Much like its big brother the Fastpack 250, the Flipside 200, has been a great addition to my arsenal of travel luggage for gadgets and cameras alike. The Flipside 200, however, has primarily been my camera bag for the better part of the last three months. My Pentax K200D with battery grip and two extra lenses fit nice and snug into the compartments that are revealed by zipping open the main pouch that’s accessed through the back of the bag. Some might think this is a pain in the rear, but it protects you and your gear from being ripped off if the zippers were exposed. On the exterior of the bag at the base there’s a concealed compartment that can be unvelcroed and taken out to support the feet of a tripod. It’s pretty handy, but it’s not as deep as I would have liked it to be. The Manfrotto tripod I’ve been using wasn’t very stable at times, but it never popped out, thankfully.
Read More
Katana and Watchizaki
You must have heard of Tokyoflash. They’ve got the coolest watches on both this and that side of Japan, and also make the best of those binary-time watches that puzzle you whenever you see them. I have two specimens of Tokyoflash gear right here with me — are they as solid as they look on the site?
Read More
In the long, storied history of bag reviews (see Mark Twain’s What Shall I Put In My New Canvas Sack? from the January 1897 issue of Harper’s Monthly for an example of the proto-bag review), it has been the journalist’s imperative to offer a fair and intelligent comparison of the “usefulcasity” of the bag when compared to other bags of the same or similar capacity. The earliest reviews often ignored this simple requirement — that all bags designed to contain objects must and can be compared to each other.
To that end I have decided to compare the Golla Chorus 15.4-inch bag to a plastic bag received for free at the local food market. The reader’s initial reaction, when reading that last line, is to expect the writer to be on crack. This, however, is not the case. He is, instead, hopped on on snark and coffee.
Read More
It seems my never-ending quest for the ultimate gear bag has come to an end. LowePro, purveyors of everything camera related, appears to be the definitive winner at the moment. I’ve been testing out the Fastpack backpack over the last couple weeks and it’s been a great experience. It’s meant to be a photographers gear bag, but I’ve found that all the pockets for lenses and flashes are great for all the gadgets I tote around with me while traveling.
Read More
After years of suffering, watch geeks are finally getting products dedicated to their quirky and specific tastes. Sure, any oldster can sport a gold Rolex, but what is an Emo kid with a gadget fetish to wear? A Swatch?
Companies like Tokyoflash and Nooka have filled that techno-void with watches that are both high-tech and cool looking. Now, add another member to that selfsame roster.
Read More
