I have watched a lot of YouTube reviews on the best camera bag. The thing that I noticed is that the assumption is that if you travel, you will have your camera equipment in one bag and then a carry-on. This is never the case for your friendly neighborhood Master Packer. I almost always only have one bag, maybe a purse because I frequently travel on budget airlines. Here is the challenge: I always have my camera equipment. Is there a bag that allows me to one bag travel with my photo equipment?
This is where the Langly Simple Camera bag enters the picture. What interested me about the bag is the hollow inside body and the modular inserts that you could purchase to make padded spaces for camera bodies, lenses, etc. The bag retails for $135 with the inserts on the Langley website and comes in three colors (black, green, and khaki). I purchased the Simple camera bag in green without inserts for $23 used on eBay (Y’all know I love a bargain) to see if I could make it double as a travel bag.
Size: and features:
The bag is about the size of a normal backpack (measurements). This is great for me because of my lack of height. It has tactical style shoulder straps, two top handles, and a total of three outer pockets: one in the front and two on the sides. The bag also has a separate pocket that fits a fifteen-inch laptop.
The bag zips open flat and have three additional horizontal pockets on the inside flap of the bag.
Packing the Langly:
I packed the Simple camera bag for an overnight road trip to test out whether or not it would survive minimal travel. I used one compression packing cube, a portable camera bag, a pair of shoes, and my minimal toiletry kit.
Though I was only gone overnight, I packed enough to reflect 3 days of travel.
Here’s what I packed:
– Two shirts
– Leggings
– Pajamas (Shorts and T-shirt)
– 3 days of underwear
– Converse Allstars
– Satin Lined beanie
– 11inch laptop
– 2 books
In my camera bag, I packed one mirrorless body, 24-70 zoom lens, 35mm 2.8 lens, an extra battery, and a prism.
I found that this was about all that the bag could handle comfortably. The bag construction does not allow for much pliability when packing and is only about 8-9 inches deep. I believe using a smaller packing cube or compression bags is the best option when also packing a modular bag with camera equipment.
I fit my toiletry bag in the large front pocket and tucked the legs of my tripod in one of the outer side pockets but it was hard to tuck my 17oz water bottle in the other pocket.
It is an ok bag to travel with. This is definitely not the bag for any sort of long haul trip, but it works well for short 1-3 day trips where you may want to bring your camera. If you were not bringing any camera equipment, this is a nice minimal option carry all bag. My Sharde’ Searches rating for the Langly Simple Camera bag is 3.5 worlds. It’s not a bad bag, but it also is not remarkable. It does the job.
~S
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