# Good iPad bag for traveling photographers



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

If you travel with your iPad and some photo gear, you may like the Delsey Pro Notebook Briefcase 16. As an amateur nature photographer, I've had this case for years (used it with my laptop and photo gear), and used it on two trips with my iPad where it performed well.

Here's a link:

http://www.adorama.com/Als/ProductPage/DEPRONB16.html

And here's a picture:

















More pictures from different angles at the Adorama website. Adorama is a very well-known and reliable camera store, but according to Google this is available from Buy.com for the same price if you prefer them.

Basically you have a slot on one side of the bag for a notebook (iPad in Apple case fits great, and leaves plenty of extra room since it is thinner than most notebooks), and the other side (actually about 3/4 of the total volume) is taken up by a removable pouch that has its own zipped closure and has three slots for cameras and or lenses. The pouch can handle some fairly serious-sized lenses, when I went to New England last month I put a Canon DSLR, a 24-105 zoom, and the big (for anyone who isn't a nature photographer) 100-400/5.6 zoom in it, and still had space to stuff in a couple of socks with my camera, iPad, and cell phone chargers inside. There is an extra pocket on the outside for pens and small paper notebooks and such. The whole thing is well-made, zippers work smoothly, etc. Mine is several years old (maybe five) and has been on plane trips everywhere and still looks good and works well. It is moderately well-padded, including having some padding between your camera gear and the iPad, but like any other soft bag of reasonable weight and bulk, it isn't designed to save your stuff in a several foot drop onto concrete. Fits in commuter airline baggage compartment with room to stuff a jacket on top. A minor nit is that there is a big shoulder strap, but no briefcase-style handle on top of the bag, occasionally I want one of those. By the way, the strap is contoured to fit the natural slope of your shoulder, and on the side you can't see in the above pics, there is a band that will slide over the handle of most roller bags.

There, I finally contributed my small bit to the bag/case/cover mania!


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

I'll put in my .02 worth for Adorama--I first placed an order with them over 20 years ago.  Excellent, reputable company that anyone should feel safe doing business with.

Great looking bag...and I don't think any of my current camera bags is well suited to an iPad.  That's a good excuse, right?  LOL


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

I bought my last film SLR camera (1999 - Nikon N70) in-store at Adorama.  Haven't used it since about 2005, the year I bought a small Nikon digital camera.  They often have the lowest prices.  They are connected with B&H but have a smaller store.


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

I have a Canon Digital Rebel with 3 lenses and a extra flash. My little canon bag is so jammed not even LINT can fit inside. While I do like a tight fit (eliminates jostling during travel) I am in the market for a new camera bag. This bag and the equipment in it has been around the world and as we speak it's Tunisia (in between Algeria and Libya) shooting the original film sets left there from the original Star Wars episodes filming. Given the luggage constraints my camera (oooooooh) is in my son's backpack protected only by it's neoprene bag. If I had had this bag, maybe my son would have taken it just for a weeeeeee bit of protection.

Ya, I see what you mean about no grip handle. I prefer a grip handle as well as a strap. That's the only downside. I'm going to go check out the bag. Were I go my camera goes almost 90% of the time! Last weekend I had to use a pocket 5 mg pixel point and shoot! what a shock! Couldn't figure out that bitty thing! ha ha ha! 

My SLR has been to China, Russia, North and South Poles, Egypt, Greece, Baltics, Iceland, Falklands... you name it it's been there. I love that camera! Now off to check out that bag!


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

Question...

On the webiste there is a side view of the bag,I see an O-ring. Is that separate from the handle? In other words are there two o-rings on each side such that we could attached a small strap for carrying as a hand-held as well as having the shoulder strap dangle? Or maybe it's just the attachment for the actual shoulder strap. Could be that two straps could be inserte; one smaller and then the shoulder strap. 

Nice bag!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

GinnyB said:


> Question...
> 
> On the webiste there is a side view of the bag,I see an O-ring. Is that separate from the handle? In other words are there two o-rings on each side such that we could attached a small strap for carrying as a hand-held as well as having the shoulder strap dangle? Or maybe it's just the attachment for the actual shoulder strap. Could be that two straps could be inserte; one smaller and then the shoulder strap.
> 
> Nice bag!


Ginny--Your question has forced me to recognize a feature of the bag that I've grown so accustomed to ignoring, that I didn't think about it in my original post! I assume you are talking about the o-ring in the top center of the side on this photo:










That's actually where the "big" strap is attached on my bag (and presumably if you order one it comes with the same strap installed). There actually is a second pair of straps installed on the bag that are similar to the briefcase-handle it sounds like we both want. There are a pair of small fabric straps installed on each side of the bag so that they meet over the top center and you can grip the bag there. You can see the small straps reaching across the top of the bag from each side in the picture above. For me these aren't nearly as usable as a single D-shaped handle on center-top, because you have to grab both of them at the same time or else the bag is off-balance, suspended lopsidedly from one of the handles. When I want to grab the bag from the seat beside me in a taxi or other times I'm in a hurry, I don't like fumbling with getting both handles together, so I've trained myself to ignore the small handles and just grab the big shoulder strap. I'd forgotten the small handles were even there till you made me think about this and I went and got the bag and looked at it physically!

Hopefully the above makes sense. Key point is that the O-rings in the picture above are already in use for the shoulder strap. There are a pair of small handles that fulfill the function we want, but they are a bit of a pain to grab both of them in a hurry. So actually my original gripe is a little unfair, though it still reflects my feelings about the design.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Almost forgot--I've been to Southern Tunisia, was there two years ago, and saw the Star Wars film sets your son is seeing, including the underground hotel. Seeing the weekly market day in Douz was one of the highlights of my life, seriously! If your son isn't planning to go down south to Ksar Ghilane and Ksar Oued Sultane, email or call him and tell him he needs to go!

