List Price: $329.95
Sale Price: $244.28
Today's Bonus: 26% Off
Having used Tamrac gear for years, I have been impressed by the excellent build quality and sharp appearance of their products. Generally the materials are high quality, very durable, and the workmanship superb. I wanted a heavy duty backpack with enough space for two bodies, three or four lenses, a flash unit, flash meter, battery pack, flash bracket, filters, spare batteries, a tripod, and miscellaneous accessories. I chose Tamrac's Expedition 6 (E6), and was not disappointed. This backpack is designed for heavy duty outdoor use, and the materials are even more wear resistant than their regular bags. The shoulder straps are padded and very comfortable, and the panel that rests on the back is well padded and designed to promote air flow. With the chest strap and belt clip fastened, the fit is a snug and secure, even when the pack is fully loaded. The zippers on the exterior are heavy duty, with a rubber self-seal upon closure, a very cool feature! There is a rugged heavy duty handle on top. From a materials and construction standpoint, the E6 is solid, and pretty close to indestructible.
The main interior compartment is very well constructed, and custom configurable. There is ample padding all around, and the adjustable dividers are quite thick. The compartment is about six inches deep, with two nylon straps in the middle section for extra security for securing a camera or lens. On the lid are two large zippered compartments, made of heavy duty clear plastic. The padded laptop compartment, is in the lid section, and will accommodate a computer up to about 14 inches. I was able to get all the gear listed above into the backpack, and also squeeze in a large Gary Fong type diffuser, lens hoods, and a small point and shoot camera as well.
Tamrac products are designed well, but are not perfect. In general, they do a great job with the main compartment, but could do with some design improvements for the outside pockets and auxiliary storage spaces. Such is the case with this backpack. Tamrac has a fixation with memory and battery storage. The two vertical compartments on the back of the E6 each contain three tiny pockets, devoted to these items. If the goal was to cosmetically display memory cards, rather than provide spaces designed to carry a significant amount of gear, it is achieved. Not much can be carried in these spaces, since the compartments are small, and not very deep. I don't even use the spaces for the items they were intended for. I carry four extra memory cards in a Hakuba case, and spare camera batteries in another case. These are both stored inside the pack. I squeeze what I can into the tiny red tagged pockets, but these are not well utilized spaces.
The center pocket at the bottom of the back cover, is designed to accommodate two of the three legs of a mid-sized tripod, and has an additional sheet of hard plastic liner inside for protection. While the setup works as designed, the pocket is perhaps wider than it needs to be. When you insert two tripod legs in the pocket, zipping it up on either side, is no easy task. Not the best design, and again another space that is not utilized very well. A suggestion would be to reduce the size of the tripod pocket and enlarge the two side pockets to run the full height of the pack, and make them deeper, so more gear can be carried. The fasteners on the straps for the tripod get loose too easily.
Saving the worst for last, rather than provide any usable pockets, pouches or compartments on the sides of the pack, there are only provisions for attaching additional accessories, using Tamrac's Modular Accessory System (MAS). This approach is infuriating! For what this costs, I expect a backpack that enables me to carry as much gear as is practically possible. Instead users are expected to pay extra for that capability. Tamrac's MAS and Strap Accessory System (SAS) components are expensive, and generally only marginally useful. Customizable separately attached carriers and pouches may appeal to some, but with sewed on pockets or carriers, you won't need to be concerned that an add-on component might get caught on something and get detached. No doubt Tamrac would say that they are providing `versatility' to the customer. Great, but at what cost? If you add four MAS components at $15 to $20 each, that adds up to the cost of another small bag! If MAS has to be integrated, how about putting provisions for MAS only on one side of the pack, and providing built-in pockets, straps and a bottle holder on the other side? At least give the user some additional storage space! Adding pockets or compartments on the shoulder straps is another possible improvement. Even a simple pen holder would be nice.
Some backpacks have the computer compartment located just behind the padded backrest, which might be a more secure design. Transporting your gear safely is one matter, and being able to conveniently access your things once you get to your destination is another. With the E6, access is convenient, however you obviously need to be careful whenever you have a laptop in the computer compartment, as there is no strap to keep the computer in place, and the weight makes the lid swing like a pendulum. If you happen to forget to zip up the compartment, the lid could flip open and your computer could bang something or even slip out. Basically, if you forget to zipper up, any unsecured objects stored in the lid of the E6 could fall out, when you flip the lid open or closed. It has happened to me a couple of times, but fortunately it was only some accessories that fell out, and not a laptop.
Since the other backpacks in the Expedition line are similar in design, most of these comments apply to them as well. There was potential for this series of backpacks to be really outstanding, and with a few modifications they very easily could be. The interior compartment is well-designed, the overall build quality is excellent, and the addition of the laptop compartment is an improvement over the previous version of the E6. This backpack can carry a lot of gear, and should last for years. Unfortunately, because of some poor design choices, maximum utility is not achieved. Still even with the shortcomings, the E6 solidly met my basic needs. Tamrac gear is not perfect, but their high quality, competitively priced products, often tops the competition.
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