooks there way better and seems to like to stick to that way more than on the actual velcro). Then you have to be very careful to attach the flap in the backpack where you (at least I) can hardly work with two hands while the velcro itself continues to bend down and stick to the flap underside to this somewhat flexible material that stratches a bit what makes it even harder to remove from the hooks to hook them into where they are supposed to be hooked into - so it's very annoying, time consuming and not an easy task to achieve 100% velcro fit between the flap and the backpack wall. Now I'm a rather patient person, but this annoyed me every time I did it. Maybe that's also part of the problem that the velcro doesn't really fully hold anymore when it's not 100% on and the microfiber underside still pulls it off, but as said, I find it rather impossible to properly put it together for the reasons stated.
I get that this is all very subjective though and depends what you do with the backpack - if you only ever have a jacket and your gloves in there, it won't be a problem, as nothing pushes hard enough for it to open or could fall out if it came undone. If you make sure your jacket or something else is on the bottom like a bowl and everything is in there that could fall out, it's probably fine as well. I don't want to bother with something that personally though, also when I need the jacket or whatever is in there at any given time, then I don't want to undo the contents of the backpack to make sure nothing could slip through once I need what made the bowl on the bottom - if that makes sense.
You might just use the backpack for a city stroll and just carry a rain jacket just in case and that won't be a problem. You might be only using it in hot climates where you don't really need much in there anyway, probably it will be fine. When I go hiking in the mountains or colder places (which is what I usually do) for a couple of days, I have a lot of stuff and clothing in there that makes the backpack part full and can push the velcro open and have things fall through somewhere - and it did so multiple times. I put my GPS unit in there when I don't need it (because, that's one other aspect I somewhat very much dislike in this backpack, it doesn't fit in the top pocket outside because that's maximally like 1/3 of the size the AW II's pocket was), which I actually lost through the opening but luckily noticed only 50-or-so-meters later and was able to find it back. I've had my filter case push the velcro open and slip below the camera compartment. Just for me to have thought I lost that thing with some hundred bucks worth of filter in there until I thought about looking below the camera compartment. I've had trail mix doing the same and then had to fiddle around on the trail to get that back up and the flap closed again which includes taking most of the stuff out that's in there... and so on, you get the point... maybe I'm using the backpack wrong, but a backpack I can't put anything small in or then have to tie it somewhere in the backpack to not fall out is not really worth much for me to be honest.
That it's intended to be that way doesn't make it a perfect or even good design -again for me- though. In my opinion if they'd used a zipper and made it the 5 bucks more expensive that this costs more to produce instead of velcro and this microfiber-fabric directly where the hooks just look to stick, that would've been a way better choice for all aspects here in my humble opinion.
cheers
@@dowe-photography4972 I saw that after I watched the other video!!! Sorry about that, I saw them out of order :) I just thought it was funny that it was a feature, that wound up being worse.
I appreciate very much the detailed description, and I understand COMPLETELY what you're talking about....I have a bag that's very similar in some regard, it has very strong velcro but the pieces never seem to want to stick despite that, but it loves to stick to other things. After ruining a favorite scarf, that one got donated. And I totally understand the too much weight pushing down into the other area, I have another bag that does this (horizontally if you can believe that, I couldn't myself, even after seeing it happen).
I think your suggestion about the zipper is spot on, that would definitely be the best solution. I wonder what else could be done (after purchase) because I really need an upgrade from the fastpack that I have now. That one is similar but has two defined chambers, and it's annoying that it can be topheavy even if you have heavier stuff in the bottom (the top part is larger and hangs over *grumbles*). Other than that I love the bag and the Photo Sport looked like an upgrade that I was considering.
OHH what I meant was, does the velcro go all the way around the three sides of the flap between, from the video it looked like it only had velcro on one side (leaving two sides open).
haha no worries :-)
It's sadly often the case that something brand new is not necessarily better (at least for the customer) or it's just not 100% working as expected - or was a really great idea and then accounting people put the budget cuts where it seperated from 'very great really usable feature' to 'well, nice idea though, thanks for trying' ;-)
Aha! Now I got you - yes, the velcro is on 3 sides, front, left and right and the flap is sewed on the back. There is a little opening on the corners when it's "closed" where I can hardly push my index finger through (so let's call it index finger sized area) where the velcro strips are apart and there is nothing to stick, probably for production reasons and that actually might be one of the reasons a device like a GPS handheld could find their first step out, as there basically already is a little opening, but yeah, I don't know. In my video I think I just didn't bother to reattach it properly, as said, it's kind of annoying to do that - so sorry for the confusion :-D
oh yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about, stuff sticking to velcro hooks and being ruined is freaking annoying. For that reason I actually avoid buying jackets or so where the wind breaker element or anything else is held by velcro (you probably know the type I'm talking about) ruined more than one good scarf and it mostly doesn't live through a year before it stops to stick anyhow. Luckily that is not really anything I'm worried about on this backpack though, as the velcro hooks immediately bend down and hold for their dear life on the microfiber underside haha ;-)
You could look in the model before, the Photo Sport AW II, they actually still sell it new (at least in Europe they do, not sure in other parts of the world) and I love that bag since I have it. In fact I went back to it after being annoyed by the new AW III last year and didn't look back, would most certainly buy it again if mine got damaged.
