articles/Lens/jp-page8

For the Journey - Packing the gear - part 8 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

by Mike McNamee Published 01/10/2014

Thirteen options for ICUs in the Tilopa cover all needs.

The inner heart of the f-stop system is the variable Internal Camera Unit, the ICU. ICUs

The ICUs are available in 10 variants from massive to micro in size. They may be mixed and matched either as a purchase or indeed within the same bag, thus you can pack a sack with one small ICU, two small ICUs or take both out and put a large ICU into place. The ICUs are readily removable and self-contained in as far as they have zipped openings and carry handles. For speed of access you can fold the opening ICU flap back over the top and tuck it out of the way. There are various bundled ICU deals available on purchase so it pays to buy a couple at the same time, if you decide you need them. We purchased a Medium Slope and a Large ICU.

A private rant about the youth of today who seem incapable of walking more than 50 yards without clutching a plastic bottle of water - always available for chucking into the nearest hedge. This stuff always ends up in the sea where it does not degrade but does untold damage to wildlife. Your editor's Sigg water bottle has travelled the world for 40 years and only recently retired. The one thing missing from the Tilopa is a pocket large enough to hold such a bottle on the outside.

The Large ICU has 13 slots for lenses; the Medium Slope has seven slots and a camera body slot. All ICU internal padding is modular, moveable and flexible - you can rearrange it to suit each trip if that is needed. As with all Velcro-fixed dividers they are something of a trial to mess about with - think putting an octopus into a string bag and you will be quite near.

One final thing about an ICU. If you are confronted by an overzealous security guard at the airport (and there are plenty of those lurking about!), your desperation tactic could be to remove the ICU as your carry on and let the remainder of the sack run the gauntlet of the baggage handlers - hardly ideal, but a possible way out of a fix. At least the sack itself does not scream 'camera bag - rob me' and this goes for walking about a city as well. For this reason also we chose the Malibu Blue over the more conservative options, it has more of a 'walker look' than a 'photographer look' - if you go looking for bears you might want the sage green option.

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