Well when I received the bag, I was pleasantly surprised. To be honest I was expecting a very bulky bag with lots of unnecessary straps and pockets but no, Lowepro have come up with a bag fit for any serious pro photographer(working with a large lens and camera body).
The Lowepro Lens trekker is fairly light weight for its size and has plenty of design features to keep your lens safe and sound. For starters the tough outer shell of the bag is made up of tough protective material which can absorb the knocks and bumps from the travelling photographer. The front opening to the bag is more heavily padded but the sides also offer more than adequate protection, and also feature a monopod mounting strap and loop, ideal for the sport or wildlife photographer that needs that extra lens support.
Keeping with the outer aspects of the bag, the actual arm straps are padded, providing extra comfort to those who travel far and wide looking for that perfect image (especially the travelling wildlife photographer). And keeping with comfort the bag fits snugly in line with your spine allowing for a more evenly balanced positioning of the bag. The short handle on the top of the bag is perfectly placed and makes it easy to move the bag about without actually having to put the bag on.
A fair sized front pocket allows space for an extra small lens or accessories such as spare batteries. But usually I would put my lunch in it with a drink. Alternatively you could put in an extra camera body, helpful when you can fit an extra lens in the main compartment, in(particularly useful seen as most long lenses are a fixed focal length.
Lowepro have also considered that the bag should be an all weather one, so they have placed an attached rain cover in the back on the bag. It doesn’t detract at all from the comfort of your back position and is extremely easy to put away (taking a maximum of about one minute). And talking about back comfort, the whole of the back of the bag is padded so that you can have the backpack on for hours without feeling uncomfortable and the positioning of the padding is designed to give you the best possible position.
And on the inside, the lens is just as comfortable. The placement of a padded square of shock-absorbent foam(which fits easily around your lens) will keep your precious lens element free from most knocks and it held securely in place with two Velcro pads so you don’t have to worry about pulling it out when you take the lens out. This extra padding is detachable so, if your are fairly sure that your lens will be protected, you can take it out to make room for extra accessories (which lends it’s self to the sports photographers out there).
On the inside of the opening is ample space to fit a number of six memory card, these can either be SD or CF cards(which ever fits your camera), this is a very attractive to the wildlife or sports photographer as it allows you to keep shooting action shots because you always have spare cards to use .
The top part has a detachable lens collar which keeps the lens and camera central in the bag, meaning that the bag is very stable (essential when carrying expensive heavy lenses). And there is also a pad to fit, with Velcro, on top of the camera to also protect your camera body as well.
As for capacity, this bag was built for big lenses. I can comfortable fit my Canon 400mm F2.8 (with the hood fitted) and Canon 7D in with space on top of the camera for lunch and a drink. It is able to fit an attached 600mm or an unattached 800mm.
Bringing together comfort, usability and reliability Lowepro have created the ultimate bag for the travelling wildlife photographer and sports fanatic. I would rate this back pack 5/5 for its outstanding features and comfort. A universal product which is definitely one for the shopping list
Lens Trekker 600AW II camera bag review
