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When it comes to choosing the perfect camera bag, there isn’t one unless you carry the same gear all the time. The gear that I take for each shoot changes, mostly influenced by the location, size and type of the shoot. One day I could be in a studio, another day at a wedding so the gear that I take is quite a range. Currently, I am using a Think Tank Retrospective 30 and I have had a Retrospective 10 and 20 before. The change wasn’t so much of running out of bag space, but more towards how I use the bag.
[REWIND – Think Tank Retrospective 10 review | Think Tank Retrospective 20 review ]
When I got the Retrospective 10, I was looking for a small walk around bag which it suited perfectly. It was very comfortable with the strap sewed all the way around the bag. Things have changed when I got the Fujifilm X-M1 as my walk around camera, I wanted an even smaller travel camera bag and then a larger bag that allows me to take a lot of gear when I need to. If you check the dimension between the 10 and 30, there is only 3” difference in length, but it actually does make a difference.
If you don’t tend to carry the same gear all the time, my suggestion is to get a large camera bag so you can carry all your gear when you need to and a smaller bag for those quiet time. For me, I am using a Retrospective 30 as my large bag and a Think Tank Wir Up 10 as my travel bag which they don’t make it anymore. But I love this bag because it also converts to a belt pack and it has cable pass through to sort out the wires of my headphone and iPod. As an alternative check out the Retrospective 5, it is even smaller.
This applies to backpacks and roller bags too. Get the largest one when you need to carry everything and have a smaller one to carry the essentials. I am using the Think Tank Airport International V2 which is the largest roller that can carry on board. Check out the review here.
You can order your Retrospective 30 here (Black|Pinestone|Blue)
| Think Tank Retrospective 10 | Think Tank Retrospective 20 | Think Tank Retrospective 30 |
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Back to the question what’s in my retrospective 30? Quite a lot, it is probably too much for my shoulder. Anything more, I should be using a backpack. This is what I usually turn up with on a shoot, plus some specialised lenses to suit.
- Nikon pro DSLR x2
- Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8
- Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8
- Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII
- Nikon Speedlight x3
- iPad
- Filters, CFs
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