One subject that I normally bring up at least once a year is the camera backpack. It has been ridiculously difficult to find one that fits my needs – has padded space for camera and a couple of lenses, has other space for lunch and extra clothes, pockets for accessories, external attachment points for extra gear, and good tripod carry system. My first camera backpack was a standard Lowepro but when start hiking more, I found it very awkward to carry so I tried normal backpacks (two in a row) but without any padding or separate compartments, those didn’t work out. Then I had a very brief flirt with the infamous Lowepro Flipside 300 which did introduce to me to one good thing – a pack that opens from the back. So when the Lowepro 400 AW came out, I got that one and although it is otherwise good, it’s not suitable for hikes when you need to bring some extra stuff – anything 3-dimensional anyway, because the front compartment is ridiculously flat. Then finally the manufacturers realised that there is a need for camera packs for outdoors photographers so things started looking up, but I still didn’t find anything that fit me. It did give me the idea of using padded inserts though so I bought a normal backpack with an opening at the bottom where I could insert a small camera pack that holds the camera with a lens attached (up to 150mm macro size, not 300mm). But because of the shortcomings in both packs, I’ve been stuck switching between them as needed. Lowepro when I need to carry the 300mm attached to camera and in the winter (because it opens from the back), and the hiking pack during the warmer seasons.

So my current setup is a compromise in many ways but I’ve been ok with that, for the lack of anything better. And that finally brings me to the reason I’m writing this post – I have found the backpack that solves all my backpack problems: the F-Stop Loka. Ok it’s a bit daring to say that it’s the ultimate pack for me when I haven’t even seen it live yet, but everything about it sounds just right, and I’ve read nothing but good reviews. It’s about the same size as my existing hiking pack, without any compromises. The camera inserts (ICU) come in different sizes and I’ve decided to get two of them, the pro medium size for hikes and pro large when I need to pack all my gear. And when the large ICU is not in the pack, I can use it at home to store the gear because at the moment I don’t have any special storage for them, I just put the lenses on whatever shelf or table is the closest.

With the two ICUs, this pack will be rather expensive but it has all the potential to be the last camera backpack I need. At the rate I’ve been buying packs, the Loka will pay for itself in 2-3 years!

The only problem now is that they don’t have the ICUs in stock (this is apparently always a problem with F-Stop gear, they are a small up-start so their production doesn’t meet the demand) but as long as I get the pack for the summer hiking season, it will be fine. And sure enough, just a couple of hours after I placed my order, I got an email from them if I would like to swap the out-of-stock large Pro ICU for a slope ICU (same size otherwise but it… slopes) so I took it. The medium ICU is coming in March. I’ve waited over 10 years to get a good camera pack so I can wait a few more months!