Me, the bag hoarder….

As the title says, I’m a bag-hoarder. Actually, I think the same could be said for most any camera yielding photo enthusiast. The search for the perfect bag is never ending. Even when you find one that you think is “it”, you end up finding another one that might work better in different, more specific situations. The bag I was recently looking for was a different story though. My fiancé and I recently moved to the bay area and I found myself needing a bag that I could carry around all the time. Definitely not a man purse or a Zach Galifianakis “satchel”, but a nice messenger bag. I wanted a bag that would fit a DSLR camera and a few lenses but didn’t look like a camera bag, because there would be a lot of times when it wouldn’t be a camera bag. I also wanted something that could fit my iPad with or without the camera in there. My plan was to find a messenger style bag with the appropriate dimensions to fit a Tenba Padded Camera Insert. If the padded insert were to fit in the bag, then the iPad would fit right in along side it. I searched online and eventually found this review of the Belstaff 556 colonial bag on Aaron Lam’s website. The bag was perfect! Nice enough to carry around while dressed like a real human being or even for work. To dangle the bait in front of me a little more, it showed he was using the exact same insert that I was hoping to use. Of course, as it seems I have a good eye for all things expensive, the bag was in fact….expensive!! I bit the bullet, went to the J Crew store in SF and bought it. I had come across a knock-off version when I started searching “Belstaff 556 colonial bag” (and actually saw a YouTube video comparing the two) but figured with my luck the bag would be crap, then I’d be out the money for that AND the real belstaff bag I would eventually buy after it.
Obviously, the insert worked perfectly. It comes with plenty of dividers but I ended up adding a shorter divider (from one of my many other lowepro bags) in the center slot where the camera sits in order to add an additional slot right alongside the mounted camera lens. I use that small slot to carry, for example, a spare battery and the camera body cap. Altogether though I’m able to carry my Nikon D7000 with lens, two additional lenses, spare Nikon EN-EL15 battery, ipad, headphone case, Sprint mi-fi, pocket knife, and a few other miscellaneous things.
This bag is, in fact, perfect if you want a regular bag but want to safely carry a DSLR camera in it. My equipment is now no less secure than with any of my other single-use camera bags. The only thing in would recommend getting for it is the National Geographic NG A7300 Shoulder Pad.

A few pictures of the bag (taken with my Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Lens)