articles/Gear/bagsspace-page5

Bags of Space - part 5 of 1 2 3 4 5 6

by Mike McNamee Published 01/04/2012

Choosing a walking pack loses one of the key features of the Satori and this is where its pedigree as a photographer's sack starts to show. The opening to the ICU is through the back of the bag, ie from the strap's side. This is sensible; the outer faces of the sack are likely to be the wettest and dirtiest and so placing the back down on wet or muddy ground is less of a problem. The kit is then very accessible. If such rapid accessibility gets you a shot of a rare sighting you might otherwise have lost, then the additional cost suddenly becomes irrelevant!

The ICU arrangements cover every possible contingency including packing two bodies, a 100mm lens, a short zoom and a 500mm f4. Therein lies a danger with a bag such as this, it must be very easy to over pack - pack in haste repent at leisure and all that! One arrangement has a total of 13 lenses packed in - you'd have to avoid boggy ground with that lot in your pack.

Overall then the Satori is a nice, if not slightly pricey, bag designed by outback photographers for outback photographers. This pedigree is obvious once you start to pack, carry and use the bag in the field. It has tremendous utility and flexibility, with a vast amount of expansion potential (there are, for example 14 ICU variants). This is perhaps what you pay the extra for; you are buying into that future flexibility. There is an accessory rain cover which costs around $30 (accessory? Have these people never been to Borrowdale!). This might just be the best 30 bucks you have ever spent, after you have bought the bag itself!

• Bags of Space page 1
  
• Bags of Space page 2
  
• Bags of Space page 3
  
• Bags of Space page 4
  
• Bags of Space page 5
  
• Bags of Space page 6
  

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