First off, this is a great backpack all around. I travel a lot and was looking for something to protect my gear and this does the job. Here are the pros and cons.
Pros:
* Very Sturdy
* Rugged Material
* Lots of space
* Great straps
* Nice features that are thought out with a few exceptions
Cons:
* Sometimes a little too stiff
* Side compartments are small and access to main pack is awkward/useless
* Internal dividers are set up nice but can waste some space
* Some features are not too thought out while others are (a pro and con)
* TIGHT laptop storage
The material is very sturdy. This backpack doesn't feel like it will ever rip and I am sure it is cut resistant. Anybody trying to get at your gear will have a tough time, sometimes even you! I have a Canon 7d that I leave a EF 24-70mm F2.8 L lens attached and at first, I wanted to make it accessible through the side compartment. That is not going to happen, especially with the lens hood stored as Canon suggests. There is a flap that separates the side compartment from the main compartment that has Velcro which makes it so things do not fall into the side compartment but also makes it almost impossible to use as a quick camera access. In addition, the side zippers only open half way so there is no way you will get a bigger SLR out fast. You have to put it in so it can be accessed by the main zipper. It is still tight because the top of the bag is so thick and the zippers are tight due to the weatherproofing. A pro and a con.
I also store a 70-200mm f4.0 is L lens in the bag. The bag is pretty deep so you naturally end up stacking stuff which makes it a little hard to get to stuff but the lens is protected very well. It is not deep enough to put the lens in upright so again, it lays down with either a flash or a computer power cord on it. Not exactly a fast access to either because as the laws of the universe dictate, the thing you need will always be on the bottom.
As far as a laptop, it looks like you could store two in the compartment but don't be fooled. Again, the bag stiffness prevents two and almost makes it hard to get in one. The zipper on the compartment does not open to access the entire top so the laptop is hard in and hard out. It is very tight. I don't consider my laptop to be very big but if it were any thicker or wider, there is no way it would fit. The nice thing is, once it is in there, it is protected like you had armor around it, which is the positive theme of the bag.
A really cool thing is the cover that goes over the straps when you are not using the backpack portion. They are entirely enclosed under the zipper cover which is great for the overhead on planes. There are no straps to tuck in the overhead compartment and close in the compartment door on the plane. The cover then tucks up under a back flap to expose the straps which are very comfortable. Again, an issue is, when the backpack is loaded, it is so tight that it is actually hard to slide the cover up under the pack in its proper position. One nice thing would be to have the cover start zipping up over the bottom of the strap so you could keep one strap out to use it as a sling for carrying it in situations where you want to use one strap for fast carrying. With my previous bag, I used the one shoulder carry a lot.
The inside zipper compartments are nice but again, tight. You can't fit too much in them. Temba should have allowed a little more material but it may be so stuff does not slide around. B+W filters in cases are actually tight in the compartments. They do have a great feature which is they zipper open/closed from both sides, left and right so there is no digging around in them.
I don't want to sound negative on the pack, it is an incredible bag. Like I mentioned in the pros, it is super tough. You can tell they spared no expense with the water proofing. I would have no problem caught in a downpour with this thing. Your gear is VERY well protected which is most important to me. When you have over 5k sitting in a bag, you don't want it to be unprotected. I am sure the gear inside could survive small falls.
Would I recommend the bag. Simply put, yes. I don't think the "perfect" bag exists. It can't because if you are like me, you want something magical that defies the laws of physics. I want to be able to put 50 pounds of gear including a tripod in a very small pack and in the end, have it weigh 10 pounds. It is not going to happen. With no magical pack available, this is the closest you will come if you want to carry a lot of stuff and have it well protected from the elements, the occasional drop, the elements and the opportunistic person that wants your gear. Overall, good job Temba for trying to satisfy us semi-pros that want it all. I would buy this again.
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