Ken joins the Crumpler Cult
Today, I’ve joined the Crumpler cult.
Last week, an Ask Slashdot was posted about carrying your IT gear with you. Since getting into digital photography, I’ve been carrying a Timbuk2 messenger bag, along with a LowePro ‘Slingshot’ photo bag. Add in all the IT crap (Airport Express, Mice, USB2Serial dongles, etc… ) and I end up with 2 large bags to lug around. So I’d been thinking about switching to a single bag to do both, but hadn’t found anything local. I don’t like Internet/Mail ordering bags, as I never know if all my crap will really fit in, as bag makers tend to play fast and loose with photos + dimensions.
Crumpler was mentioned, so I hit thier way oddball website to see what they had. I checked out various bags (the one recommended in the /. article - Brian’s Hot Tub, wasn’t listed), and decided the Karachi Outpost looked like the right fit. A friend who’s already a member of the Crumpler Cult mentioned there was a distribution center here in Oakville, run by StoreOS. I rang them up, and Jason, the owner was quick to return my call. He offered to let me see the bag in person before buying, so I picked up all my gear and headed down.
Once there, I loaded up a Karachi with the MacBook, and all my Canon DSLR gear. It’s a tight fit, but anything bigger would just entice me to carry more weight around - something my back would prefer to avoid. I added on one of the little ipod/camera bags to hold extra bits, and handed over my Visa - I was sold. Build quality is great, and I’ve fine tuned all the compartments so I can carry everything I need quickly with the various velcro dividers. It’ll get field-tested next week, or maybe even this weekend if I manage to get away from the chores that have been piling up around the house!
Flickr Photos
