Jan 9

Jan 9 First Look Review: DSLR Camera Travel Backpack from K&F Concept

You know you’ve reached a certain popularity with your photography blog when people start offering to send you stuff to review. I actually turn down a lot of these offers, ( a lot are just spam or phishing) because I don’t want to review things that either I would never use or from companies I’ve never heard of. I was recently contacted by a representative from K&F concept who wanted to know if I would be interested in reviewing one of their camera bags. I actually have some of their other products, in particular, some of their adaptor rings, and I’m really impressed with the quality for the price. So I said sure, why not! so they sent me one of their DSLR backpacks to try.

The bag itself is a fairly compact backpack. You can comfortably fit one DSLR in it and some lenses. There is one main pocket, which is padded, and another top pocket which isn’t and is probably more suited to accessories rather than another camera, although you could fit another DSLR body or mirrorless camera in there.

Design details up close

The main pocket is pretty well padded, and the material on the inside is nice and soft. The inner padded compartments are attached by velcro and are easily rearrangeable, and you can configure it to adapt to a number of different configurations. I managed to fit a D800 DSLR with a 24-120 attached, and a couple of primes, as well as a 70-300 lens (this was actually a canon). The compartment is too small to fit a pro level DSLR zoom lens, such as a 70-200 f2.8. I tried to fit my 70-200 f2.8 Sigma lens in, and I couldn’t get it to fit in the padded section without jamming it in. With that in mind, for DSLR shooters, it’s probably better suited to enthusiasts and amateurs rather than pros if you need to fit a big pro-zoom lens in. Having said that, I could happily bring my D700 with a 28-300 and a couple of extra lenses and that would be my travel needs taken care of.

For mirrorless cameras, you could certainly use it, and fit quite a few bits in, but it may be a little big for smaller cameras. It would suit the Sony A7 series better than say the Fuji or micro 43 cameras, but I would have to try various configurations to see. I wouldn’t imagine it would be the best choice for those situations. If you’re using a Canon 80D or 7D and non-L glass, or a Nikon D7500, or even D500 with non-pro zoom lenses this will be an ideal size.

Pocket details

The main compartment is accessed from the back of the bag, where the handles go, which is a little off, but there is also a side panel hatch, so you can quickly pull out the camera without going into the main panel. I’m not sure about this configuration. It’s a little strange, but I can only imagine it aids in the weather resistance as it would keep the main zips against your back. To me, this seems a little unnecessarily awkward. If you look at similar models on Amazon, there are a lot of other weird ways of accessing the camera compartment in various different models, so I guess it’s the in-thing to do. Personally, I would have preferred access through the front of the bag. It’s not a huge deal, but anyway.

The top pocket is fairly big, and again I’m not sure this is the best use of space. On the company’s website, they show this pocket being used for spare clothes, and you certainly could fit some t-shirts and possibly some light trousers in there, so if you are travelling and this is the only thing you’re bringing with you, then you can fit a change of clothes in here too. This could be useful if you want to travel light.

There are lots of other pockets around the bag too, including a small front pocket, with slots for memory cards, and a side pouch and straps that allow you to fit a small tripod. You can actually fit a lot of accessories into this bag, including chargers, extra batteries, books, cables and so on. There’s also an extra rain cover in the top pocket for when it’s really coming down.

In terms of construction, the quality seems fairly good. The material is a nice denim-like colour, with a fine texture. They claim it’s waterproof polyester, but I haven’t tested it in the rain yet. The stitching all seems fairly well done, and the leather material (I’m not sure its real leather - I don’t think so) seems fairly good quality, although the pale colour seems a little odd (that’s the designer in me being picky!) Overall though, I couldn’t fault the quality of the bags build.

The bag sells for €79 which puts it in the middle of the range price wise compared to other camera bags of a similar design (based on an Amazon search). There are some cheaper bags, that don’t hold as much, and there are some similar sized ones that are much more expensive. I would say it’s good value for money, and I think it’s priced fairly and competitively considering the construction quality. I would need to do long-term testing in various environments to truly test this, but based on my initial examination, this is my opinion.

If you’re looking for a reasonably compact DSLR camera backpack, it’s worth considering, and you can find out more direct from the company. You can also find it on Amazon (US and UK). I’ll try and do a follow up when I take it out and I may do a video review too if I get the chance.

Just a quick ethics note - I do have an affiliate link for K&F concept, but they are not paying for this review, and they are not a paid advertiser. My opinions are my own.