I find it to be the perfect bag, I use it as hand luggage bag as well (fits normal hand luggage restrictions easily), so I carry camera+lenses safely and have way enough space for electronics/batteries (which are mostly only allwoed in hand luggage), drone, headphones, kindle, sun glasses and stuff like that and still room to stuff a jacket in depending where/which time I fly.
Only disadvantage, compared to the AW III one is that the divider is mostly sewed in and not to be opened or removed (however you can stuff stuff around the front and under the compartment as well which kind of even gives you more space, I usually stuff emergency underwear and a tshirt in there when I fly in case I strand somewhere or the luggage is lost - which has helped me more than once -, also it allows to put something in there that is longer than the carry compartment, not that anything particular came to mind right now... I use it often to just stuff clothing there when the backpack is really full. I guess you could do the same in the AW III maybe if you stuff it like through the camera opening or so... don't know). Anyhow, also you can't take the camera compartment out and it feels a teeny tiny bit less cushioned (at least after 6 or so years using it) and the shoulder straps are not as nicely cushioned, still very comfortable to carry, even when full -at least for me. I mostly do longer walks with it when it's colder, so I mostly have some clothing on and I'm used to carrying backpacks so that's not really bothering me that much, but to be fair, the AW III is a bit more comfortable to carry. Not by a lot though in my opinion. On the AW II however I get more stuff in there, the camera area is (what feels like way!) more spacy, I put the exact measurements in the video and it's not by much, but it actually feels like a lot, and the top pocket on the very top of the lid is at least 3 times bigger than on the AW III. I get a kindle with leather casing in there, plus a mobile, plus my keys, plus some paper tissues, sunglasses and bits and bobs that you have. On the AW III it's basically full when my keys are in there and a mobile spans it uncomfortably. That doesn't sound like a biggy, but it kinda is. Where you put those things instead when the bag is full, especially while travelling that is SO annying. Maybe that's just me :-D
Yeah, it looked all very good on paper - I preordered the bag as soon as it was available, so even before they released the marketing campaign or anyone had one to show when I stumbled over it on their website one evening. I know it was risky and I'm not complaining and being basically the first to get one was what made me create the video in the first place - thought it would be helpful to people that considered buying it but couldn't inform themselves anywhere yet, which is what I usually do for hours before buying something.
Looked like a great update to the AW II, especially being able to take out the camera compartment sounded like a great idea to kind of overpack on the beginning of a multi day tour, where naturally food would become less over time so more space to then put the camera compartment back in on day 2 or 3 or something like that, or to have additional space when pulling out the camera compartment for a thicker jacket during the day when it's warm enough, or leave the backpack in the car and just use the camera bag for some shorter walks to some sight seeing place during a road trip or something... never really did any of this in practical use though. For some it was just generally too small anyway or just big enough to not mess with taking out the camera, for other times I couldn't bother with going through the process and just pull my camera out and go with that on its strap.
And I still think it's a great idea in that regard, just that some parts are not really well designed for me personally, or ... well I don't really use a backpack like that. I went on a multi day hike in the mountains last year with it and it was a rather annoying experience with that backpack to be honest for a multitude of reasons (this wall of text is long enough already, not necessarily going into details now ;-)). Then took it for a shorter trip to the coast, only day trips, no overnighters, still was more annoyed than happy. Finally I switched back to my older AW II for the last trip last year (which was a couple weeks travelling through Iceland in the beginning winter) and that reassured me that for me personally the AW II is just a better and more practical backpack. Might be that I just got used to doing things a specific way over the 6 or so years I had it, but then again, if the new one doesn't have anything that improves that flow for me but instead makes it more tedious... why bother.
Not sure if it would be possible or financially adviseable, unless you can do that yourself, to get rid of the velcro and stitch a zipper in. Even then, I don't know if that material would support that, but then again I'm not a tailor and would probably fail to stitch anything more complicated than to emergency repair some socks :-D
However I guess that one change alone would make the backpack a lot more usable for me. Still, probably, not replacing my AW II right now, but still that's my biggest issue with it. That and maybe the size, I guess. 3-5L more + Zipper (and a bigger top pocket ;-)) would make it nearly perfect.
Oh yeah a friend had a fastpack as well and he wasn't too happy with the size, that the zippers went open all the way (he didn't trust that they actually stop at the strips and stuff could fall out, not sure if that's a reasonable fear or not though ;-)) and said the same thing as you as well. Not comfortable to carry and too top heavy, so that was never an option for me.
so, TL;DR: look into the Photo Sport AW II if they still sell it in your region new, might be one for you as well :-)
anyways, nice chat going here, thanks for that, have a good one.
Cheers