See the pics below:

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4417

http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4273

And this bag was there with me when I went, even though I went light on photo gear for the trip (I was escorting a family member visiting his grandchildren whose parents worked in Tunisia at the time, so it was technically a family trip rather than a photo trip).


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Almost forgot--I've been to Southern Tunisia, was there two years ago, and saw the Star Wars film sets your son is seeing, including the underground hotel. Seeing the weekly market day in Douz was one of the highlights of my life, seriously! If your son isn't planning to go down south to Ksar Ghilane and Ksar Oued Sultane, email or call him and tell him he needs to go!
> 
> See the pics below:
> 
> ...


My son did visit Ksar Oued Sultane. So I presume he saw the other stuff. He emailed us yesterday - back in Brussels! On a flight to LAX as we speak! Dr. Mikey, as we refer to him, is a die-hard Star Wars van and was in the Rose Parade a couple years back. He sold one of his home made Storm Trooper costumes for $2 grand on ebay. He made a special Storm Trooper costume specifically for this trip. Does a lot of charity work with Geo Lucas - mostly childrens' hospitals.

Back to the bag...

Yes, we are BOTH looking for that "grab and go" handle. I have a very very very old TravelPro computer bag that has a great handle and an equally great shoulder strap. I like to wear my bags (ya, lots of camera bags) cross body, and my very old (and looking its age) TravelPro is great. I do not carry camera equipment in my TravelPro as it offers no protection, but I do carry my laptop, Kindle, and iPad in it now. (Not all at the sam time.)

As for the separated handles, couldn't you use those velcro handle wraps to wrap them together? That would effectively make a good grab and go strap. So you are saying that there is a way to affix TWO straps to the bag, right?

Ginny


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

Also, how's the tripod carry system?  That's the one piece of equipment I hate to lug around! I often pack it and take it but rarely take it out on treks. I was thinking one of those cross body tripod straps might work. Sheesh, I already look like a pack animal. Last trip to Eqypt netted me 3000 photos.  In Russia I could easily have used the tripod, but didn't pack it. 

I also noticed that the little insert pouch has strap holders, yes? That could be carried separately as well, it seems. One last question... dimensions and weight. If I were to guess, I'd guess that bag is WAY lighter that my current bag.


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## Sandpiper (Oct 28, 2008)

I don't want to hijack this thread. I started a new thread here

http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,25730.new.html#new

I'm looking for recommendations for a new digital camera.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

External Dimensions
    15.75L x 11H x 6H in.

Internal Dimensions
    16L x 12.5H x 7H in.

Weight
    4.5 Lbs

Material
    a Ballistic/Nylon/Polyester fabric mix over a PVC sponge backing. Thickly padded on all sides with waterproof fabric.

The above specs are from the Adorama product page (tech specs tab).  Yes, there are holes for a strap affixed to the interior pouch, though I've never used them.  The inner pouch has a separate zipper that will close independently, and there is a big patch of velcro on the bottom of the interior pouch that attaches securely to matching patches inside the main bag.  The inner pouch has always stayed secure in its place during use for me, I've only had it out a couple of times.  

You could velcro the double-handles together if you were going to carry it for a long time, but it would make getting large items (such as the iPad) in and out difficult or impossible without undooing the velcro (which I suppose wouldn't be that hard).  And correct, there is a big shoulder strap which can be removed fairly easily (though I never do), and there is a pair of smaller handles across the top of the bag in my last post, that are permanently sewn onto the bag and can't be removed;  it is designed with two different carrying systems.

Finally, for the tripod carry system, I would have cheerfully sworn on a Bible that there was no tripod carry system, though I see that the ad does mention it. I even missed it first time I gave the bag a physical going-over just now!  But it is there.  Remember those two small handles that meet across the top of the bag?  Well, one of them has integrated into it two small loops that can be opened and secured with velcro.  The loops are rather small diameter as tripods go, perhaps 1 and 1/4 inches.  If you had a very small tripod with extremely thin legs, I suppose all three legs could fit into the loop.  Then you'd have the tripod secured to the handle on one side of the bag.  when you let go of the dual handles, even to carry the bag by the shoulder strap, the handle with the tripod would flop loose and be off-center, so the bag would tip over if you set it down.  Also, the weight of the tripod would only be held in place by the velcro, it seems like it could come loose easily.  For a larger tripod (such as most any tripod that would actually be useful) I suppose you could fit one leg of even a pretty sturdy tripod through the loop, but then the ballhead and the other two legs could potentially flex around and wreak havoc.  And the tripod would still be secured only by velcro.  Interesting, I hadn't realized this "feature" came with the bag, even though I've carried it on numerous photo trips for years.  Even now that I know about it, I wouldn't dream of using the loops for even one of those tripods that are $30 in a Walmart.  I'd say the tripod carry system is totally worthless, though it does have one so that the box can be checked off in the ad.

It's off-topic, but I recommend the Kinesis tripod bags.  See Kinesisgear.com.  I've bought a tripod bag and a long lens case from them and been delighted with both.  I put a shoulder strap onto my tripod bag and carry it diagonally across my back on long hikes like a soldier carrying a rifle across his back.  By putting the zippered end at upper right, I can actually unzip and draw the tripod out as if from a very long scabbard or holster without removing the tripod bag, though it is not a stealthy thing to do when stalking wildlife.


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## GinnyB (Dec 19, 2009)

Thanks for the info. I am liking the bag more and more! I have a very light tripod, and I agree that I probably wouldn't use the bag's tripod holder. 

I'm glad I asked all those questions!


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