Thoughts about Reviews

One of the most crucial, yet often forgotten, pieces of photographic equipment is that which will hold, protect, and transport your camera and other assorted equipment safely to where you want to photograph. Camera bags come in many different varieties, though personally I prefer backpacks since they stay out of the way until needed. Backpacks themselves come in many different varieties as well, each of which is designed for some task. Before a few months ago, I used one bag exclusively: Lowepro's Rover Plus AW.
This was a bag designed for day hikes and verging on being useful for backpacking, but was too large and bulky for travel. Plus, there was no good way to bring a laptop in it, which is crucial when I'm traveling. A few months ago, Lowepro released a new series of backpacks called the Fastpacks. The 100 and 200 are camera only bags, while the 250 and 350 add a laptop compartment. Seeing as I needed a bag that I could use to travel with my laptop and camera, I purchased one of the FastPack 250's. The following review is primarily from a point of view of traveling with the bag and how it works in the real world, especially compared to the Rover Plus AW. Other reviews, such as the one at NotebookReview, will probably provide a better overview of the features.

Size:

The Fastpack 250 is not particularly large. Certainly much smaller than the Rover Plus AW and comparable to most "normal" backpacks. This results in both good aspects and bad aspects. The good aspects are that it's small enough to be easily handled and is not bulky. It easily fitted under the seat in Delta's 738, 763, and CRJ. The only complaint from a flight attendant was on one of my CRJ flights where I was seated in an exit row and the bag stuck out 1 inch from under the seat. Turning it sideways (at which it intruded a bit into the other person's space) solved this problem. It was also easily holdable on my lap for car/bus/train rides. Additionally, compared to the Rover Plus, it did not feel like a garagantuan pack and was comfortable to walk around in.

However, this small size creates problems with the interior space. The bag is primarily a camera and laptop bag with little space for anything else.The camera compartment is roomy with good padding and good velcro dividers. It easily held my D70 with 18-70 attached, 75-300, SB-600, Hyperdrive HD80, and a bunch of assorted accessories. The SB-600 was able to comfortably fit vertically, while I had to move the diverders around so that the 75-300 could like horizontally. However, this was not a major issue. On the return trip I was able to pack most of my chargers and just about anything else that would fit into that compartment and still probably had room to spare. Likewise, the laptop compartment was roomy enough for my Thinkpad T61 with 14" widescreen and had no problems holding it alone.

The problems begin when you try to use the bag for more than just a laptop and camera bag. The top compartment, meant for day usage, is decently big, but it will barely hold anything but a small paperback book, some food for the flight, and headphones. There are a multitude of pockets in the compartment, but you basically need all the space you can get to fit anything in.The laptop compartment is the only place to hold anything larger (like a sheet of paper), but when you attempt to have a laptop and anything else, things get very tight. I was barely able to fit my laptop and a pad holder in the laptop compartment.

Usage:

As I said before, the camera compartment is very well done with plenty of space. The side access door can be easily opened with one hand and getting something out with the backpack still on your back is not too hard. The camera is easy to get out, and other equipment is not too much harder as long as the compartment is not too full. However, getting items back in is harder, as the top and bottom sections move together slightly and make putting the camera back in a bit harder. I would often have to swing the backpack around (which did work fairly well) to get my camera back inside (or end up with a sore shoulder as I tried to unsuccessfully shove my D70 back into the backpack). However, overall, the side access door works well and certainly much better than the Rover Plus, which generally requires ones to take the backpack off to get anything out of it. Swinging the backpack around also works, though you do have to remove the right shoulder strap, unbuckle the waist belt, and then swing it around (and do the same thing in reverse afterwards).

The laptop compartment, in my opinion, is not quite so easy to use. The zipper does not quite reach the bottom, leaving maybe half an inch until the bottom of the compartment. That means that getting a laptop out of the bag isn't quite as simple as pulling it out. It's more of a lift and pull or rotate and pull. That's fine when you're somewhere with plenty of space, but on a plane its a bit more annoying. Still, I can't complain too much about this. Another problem with the laptop compartment is that when its empty, the bag feels much different and its as if there's a squishy area behind your back (which, effectively, there is). There also appears to be some quite of semi flexible plate in the back of the backpack that, when there's nothing inside the laptop compartment, often pops in and out. I definitely preferred carrying something hard in the compartment rather than leaving it empty.

In general, the Fastpack supports itself well on your back and was comfortable for me (however, I am rather tall). The waist belt worked well and, especially when not loaded heavily, I had no issues whatsoever. Just about everything on the backpack is well padded, including the straps, the back, and all the compartments. The cell phone holder on the left shoulder strap is convenient, though it barely fit my Motorola z6c. Certainly no black berry would fit in there. The water bottle holder on the right side is useful, though I couldn't get it to the right tension to easily hold a Poland Spring bottle and be easily able to return it to the holder. This is unlike my Rover Plus AW, which had perfectly sized bottle holders for small plastic bottles but couldn't use anything larger than that. Another consideration is that the Fastpack is not an AW bag, meaning it doesn't have Lowepro's waterproof cover. This is not too bad since you can get an adequate rain cover that fits perfectly at REI, but it does cost another $20 to do so. One thing you can't attach, however, is a tripod holder, nor are there any external straps to attach one.

Conclusion:

Overall, I was definitely happy with the Fastpack 250. It's a great travel backpack for when you want to bring a set of camera gear, a laptop, and a few extra items, while still being able to fit everything on a plane. For use in cities, it's great, although if you want want to use it out on the trail it's certainly not as good as a dedicated hiking backpack like the Rover Plus.