[Chester's Note: This message originally appeared at One Day, One Picture on March 7, 2008. I plan to do a follow-up soon.]
Going on a trip to Florida in a couple of weeks, and I didn’t want to hassle with carrying on my camera bag and laptop backpack. I looked around at the options, and there were some impressive ones. But I didn’t want to spend a fortune, so I would up going with the Caselogic EVA Hardshell Camera/ Laptop Backpack. It’s going for about $67 right now. The one I ordered arrived today. It’s about the same dimensions as my Targus laptop backpack (that I absolutely love), but with specific design for the camera and lenses as opposed to the laptop and general backpack versatility.
It is pretty rugged, and has a firm, waterproof base to keep it from falling over. The camera compartment is supposed to be totally weatherproofed (the zipper does have a seam seal). Kind of unfortunate they didn’t do that for the laptop zipper since laptops have similar environmental needs.
I don’t have my camera with me today (doh!), so I can’t properly test the fit of the camera area, but I do like the “shelf” system they have devised for the lenses and accessories. Everything I have will easily fit in here.
The laptop compartment holds my Dell 17″ laptop just fine. I was kind of concerned about this, until I realized that the 15.4″ in the description is the straight width of the laptop, not the diagonal screen measurement. With the laptop in it’s area, I am also able to fit a legal pad and a Lightroom book, which should be fine for this trip. If I were going somewhere that I knew I would have more cargo needs, I would take the Targus and figure out something to do with the camera.
Besides the Camera, Lens and Laptop compartments, there are two side zippered compartments that are big enough to hold miscellaneous items. In one of them I am storing the power brick and mouse for the laptop. In the other I have travel documents, business cards, pen, etc. Should be wholly sufficient for this trip. Attached to these side panels are straps and buckles, implying to me that I could strap my tripod or some other items to this pack. Caselogic has always built tough things out of ballistic nylon, so I would expect these to stand up to some pretty good abuse. There are also various loops you could use to attach carabiners or other devices to hang god-knows-what off your pack.
Even though it only just arrived today, I am suitably impressed. The real test will come in a couple of weeks when I travel to Florida, but I am going to use it daily for now to get a feel for it. So far I am comfortable recommending it if you are looking for an economical backpack for a laptop and camera.
I was at a Lakewood High School football game the other night, and it suddenly dawned on me that they have a great system for doing aerial photography. They mount a camcorder on a stand that is then cranked up to the desired height (typical max height seems to be around 35′ or so). They put one in the end zone in order to get a high level view of how plays develop, but in a perspective that would be more useful for a player than the traditional sideline view. They also do a sideline view from the pressbox. None of this matters though, what matters is the pole.
Colorado Fall Colors
Last week I had the privilege of staying at the Park Hyatt Resort in Beaver Creek, Colorado for the 2008 Governor’s Colorado Tourism Conference. The event was a huge success, and the keynote’s and breakout’s alike were immensely valuable.
One thing that kept getting mentioned was how intense the fall colors were. A co-worker and I drove up Wednesday morning. Along the way we stopped near Gray’s and Torrey’s Peaks to take in the color and snap some photos. I hate doing my PP work on my laptop (the photo above was done on the laptop and I think it is time to recalibrate the color on it), so I saved most of them until this week. I’ll work on the post processing and get the photos online in the next few days. I think I got some good shots, including some beetle kill ones that might make for good stock imagery, since that is such a hot topic these days.
Sadly, the beautiful color may not have lasted through the weekend. As we were leaving Beaver Creek on Friday afternoon, storms were blowing in with a fury. And I saw on the news last night that it was snowing pretty good in the mountains. That usually equates to the leaves being knocked off the trees. Hopefully you were able to experience it while it was there, I can’t remember the last time the colors were so vivid. By the way, the photo above is the view from my room at the conference.