Flying Yazata

I'm stuck trying to rewamp my luggage tactics. I'm in favour of travelling carry-on only and only having one bag, but I've so far always been stuck also with a small camera bag. Furthermore I now need to accodomate a tight weight restriction for a carry-on and no personal item permitted (at least not officially).

I've tried to solve the camera bag issue with a Pacsafe Camsafe X17, which has a perfect DSLR friendly padded side compartment. My goal was to get rid of a separate camera bag and have something useful as a city daypack. Any travel jackets are out of question, because I don't intend to be looking like a suicide bomber, wearing a stuffy coat out of place in Singapore and alikes, where the weather is tropical or otherwise warm/humid. Now the Pacsafe daypack takes my camera and laptop, plus necessary accessories.

All fine and dandy, but having now received the actual Pacsafe camera backpack and stuffing it with the travel essentials to be carried as a personal item, I realised the cam compartment takes out too much space and furthermore I can't probably tuck the bag flat into my actual carry-on. Also it looks like my satnav and the windscreen mount needed for rental cars might not fit, because the camera compartment takes more space than I anticipated. Now the testrun I did, brought up a new dilemma: should I find a suitable travel camera to substitute my Sony ILCE-6000 (DSLR with Carl Zeiss lens 4/16-70) or should I look at other bag options?

I have the following bags at my disposal:

* Pacsafe Camsafe X17, 17 litres (newcomer, no field experience of it yet)
* Tortuga Travel (suitable for single bag tactics and my carry-on to go, at least so far)
* Samsonite roller bag (my least favourite option since I became a one bag ninja)
* Tatonka Belfort, 20 litres (dayback, I've done some 2-4 days long trips with this as well, always been the single bag, except a camera bag)

So far I've always done Tortuga or Tatonka + small camera bag and there's been no issues. I've tucked in the camera bag into the Tortuga, if I've wanted to be a true one bag ninja.

First and foremost I want to eliminate my fricking Lowepro camera bag dangling in my hand or on my shoulder. It looks too touristy at times and I also feel dumb at times with it. The other issue is that I will be doing one flight in Asia with PG that has a 7 kg carry-on luggage restriction and no personal item policy, so on that trip I will be forced to *gasp* check a bag for one segment. Thankfully it's not more than that, but it means my main luggage will have to become hold luggage (both the Tortuga and Samsonite are doable) and I need something small, like the new Pacpac I bought for field testing, which can hopefully be stuffed away while not needed as a daypack or in-flight carry-on. But now it seems both the Tatonka and Pacsafe are quite bulky, if I tuck them away inside my main piece of luggage (travel backpack or roller bag). Now there's all sorts of small daypacks that almost fit into a matchbox (well, not literally, but they're very small), but they all seem to lack good straps and especially hip or sternum support, which I need for the bag to stay in check on my back, not swaying around in public transportation etc.

What solutions would you suggest? The thought of dragging the Samsonite with me for one month doesn't exactly excite me...

I'm also open to suggestions for a foldable/squeezable daypack that could fit into the Tortuga, in case I've overlooked some option that would fit a 12,5 or 14" laptop, some paperwork and a DSLR or some travel friendly camera, but still have proper straps for being on my back 4-12 hours during the day. I'm just stuck with this dilemma I have and thus I posted here, because I thought outsiders might spot easier what I'm not realising myself. Then there's of course the option of swapping my travel backpack to something else, but that would mean either the Pacsafe or Tatonka would have to fit in there.

Dread Pirate Jeff

You should also look at the Peak Design Everyday Backpack as well. It's purpose built as a EDC camera bag/gear bag and I've used mine as a carryon, weekender, gear bag and so forth and carried it internationally and domestically. They sell both a 20L and 30L version (I've got the 30L version). It's pretty configurable inside as all the internal storage (aside from the zippered wings that have a lot of storage pockets) the internals are done with removable inserts that fold into various shapes. And it looks nice, not like you're a Tier 1 Operator invading the country.

It's more a replacement than something you could roll up and stuff inside a carryon but I've used it alongside a TravelPro 20" spinner and often go carry-on only, and on some occasions I've packed everything I could in the PD bag and laid it in my 20" spinner and packed more on that and just rolled on with a single piece. And traveling minimalist, I can get a weeks travel using just that bag and still have my tripod, mirrorless camera and a couple lenses, laptop, iPad and so on.

I also carried various Kata bags as well for the same thing you're describing, but of the three Kata bags I used, I like the layout of the PD bag much better.

Flying Yazata

I've actually looked at that one as well, while I was wandering off to the Peak Design site for a look at their 45 litre travel backpack out of curiosity. I haven't however considered it yet, but it does look interesting. In terms of the looks, I've got to agree you're right. I would probably get away with MOLLE hooks and other military fashioned backpacking in e.g. most business class lounges, but for instance in Vietnam it's not a good idea. Now I don't travel there a lot or anything alike, but it just highlights as an example how I want to keep my overall setup smart and suitable for a large scale of destinations and modes of travel. The Tortuga has been good at that so far. Now I just need to work out the daypack side of things. Previously I've lugged around the Tortuga in the daytime, but it's a little bit too large for that, hence it's lighter when I leave stuff at my hotel.

Now since posting my first post, I've settled for getting a compact camera for travel, which cuts my camera gear weight in half and sizewise down to a 1/4 or 1/3 of what the mirrorless DSLR takes space. So I'm both trimming down the tech side of my luggage, while also looking at solving the daypack issue. Furthermore I have a 15 litre Pacsafe daypack on its way, which won't replace the Camsafe, which will be fine doing daytrips with my main camera. Based on some measurements I've done today, 15-20 litres is the optimal size for me. Now I just need to solve how to get it going with a travel backpack, rather than dragging a roller bag behind me with it. Now I just need to solve how I combine bags, as I decided to get a secondary camera for travel. That's something I've contemplated already in the past, but haven't done something about it.

Good to know and will keep that as an option, if I'd decide later on to have a bag that combines the characteristics of the Tortuga and a camera bag.

Thanks for the input!

Rusearch

I just saw this interesting take on a pack-able camera bag:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...ect?ref=a3nzch

I don't carry camera gear so can't really help, but this looks innovative. Good luck!

boerne

Hmm, I am considering the same problem. I have gone with the cabinzero on this trip, base weight 760 gms, 43 liters. My breakout packable second bag is this bag, when packed is the size of my fist.

https://www.trekkinn.com/outdoor-mou...E&gclsrc=aw.ds

And this is my light mirrorless I am using. worked well filming baby seals and bird the past 7 days,

https://www.techradar.com/au/reviews...1312056/review

I am not all that happy with the less than low f stop, but I shoot A or manual most of the time and so far it is working well for me.

Air New Zealand was happy with me at 7 kg carry on.