Photography Gear News

"Camera bags are part necessary evil and part obsession. If you’re like me, over the years, our closets and basement storage areas begin to overflow with past grasps at the Holy Grail – a bag that is comfortable to carry and fits everything we need, without feeling like it has everything we own in it. And, just as there is an endless number of photographers yearning for a better bag, an ever growing number of companies are offering their own take on the solution to the intractable laws of physics; laws which cruelly dictate that carrying heavy things is, and always will be, heavy and uncomfortable.

Of late, the camera bag market has become both crowded and intensely competitive. Bags are better made, more functional and less expensive than they have ever been. For nature and outdoor shooters, who by definition need to carry a good deal of gear to their subjects, this abundance of choice is a blessing.

The upstart boutique bag maker Gura Gear entered this extremely competitive field in 2008 with their signature Kiboko backpack, now known as the Kiboko 30L. The brainchild of wildlife photographer Andy Biggs (and his equally bag-loving design team), the Kiboko 30L is a light-weight yet gargantuan bag, capable of carrying a baby hippo to safety, all in a standard carry-on-compliant package. For shooters who routinely travel with a retinue of super-telephoto lenses, or extensive flash kits, the 30L was just the ticket. Carrying that much gear is a dirty job, which the Kiboko did very well.

For me, however, the Kiboko 30L was simply bigger than I needed and, ironically, too good at its game. A full Kiboko 30L could be like, well, carrying a baby hippo to safety, albeit as comfortably as possible (see above re: merciless laws of physics). So I took a pass and continued using my beaten and world-weary bag from one of the mainstream manufacturers. In my case, the old standby was a Lowerpro Computrekker 200AW, a bag which has proven really reliable and able to fit almost whatever I threw at it. This Lowe bag hit what I consider the sweet-spot in terms of size, fitting the most restrictive international carry-on standard, yet able to swallow a 15” laptop and a full MF kit, or a really large 35mm kit, or some combination of both.

In late 2011, Gura Gear kicked it up a notch with two new bags, one Kiboko 22L+ targeted at exactly this mainstream backpack niche."